Would fully tiling a large bathroom feel too clinical and hard to clean?

[Lorrymum]

We have a large bathroom (formerly a bedroom) which we are considering having a complete refurb. The designer has suggested having the entire room tiled but I feel it would be too clinical and a nightmare to clean.
Any thoughts welcome!

What age is the house and what’s your design style OP?

Take a look at shower/bathroom boards. They come in all styles and colours, no grout to go discolored, really easy to keep clean.

Yes, tiling an entire bathroom might be expensive and clinical. Metro tile boring!

Do your research. There’s so much out there to choose from but every wall tiled leaves very little scope to change the colour scheme with a different emulsion colour as time moves on.

We went for half tiling, with tiles at the bottom and paint at the top. Really happy with it.

We have tongue and groove cladding half way up which can be painted. It’s suitable for bathrooms. It’s a small bathroom with a fully tiled shower and floor, cladding then painted walls. It was previously fully tiled, sounded echoey and felt damp all the time in winter. The photo was taken mid renovation. We had it done almost 10 years ago now and the panelling still looks good.

have a look at this website for more ideas.
https://diywallpanelling.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21409316807&gbraid=0AAAAAoxekONwNzETZhBCPZIQdVzS9nExy&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpKjz6IPBlQMVqZdQBh09gRoPEAAYASAAEgIfWvD_BwE

The house was built in 1916 and we are looking for traditional loo and sink with walk in shower. I tried to download the plans but computer says no!
The quote for tiles is £1500.

My house has the bathroom fully tiled. It was like that when I bought it and I can't afford to change it. It looks nice, I don't find it hard to clean but my god, I would REALLY like to be able to change the decor - and I can't. It's also very echoey (it's a very small room).

The drawback is not being able to redecorate though. I'd love to change the colours but without stripping all the tiles off (very expensive), I'm stuck with the colour choices of the people who fitted, unless I paint the ceiling (not going to happen).

My bathroom is fully tiled and also has a tiled floor BUT its not a huge room. However I would warn you to consider fitting adequate heating to compensate as the room will be colder because its fully tiled. The radiator that the bathroom designer recommended was inadequate .So it had to be replaced with one twice as big.

We have just moved into a bungalow and the people before has put in uPVC panels on the walls and ceiling.
Brilliant to keep clean. Will give us time to save up for a bathroom refurb

No I wouldn’t and didn’t. We have a large traditional bathroom with seperate shower and freestanding bath. Full tiles for the shower but the other walls half tile and paint above the tiles to add some colour. Actually we left one wall completely tile free. Full tile only really works for a smaller room/shower room.

Eugh no it would feel cold and clinical

Just have fully walled tiles on the walls that will get splashed

Thank you for your thoughts.
I think I will go with half tiled, one free wall and fully tiled around the shower. Im quite short and the ceilings are high. I would have problems being able to reach the higher tiles.
The room is on the corner of the house and would be too cold in the winter. He also wanted to remove the radiator and have a heated towel rail. I think that is also a "no'.

You can use a speed mop to clean the upper tiles, but I agree I wouldn’t want a fully tiled bathroom. Having said that, they don’t need to be hard, shiny and clinical. Have you considered underfloor heating? It’s something I wish I’d done.

We went with all tiles, mainly large white tiles with a feature line in a contrasting colour above the sink and below the window. If anything, it’s really easy to keep clean, especially around the toilet area and as a pp said, can be mopped as well. I haven’t found ours clinical even though it’s mainly white, as the different colours from the flooring and accessories bring warmth.

I'm so glad we got heated flooring. The fully tiled room is definitely chilly when the radiator's off even though it's quite small.

Heated flooring itself isn't cheap on the electric bill but so nice on the tootsies.

We have accidental underfloor heating. The boiler is in the bathroom and the pipes for central heating run under the floor.
It's really hard to imagine what the finished article will look like. DH and I were a pair of muppets when the designer visited. We had no idea what we wanted other than a new bathroom suite!

Our bathroom is fully tiled and has a tiled floor and it's never felt clinical. It was like that when we moved in and it's been done with large tiles that have splashes (no pun intended) of colour in the lower and central tiles and then a faint white marble effect all around the top and the floor tiles are white.

Lived here over 20 years now and still love the bathroom but I think that's because the colours in the tiles are muted and can be combined with other colours and designs without clashing.

We've never found the bathroom particularly cold either although our bathroom is quite small at 9ftx9ft square.

It's easy to keep clean but it can sound a bit echoey - another minor thing I've recently noticed is that if anything metal rubs against the tiles - such as the towel holder on the bathroom door or the bottle tray in the shower, it does leave an ugly grey mark but it does clean off easily, yet it's annoying all the same.

We’ve just tiled our large bathroom and it’s absolutely amazing a complete game changer. We went for really large tiles so the bathroom looks huge with minimal grout lines. We had had bad things about the boards from a few people who had had them and equally a few bathroom suppliers. Our tiles are Matt I didn’t want shiny as they show fingerprints and are hard cleaning work. I squidgey mine down almost daily and love it so much.

My house is from 1908 and the previous owner had the bathroom done with a nod to Edwardian style, so it’s fully tiled with square white tiles and a pattern of small white and black squares near the top. The floor is black and white tiles in a basket weave pattern. It looks very nice and I like it although I half tiled the other two bathrooms we did. The room is cold but it’s because it’s big and in a corner, nothing to do with tiles. We have a normal radiator under the window and a towel radiator.

Err… you need a BTU calculation. That will tell you if a heated rail will be enough or what spec of radiator you require.

I think you should change designer. This one is not a good fit for you or your home

We have a ladder radiator, bigger than we need, but can fit all our damp towels on it without blocking the heat. On my photo it’s fitted on the right next to the sink. I think it’s about 5 ft tall and 2 ft wide.

My small bathroom is fully tiled, I am having a new bathroom fitted soon and just tiling the walk in shower and sink splash back.
i think the tiles made the room feel dark and closed in.

I dislike fully tiled bathrooms, so personally I wouldn't. My preference is to treat a bathroom (and kitchen) as much like any other room as possible, so wallpaper, rugs etc.

At our last house (400 years old) we had a decent sized (approx 12' x 10') bathroom that had been converted from a bedroom in the 1960s and we had no wall tiles at all, but there was no shower in that room. We tiled the floor with brightly coloured victorian style tiles and colour-drenched the room in F&B Setting Plaster. There was a Victorian fireplace which added to the non-bathroom feel.

Our current cottage has a tiny bathroom completely tiled in 4x4" white tiles - it's bloody awful, so clinical and cold looking. When we redo the room it's going to have mostly wallpaper, with a clear acrylic panel to protect the area behind the basin and some coordinating tiles in the shower area...I can't wait!

We did this in our Victorian house. No problems with cleaning and we think it looks nice.

What subsequent owners might think is their problem.