Bathroom tile ideas for Los Angeles homes

The best tile for a Los Angeles bathroom usually takes its cue from the house. A 1920s Spanish revival wants handmade texture and pattern, a Craftsman bungalow wants small hex and subway with proper trim, a mid-century house can carry stacked color, and a contemporary home suits large-format porcelain with few joints. Then practical questions narrow the list: how slippery the floor is when wet, what grout color will hide, and how much upkeep you will accept.

Below are ideas by house style, followed by the practical notes that decide which ones work in a real bathroom. When you are ready to put tile on the wall, our bathroom tile installation page explains how we plan layout and setting.

Spanish revival and Mediterranean

Los Angeles has a large stock of Spanish revival houses from the 1920s and 30s, and many still have original tile somewhere, often in a colorful glazed wainscot. New tile in these houses looks right when it has some irregularity and warmth.

• Terracotta-look floors. Real terracotta is porous and needs sealing. Porcelain made to look like handmade clay gives the color and edge variation with far less maintenance.
• Patterned cement-look tile. Encaustic cement tile has deep, matte pattern and needs sealing; porcelain versions print the pattern on a harder surface. Use pattern on the floor or a single wall rather than everywhere.
• Glazed zellige. Handmade Moroccan zellige has uneven surfaces and color shifts that catch light. It is set with tight joints and expects chips and variation. That is the point, but it is not for someone who wants a perfectly flat wall.
• Decorative borders. A painted or relief border at wainscot height is a period touch that does not require patterning the whole room.

Craftsman and bungalow

The Craftsman bathroom tradition is white, practical and detailed: small tile on the floor, subway on the walls, and a cap or trim piece that finishes the edge.

• Unglazed hex mosaic floors, in white or white with a simple black flower or border. The many grout joints give good grip underfoot.
• Subway tile with period trim, using a bullnose or chair-rail cap and a base piece. The trim is what makes it look original rather than builder-grade.
• Basketweave or penny round for a floor with a little more texture.
• Wainscot height walls, with painted plaster above, instead of tiling to the ceiling everywhere outside the shower.

Mid-century

Postwar houses across the Valley and the hills often had colored tile: pink, mint, yellow, powder blue. Some owners keep an original bathroom for that reason. For a new mid-century bathroom:

• Stacked vertical layouts. Rectangular tile set in straight vertical columns reads clean and modern and makes a low ceiling feel taller.
• Color with discipline. One saturated color on the shower walls, neutral floor, simple fixtures.
• Small square mosaic on the floor, a nod to period tile.
• Terrazzo or terrazzo-look porcelain, which suits the era and hides water spots well.

Contemporary and new construction

• Large-format porcelain on walls and floors means fewer grout joints and a calmer surface. It needs a flat substrate; large tile shows every high and low spot.
• Slab walls in porcelain panels or stone sheets can cover a shower wall with one or two pieces. Getting them into the room and cutting around valves takes planning.
• Matched floor and wall tile for a continuous look in a curbless shower.
• A single feature, like a fluted or ribbed tile on one wall, instead of several competing materials.

Coastal

Near the beach, bathrooms tend to be light and textured, with materials that tolerate sand, salt air and damp.

• Textured white or pale gray tile, handmade-look or with a slight wave, so the surface catches light without shine.
• Light stone-look porcelain for floors that do not show sand.
• Matte finishes that do not show water marks as readily.
• Warm wood tones in the vanity to balance a lot of white.

Practical notes before you order

Slip resistance on floors

Wall tile and floor tile are not always interchangeable. A glossy tile that looks beautiful on a shower wall can be slippery on a wet floor. Look for tile rated for floor use in wet areas, and favor smaller tile or textured surfaces for shower floors. Small mosaics are grippier because the grout joints give your feet purchase.

Grout color

A grout that matches the tile makes the surface read as one plane and hides small irregularities. A contrasting grout emphasizes the pattern and shows any uneven joints. On floors, a mid-tone grout hides daily grime better than bright white. Epoxy and high-performance grouts resist staining more than traditional cement grout, though they are harder to work with.

Natural stone maintenance

Marble, limestone and travertine are soft and can etch from acidic cleaners and some toiletries. Honed finishes hide etching better than polished ones. Stone needs sealing at intervals and cleaners made for stone. If that sounds like too much, porcelain made to look like stone gives much of the effect with less care.

Pattern and layout

Offset, stacked, herringbone and vertical stack each change how the room reads. Herringbone and diagonal layouts produce more cuts and more waste, and they take longer to set. Whatever the pattern, plan where the cuts land: a sliver of tile against a door jamb or at the top of a wall is avoidable with a layout drawn in advance.

Order extra

Handmade tile and many imported lines vary from batch to batch. Order enough for cuts, breakage and a few spares for future repairs, all from the same lot.

If the room is tight, our small bathroom ideas cover how tile size and layout affect how big a bathroom feels. For older houses where the layout itself needs work, the full remodeling page covers what happens behind the tile.