bathroom tiles - gloss vs matt. What is your experience?

[queenrollo]

We are having a complete renovation of our bathroom and I need to choose tiles. They are going to be for the shower cubicle and a splashback around the bath.
I'm going for a plain tile probably white or a pale neutral (grey or beige). I already have white gloss finish tiles and I hate them, and currently like the look of a matt finish instead.
But I have never had them before so I want to know the reality of living with them. Will they stain? Are they easy to clean?

It's been too many years of this renovation getting pushed down the list and so now we're doing it I don't want to make mistakes which will be hard to rectify.

I have gloss because I assumed easier to clean. But I find every little splash shows up in them. My friend has matt tiles and she doesn't need to wash them half as often as they don't smudge like gloss. Plus I think matt looks nicer.

I love the look of gloss tiles but agree with the poster above in that they show up marks and water drips so easily. Currently renovating 2 of our bathrooms and have already chosen a matte tile for one and will be choosing a matt for the other too.

If you live in a hard water area like we do, I would say the limescale shows more on matt tiles. We've had both, and I prefer plain shiny tiles.

Ideally, I'd like that wall covering that is all one piece instead of tiles (don't know the name). It's much easier to clean.

Matte every time. But I probably would look at a splashback rather than tiles.

I absolutely love my matte tiles - I don’t find them any easier or harder to clean than gloss but they look so much nicer to me

My experience of matt tiles is that they are hard to clean, and with tiles in general the grout gets grubby quickly around the shower/bath area.

I would always pick shower panels/aqua panels (they go by various different names) over tiles, and you can either do a whole wall like that, or just panel around the shower/bath area, and use tiles or paint elsewhere in the bathroom.

I don’t think you can make the suckers that are on those wire baskets and toothbrush cup type things stick to matt tiles (I don’t know the collective name - accessories?) so you’d have to drill through tiles and fix them permanently. Would that be a factor?

Wicks has done great value cream matt large format tiles. I love them in my bathroom and my timer was impressed with them for the price

I prefer gloss tiles. My personal taste is 'simple'.

I've never found them difficult to clean.

Gloss. Matte looks...cheaper, less nice, in my opinion.

Never go for those shower boards they're awful! The don't wear well.

I had my bathroom done last year. I have white/cream, matt, metro tiles with dark grey grout. Hard water area.

I've never given it a thought until now, but that's due to zero issues, grout never needing to be cleaned and tiles looking great. Low maintenance all round.

Thank you everyone. Some things to ponder there.

We live in a very hard water area, and I find the gloss white tiles in our family bathroom are horrendous to keep clean. We went for a matt limestone colour in our ensuite and they just don't show the watermarks at all. The grout is a whole other story....

I think it's more to do with colour personally than texture?

I prefer gloss tiles, personally. Matt great for floors, but for walls gloss tiles, reflect light often bathrooms benefit from extra light.

I have just had my bathroom done and choose Matt as my bathroom fitter would only work Porcelanosa tiles which I believe only come in Matt. I had the same delima as you. Delighted with them, very easy to clean and we are in a hard water area. I also think they make the bathroom look very high end. My en suite has gloss tiles as it’s a small room and I think the room doesn’t look anywhere as nice and shows the water marks more. Good luck.