bathroom in rented property

[herhonesty]

I rent out a one bedroom flat in london. the bathroom needs retiling and i want to do something which doesnt date. my instinct said just go for plain white but then the man in the tile shop said this would look like a "public convenience" is he right? and if so should i a) go for different colour and if so what colour or b) put in some sort of trim and if so what sort?

floor is red quarry tiles which are not being changed.

I think flat white metro tiles (the brick-shaped ones that everyone seems to love at the moment) are very "men's urinal" but you can get other white tiles that look OK, for example ones with a slightly rippled surface. It would go well with the tiled floor.

Or go for neutral stone-coloured.

You might be able to find a trim/border that picks out the quarry tile colour if you are being fancy!

wobbly white tiles (I mean with a non-flat surface, can't think of correct name!) plus a coloured border at sort of elbow-shoulder height would look lovely IMO

those brick-shaped tiles look lovely as kitchen splashbacks but I agree, public urinal in a bathroom!

We have white metro tiles in our bathroom which look fabulous. We don't have all the walls tiled so I can see how it might look quite stark if you did. The flat we rent out has stone coloured tiles which give a much softer look while still looking clean and neat.

I lived in a flat with square white tiles floor to ceiling and yellow/orange floor tiles. It was a really nice bright room. Coloured towels (and all the shampoo bottles) gave it colour and it never looked like a mens urinal!

We have white square tiles in our bathrooms as put in by the developers and to me they look a bit public lavatory-ish, but I think it's because they're too small (about 8 cm squares). I like larger tiles, which have the benefit of making the room feel bigger too. When we come to redo ours I'll go for white, large rectangular tiles - I don't think they'll date.

Yes, I meant to say that - apparently "tile fashion" is for larger oblong tiles rather than the traditional small square ones.