Matte tiles hide water spots and smudges, making them easier to clean. They offer better slip resistance, good for safety. Polished tiles reflect light, helping small spaces look brighter and bigger. They need more cleaning due to visible water marks.
Ceramic: Ceramic tiles are a resilient and economical choice for your shower walls. These tiles are often used for bathroom flooring, so you know they're durable. Glaze on the surface of the tiles keeps moisture out, reduces the visibility of scratches, and seals porous parts of the ceramic to minimize mold and mildew.
Matte tiles are generally easier to clean and less likely to show water spots and fingerprints, while shiny tiles might require more regular cleaning to maintain their glossy appearance.
Gloss tiles may bounce more light around your bathroom whereas matt tiles provide a non-reflective finish. This can be ideal if you're looking for less shine and a more natural finish.
You can also read our blog post on How to Clean Matte Finish Tiles. Not A Good Choice For Darker Rooms: The biggest disadvantage of matt tiles is that they are not reflective. In darker rooms like basements, the presence of reflective surfaces is important.
Dirt and dust stick to matte tiles, making them challenging to clean. Here are four cleaning techniques you should keep in mind: Clean with a wet mop. Use warm water and vinegar to clean.
Glossy Tiles
As opposed to the matte finish, the gloss or high gloss tiles are expected to feel dated sooner and exhibit a chic vibe. Meanwhile, matte-finish tiles can feel more relaxed, calm, and timeless.
Glossy prints are great for vibrant, detailed images, while matte prints offer a glare-free, natural look, ideal for formal settings and framing.
For bathrooms that will be heavily used (family bathrooms) gloss tiles are often preferred as they are easy to clean and are low maintenance. For bathrooms that are less used (guest bathrooms), textured or matt tiles can be used to make a statement wall with a big impact as they won't need to be cleaned as often.
Glossy photos are resilient over time, resistant to fading and smudging, making them an excellent choice for long-term storage. However, if your prints will be frequently handled, matte photos are the more scratch-resistant option.
The smooth, shiny surface of polished tiles can get slippery when wet, which makes them less ideal for high-traffic areas, bathrooms, and households with young children or elderly individuals. The glossy finish can show water marks, footprints, and even minor scratches more prominently.
If you're looking for the tiles which are easiest to keep clean, go for neutral colored tiles. For example like gray, beige, or taupe.
Non-slip surface: Matte tiles offer better traction, reducing the risk of slips and falls, especially in wet areas like bathrooms and kitchens.
You should avoid polished tiles on the bathroom floor as it can be very slippery, but polished tiles are great for shower walls and help make an even surface for easier cleaning. Matte tiles that are smooth are not hard to clean either. Imprints and textures contain grooves that can retain dirt.
Avoid glazed ceramic tiles in this spot, as they tend to be slippery. Also, remember that non-vitreous tiles are not suitable for the shower floor. Only impervious or vitreous tiles should be used in the shower area, as they are relatively more waterproof.
Marble and Travertine:
Marble tiles are by far the most popular natural stone tiles chosen for bathrooms and showers. in fact, this beautiful stone has been considered the best tile for shower walls for countless generations, since ancient times.
Although cleaning matte surface tiles can be challenging, the aesthetic and practical advantages they provide us transcend this little drawback. A consistent cleaning schedule will guarantee that the tiles don't need a lot of labor and maintain their brand-new appearance for an extended time.
Corian® Solid Surface shower walls can be perfectly integrated to create the sleek impression of a single flowing surface that eliminates grout. With the use of a seamlessly streamlined material in every corner, there are no visible joints or cracks to collect dirt and moisture.
Porcelain Tiles
Because of their low water absorption percentage, they are exceptionally resilient to water degradation and do not encourage the growing of mold or fungus. As porcelain tiles readily disperse moisture, it makes them inherently hygienic.
Glare: Matte photographs lessen glare and reflections, making prints more easily viewed from various perspectives. Glossy pictures, on the other hand, reflect light and are more prone to glare and reflections, making it challenging to see the picture well.
While matt tiles lack the brilliant and sparkling appearance of gloss tiles, they have higher traction. Matt tiles have a more 'non-slip' reputation in high-traffic areas that are frequently in contact with water, humidity, and steam. Matt tiles will help areas such as hallways, kitchens, and bathrooms.
Glossy finishes amplify the vibrancy and sharpness of images, whereas matte finishes offer a subdued, more understated representation, making them suitable for portraying natural scenes and portraits.
Tiles in marble, limestone or terrazzo will never go out of style. These are the materials we consider to be the most classic and timeless. The issue is that they can be hard to keep clean but now thanks to all the advancement in tile technology we can get the look using porcelain tiles instead of the real deal.
When it comes to bathroom tile trends for 2025, marble bathroom tiles are having their moment. Whether it is a classic white marble like the Carrara Bianco Marble or checkerboard tiles like the Riviera Emerald & White, marble tiles are sure to elevate any bathroom scheme, adding a timeless elegance.
Highlights Imperfections
The higher reflection rate of the tiles makes the tiniest smudges and stains appear definitively. Due to this, you need to clean the surfaces frequently.