The kitchen is one place in the house that is dear to almost everyone, even those family members who feel out of place with the structure. After all, it’s the question of the tummy. Since the kitchen is related to what we consume, hygiene takes precedence along with beauty and safety.
Kitchen tiles for floors and walls make it easier to add all features to your kitchen. Also, tiles can last much longer and remain almost maintenance-free throughout their lifespan.
So, you should explore the kitchen tiles portfolios to build a perfect kitchen in your home.
What is So Special About Kitchen Tiles?
Kitchen tiles are built to handle kitchen-specific challenges like greasy spills and tough spice stains from gravy spills. More than that, kitchen tiles provide a beautifying edge to your kitchen. So, if you have a modern open kitchen attached to the living room, you have two focal points – a TV wall or accent wall and the kitchen.
To summarise, kitchen tiles can add the following values to your kitchen:
- Make kitchen floor safer for users
- Turn the backsplash into an aesthetically appealing space
- Make the countertop maintenance-free and comfortable to work with
- Easy to clean and stain-free walls and floor
- Maintain a hygienic and odour-free kitchen
Where to Install Tiles in The Kitchen?
You can install tiles in the following areas of your kitchen:
Kitchen Floor
The kitchen floor can use anti-slip tiles for a safe surface to walk. Anti-slip tiles offer adequate grip, even with greasy spills on the floor, which will help avoid any accidents in the kitchen.
Countertop
The kitchen countertop bears the responsibility of providing a stable and sturdy surface to work on and occasional utensil falls. The countertop should be strong enough to bear all the weight, avoid accidental losses, and provide a hard scratch-proof surface.
Backsplash Wall
The backsplash wall can bear the spills and splashes from your cooking projects. Tiles will make cleaning these stains a walk in the park.
Other walls
You can cover the open kitchen walls with tiles to give the kitchen a uniform appearance. These tiles can be an extension of backsplash tiles or a different choice altogether.
Best Tiles Options for Kitchen Walls
Kitchen walls, especially the backsplash, are one of the most popular tile installation spaces in homes. Because of the popularity of backsplash tiles, manufacturers also offer thousands of design concepts for this space.
Most tile designs for kitchen backsplash fall into the following categories:
Digital Coordinated
You can call this style the lazy designer’s selection, as the tiles design collection takes care of all the important spaces in your kitchen. This style of backsplash tiles from the walls to the floor. The tiles consist of highlight (HL) tiles which carry the featured design element, lower trim tiles with a lighter shade and a darker shade of the tile.
Once installed in the correct order, the highlighter tiles receive all the limelight, and the entire combination looks elegant. You can install matching floor tiles that feature a matte finish anti-skid surface.
There’s no dearth of choices with digitally coordinated tiles. However, if you want to create something truly personal, turn to glazed vitrified tiles.
Polished Glazed Vitrified Tiles
Don’t want to stick a readymade concept into your kitchen? Don’t worry, glazed vitrified tiles give you plenty of opportunities to craft your kitchen appearance with unique high-definition designs.
Polished GVT designs under the Polished and Special Polished collections of H&R Johnson give you several unique tile prints to fit into your imagination.
If these collections are not enough to stimulate your thoughts, move to Carwing tile designs. Carwing is a special finish that makes the tiles feel more natural than manufactured.
Even if Carwing doesn’t satisfy your creative bugs, Exotic and Glamour GVTs are most certain to quench your thirst for something exclusive for your kitchen walls.
Heritage Tiles
This collection is for those who’d like to keep all the excitement and volatility of the world outside their homes and kitchen. Heritage tiles expose the feeling of calm and simplicity in your kitchen.
The small tiles can be installed in several simple and classical patterns, such as chessboard, subway style, geometric setup, diagonal, stacked, or classic herringbone patterns.
Best Tiles Options for Kitchen Floor
The kitchen floor needs two things – a skid protective surface, and proper sloping for water drainage. Smaller tiles of 30x30cm, 40x40cm, or 60×60 cm if you have a bigger kitchen, work best for the kitchen floor.
Here are a few floor tile options you can consider based on and otherwise your choice of kitchen wall tiles:
Coordinated Floor Tile
This is the easiest choice if you are using digitally coordinated tiles for kitchen walls. Simply buy the matching coordinated floor tile, and you will get a 30x30cm or 40x40cm matte finish tile matching the wall tiles.
Wooden Planks
Wooden planks are a popular choice for flooring in premium kitchen designs. The tiles feature a wooden feel with a wood pattern design and grainy surface finish that feels soft and natural under the feet.
These 120×20 cm tiles perfectly replicate a hardwood floor without the hiccups of polishing and maintenance.
Matte Finish Living Room Tiles
Another popular concept is to use the same design as the living room floor in the kitchen. This concept is popular with modern open kitchen designs of the living room and kitchen. However, if you have glossy or polished tiles in the living room extending the same to the kitchen makes the kitchen floor unsafe for users.
To avoid such mishaps, concerned tile manufacturers like H&R Johnson offer matte finish tiles in the same design as the living room floor tiles. So, you can maintain both aesthetics and safety parameters in your kitchen.
Tiling the Countertop
The countertop is the real battlefield in the kitchen where all the effort, preparation, and cooking takes place. The countertop surface is subject to softer stuff such as fruits and vegetables, greasy stuff like oils, and dangerous stuff like knives and hot utensils.
Thus, the surface must be sturdy and strong to bear all the abuse and remain nonchalantly stain and scratch-free. Here are the two options from the tile world you can rely on to have a sturdy countertop:
Glazed Vitrified Slab Options
Glazed vitrified slabs give you several colour and design options for countertops. These large tiles are available in matte and polished finishes. You can choose from several options, ranging from solid colours to terrazzo and marble patterns.
Fully Vitrified Slabs
Fully vitrified slaps are a more popular choice for kitchen countertop applications, and not because they are cheaper. Fully vitrified tiles can be more expensive than glazed vitrified tiles. However, their uniform body features the same structure and colour throughout their body. So, cutting and shaping the tile doesn’t affect the appearance of the slab.
Kitchen Tiles Price in India & How to Buy?
The price of kitchen tiles in India ranges from Rs 40 per square foot for ceramic (non-vitrified) tiles to Rs 200 per square foot for (full-body vitrified). Check the tile quality thoroughly before buying to ensure a lasting and positive experience.
Check for the technical descriptions of the tiles, like surface hardness, PEI rating (body strength), scratch resistance (Mohs Scale), etc., to understand the build quality. Other than that, check for the complete solutions available with the manufacturer.
Most big brands, including H&R Johnson, maintain and benchmark their tile quality standards with Indian and International standards. The details are available online and on product brochures from these brands.
You can explore the details before approaching the dealership. Additionally, you can consult the tile experts about your choices at the brand for guidance and clarity.
