Bathroom walls - tiles or paint?

[Lily7050]

Is it juts a fashion or modern paints are so good that can replace tiles?
One plumber told us that we only need tiles around the bathtub.
Today we saw a friend's bathroom where all walls were tiles just half-way, about 1 meter from the floor. The rest, even around the bathtub was painted.
I would prefer fully tiles walls as they are easier to clean but my OH hopes to save money if we use paint instead of tiles.

I don’t have any fully tiled walls except the ones by the showers. How would your walls above a certain height get dirty? I’ve never cleaned my bathroom walls and they look very good to me.

We only have half tiled walls as well. I prefer the way it looks and don't see the need for full tiles outside the shower enclosure.

Fully tiled walls remind me of 1980's bathrooms.

you can paint it first, and, if you wish, tile it later.

Some people say that a fully tiled bathroom is reminiscent of a public convenience.

We have one painted wall and the rest tiled. The painted wall gets loads of drip marks from condensation and unfortunately looks a mess without regular cleaning.

I'm planning on redoing my bathroom soon and only tiling round the shower over bath and a sink splash back. Going for plain, neutral tiles and painting the rest - I can repaint in another colour easily and cheaply when it gets dirty/I get bored.

imho, large tiles won't look like 1980's bathroom.

It depends on the space, in one bathroom we have tiles around the bath up to ceiling height, in the other smaller shower room we’ve got white metro tiles throughout and it’s only the ceiling that’s painted. Bigger tiles don’t work in all places, even if it seems cheaper it can be better to use smaller ones to get a better result. You’ll need a splash back behind a shower and basin at least.

Full tiling does work in modern bathrooms. However, for it to look stylish, it does need enough detail, a good lighting scheme, decent quality tiles like porcelain.

If you’re in an older property, a more traditional bathroom will look fab. It doesn’t require full tiling and generally a great effect can be achieved on a lower budget.

If you’re trying to do things on a lower budget, I wouldn’t just use cheap white tiles all over and it will look naff. You shouldn’t have condensation issues on walls if you have an extractor fan and air the room regularly.