Shower room - fully tile or half tile?

[ThisCatCanHop]

We have a very small shower room that we’re doing from scratch as part of a loft conversion. It’s very small - think maybe 1.6 x 1.7 m. Ceiling is a decent height. I originally planned that we’d tile it to the full height round the shower and the heated towel rail (to avoid wet towels rubbing on painted areas) and then to window sill height round the rest of it. But the plasterer has told me we’d be much better fully tiling it.

I don’t think it will make a massive difference to the cost (but will obviously affect it) but I’m concerned it could make the room really dark. It’s a north facing shower room with a small window. We’re going for light blue/aqua tiles and I thought we’d need some white to break it up.

I previously considered fully tiling it and just using blue tiles in the shower and as a sink splashback but can’t find a matching white tile in the same size/from the same range.

Any thoughts?

Full tile.
We didn't and really regretted it.

Yep fully tile especially if you ever think you will have teenagers

Full tile, definitely. Find a tile that isn’t too in your face and will look good all over - with a bit of texture, so you don’t notice every splash, bit of dirt etc.

Another vote for full tile - or have a look into shower wall panels

I prefer shower panels, so much choice out there and no grout to clean.

Another vote for aqua board panels, but definitely full tiling if not.

Another vote for full tile, we also got the window sill and surround tiled too - no more decorating!

Seems unanimous so far! Would you not be concerned about it looking dark if it’s anything but white?

I definitely don’t think we want panels. I know they can look very good but it’s not the look we’re going for.

It won’t look dark if you have the right number of down lighters - but don’t overdo it….. you don’t want the lighting to look clinical.

My shower room is half tiled in places and it pisses me off no end. Other shower/bathroom are fully tiled and much better

Recently redid our tiny en-suite (about 150cm square) and we tiled to the ceiling. It looks fantastic and makes the room appear bigger. We also have large recessed shelves which are backlit, a large mirror and this helps with the illusion of space.

The tiles are quite large and white with a marble detail running through them.

We did full tile - but part colour and part white.

The tiles don’t match in shape at all, but you wouldn’t noticed that. The colour is the statement, the white tiles are just background.

We're having our half-tiled one replaced with a full-tiled one right now.

Half-tiling never really works IMO.

Ok, thanks - that seems pretty unanimous! Better talk to the tiler…

Defo full! We did half, and ended up getting the tiler back in 🤣

Fully tiled looks more uniformed no more decorating but don’t do it in anything trendy as it will date
in our old house that was half tiled everything was brilliant white
used to repaint it regularly with a very strong colour few matching towels and accessories and you had a new look bathroom for £40

The plumber explained paint is better for condensation, all tiles and there's nowhere for the water to go so it takes ages to dry out whereas water based paint absorbs it.

He was right.

I just did my attic shower room. Tiles in the shower area and behind the heated towel rail. Half tile behind the sink and toilet area. Tiles are cream stone effect and wall is skimming stone neutral. Floor is wood effect tile planks.

We did our master bath in floor to ceiling tile and it looked fairly clinical and featureless.

Downstairs cloak is plaster walls with a metro tile splashback around sink and toilet.

Personally I'd go for half tile.

Half tiling leaves a raw edge or you use a fairly horrible edging. It’s dated in my view. It does not suit a small space either. Natural stone large format tiles look good. A decent brand will butt together with minimal grout. Porcelanosa do great neutral large format tiles. Much better than loads of small ones with miles of grout.

Full tile and a good extractor fan to suit the space, on a timer. No condensation.
Shower panels are the bees' knees. After years of 'only tiles for me', I upgraded my bathroom and used panels, same colour as the white tiles but with a slight water mark pattern.

We're doing our ensuite and doing 2 walls tiled to the ceiling and 2 walls painted. For context the painted wall is the doorway and behind the door. The tiles will have the toilet, corner shower, sink and mirror.

People who like it all tiled - why? I have an ancient grotty bathroom that’s tiled to full height all round and I hate it. It’s so cold, damp all the time, and you have to wash the bloody tiles all the way round as they get streaky with dust mixing with condensation, which means miles of tiles to clean. I was planning to do half tile when I can afford to redo it. What advantages am I missing?

@MaryLennoxsScowl Fully tiled means you have no nasty top edge of a tile to deal with. They aren’t glazed so people either have them exposed or they have a nasty plastic edging. I’ve seen horrible rough edges on splash backs that look awful.

I’ve got some filly tiled shower rooms and some are not. Some have tiles in the shower and on the basin wall, and then other walls are painted. I’ve one bathroom with no tiles at all. The bath is freestanding and the room is half boarded and it rises above the sink and goes behind the loo. So around 1.3m high. It’s painted in a durable eggshell. Very few smart bathrooms have bits of random tiled splash backs now. They are very dated. Most people prefer a much sleeker look and have underfloor heating which makes the space warm plus a heated towel rail. My tiled shower rooms are warm and inviting. In fact many very expensive bathrooms are using slabs of marble on the walls to avoid grout lines and large format tiles help with this too.

You’re supposed to caulk the raw edges of tiles and paint over it so no unglazed bits are on show. No horrible plastic edge strip needed! This stops moisture getting into the tile adhesive and weakening it. I suppose underfloor heating might be a game-changer for the cold damp feeling, I’ll look into that, thank you!
I like the look of some half tiled rooms myself, and I’ll never be able to afford marble slabs, and neither am I that keen on the salami-style streaky marble that’s hyper fashionable right now. I think it will date badly.

Painting over tiles. That looks horrible too. That’s why fully tiled with large format is way nicer.