How much of bathroom to tile?

[lurchersrule]

I'm planning to have my bathroom retiled whenever such things are possible. It's a rectangular shaped room and is currently tiled on three of the walls with just the short wall at the far end untiled. It's full height above the bath and halfway up on the long wall opposite the bath (where the double window also is) and halfway on the wall where the sink and toilet are.

My question is could I just not tile on the long wall and paint instead? There's nothing water-based there and a lot of it is a window. I'm motivated by saving money mainly but tiling all walls doesn't make it unaffordable. I just don't want to spend unnecessary money! I suppose the wall would need re-plastering where the tiles were removed though and I also can't decide if it would look stupid.

Thanks for any opinions.

I really, really hate 'over tiled' bathrooms. They always feel too cold and clinical to me and they echo!

I would tile only in the areas which are exposed to water/regular splashes.

Much cheaper too!

It’s certainly cheaper but the current trend seems to be for part tiled walls and I suspect driven largely by developers in new builds.

Entirely personal choice as always. I have completely tiled walls done in a rich textured grey tile, large format, and it looks great to me, not echoey either.

I don’t think it would look odd. Many bathrooms only have the area around the bath and shower tiled plus a small basin splashback area.

My bathroom is completely tiled, mainly because it was completely tiled (badly) previously and removing the tiles revealed a proper mess underneath, it would have been about equal work and cost to level and plaster the walls as to retile them all. I’ve got quite a warm toned stone tile though, so it feels less cold than plain white or pale grey/blue/green.

I'm not a fan of over-tiled bathrooms either, although obviously it depends how it's done, some look nice. Painted walls look cosier to me. All tile can feel cold, literally and metaphorically.

We have the wall with the shower on tiled, and then a half wall behind the sink. The rest is painted and I think that's plenty. Certainly the room is much warmer now we've taken the tiles off from all over! And as a PP said - it's cheaper as well. I don't think there's a problem with not having the wall tiled personally.

Mine's tiled round the shower enclosure upto about one foot from the ceiling (high ceilings), to half height around the bath, and a splashback over sink. The rest is painted.

I much prefer the all tiled look, using the largest tiles available and as far as possible concealing or at least not drawing attention to the grouting.

It is just a preference for a style, nothing more. I prefer a sleek, minimalist look.

I went for all tiles on the walls this time so I didn't need to paint anything

I I don't like fully tiled bathrooms & I don't like when there just one it two yikes behind the toilet & sink. So my rectangle bathroom is tiled to chest height on three walls and shower screen height on the other wall. I wouldn't do it any differently if I was to retile now.

It sounds like you could easily not tile your 4th wall. I tiled mine because the layout means both ends of it are 'splash areas'

@FinallyHere

I much prefer the all tiled look, using the largest tiles available and as far as possible concealing or at least not drawing attention to the grouting.

It is just a preference for a style, nothing more. I prefer a sleek, minimalist look.

Same here.

Without seeing the room it's hard to say - most rooms visually look better with a bit of symmetry? So I'd stick with half height on the long wall abs behind the basin/toilet. It's also easier to keep clean and tidy if you are an enthusiastic floor mopper where eager might splash up the wall.

@FinallyHere

I much prefer the all tiled look, using the largest tiles available and as far as possible concealing or at least not drawing attention to the grouting.

It is just a preference for a style, nothing more. I prefer a sleek, minimalist look.

Same here too. We had our 2 bathroom done 2 years ago and all with large tile and it’s absolutely beautiful compared to the half painted wall we had before

We have 800x800 tiles and have tiled half way up except in the walk in shower. It looks great, especially as the tiles are a mid-dark grey and the walls are white, making a nice contrast.

My dad is a tiler and says fully tiled looks like a chip shop

Fully tiled in small/plain tiles makes me think of a butcher's or a public loo, espcieally if they're white. Large slab tiles (e.g. in marble) can look good fully tiled. An advantage of not tiling everything is that you can update/change the feel easily just by repainting the wall.

Thanks all. I'm not keen on the huge tiles/panel things - just a taste thing but it will be metro or similar, which I know is old now but I like them so it's what I want.

I'm certainly not an enthusiastic floor mopper and use a steam cleaner so no worried there. I do like painted walls in a bathroom and but I'm not sure if having like an 'L' shaped covering of tiles will just look like I ran out of money/being arsed halfway round! It's quite a narrow room...

Ours were both fully tiled many years ago, and I really wish we’d just done water-splash areas. Now I’d like to update them, it’s going to be a major faff/quite a lot of extra expense to take all those tiles off and re-plaster.