Bathroom Wall Tiles: Height, Format and Setout

Walls are the most visible surface in a bathroom and they are seen from close range, straight on, often in raking light from a window. That makes setout matter more here than anywhere else in the house.

How high to tile

In the shower, tile to a substantial height. Full height to the ceiling is common and looks generous. At minimum, tiling should extend well above the shower head.

Note that this is a separate question from waterproofing. AS 3740 sets where the membrane must go, typically to around 1800mm in the shower enclosure, and the tiling covers it. The membrane is the waterproofing, not the tile.

Elsewhere in the room, it is a design decision. Options that work:

• Full height throughout. Generous, removes any horizontal break, most expensive.
• A consistent line around the room, often around 1200mm, with paint above. Cost-effective and looks deliberate if the line is genuinely consistent and relates to something, such as the top of the vanity mirror or the door architrave.
• Splashback height behind the vanity only, with the shower full height. The most economical, and it works if the two heights look intentional rather than accidental.

The one to avoid is a height that lands arbitrarily, unrelated to anything else in the room.

Format

Walls take almost any format because they carry no traffic and need no slip resistance.

Large formats give fewer grout lines and a calmer wall. They need a flat, plumb substrate, and they need checking for weight.

Rectangular tiles are the most common. Laid horizontally they widen a wall visually. Laid vertically they draw the eye up, which helps in a bathroom with a low ceiling.

Mosaics and small formats work well as a feature panel and are laborious across a whole room.

Setout is the whole game

On a wall, poor setout is unavoidable to look at.

Where the first tile lands. Set out from the focal point, so cuts land in the corners nobody looks at rather than beside the shower screen at eye level.

Symmetry around features. A niche, a mirror or a window should sit in a sensible relationship to the tile grid rather than cutting through it awkwardly.

Cut sizes. No slivers. A cut narrower than about a third of a tile looks like a mistake. Better to shift the whole setout and take a larger cut at both ends.

Plumb and flat. A wall out of plumb shows in every vertical grout line. This is prepared before tiling, not corrected during it.

Lippage. One tile edge proud of the next. Invisible face on, extremely visible in raking light from a window.

The details that read as professional

Mitred external corners. Tiles mitred to meet at an outside corner give a much cleaner line than a plastic or metal trim. More work, better result, and very noticeable.

Aligned joints between floor and wall. Where the tiles are the same width, running joints through looks deliberate.

Consistent joint width, especially with pressed tiles that vary slightly in size.

Silicone at internal corners, not grout. Corners move and grout cracks. This is the detail that separates a bathroom still looking new at 3 years from one that is not.

Grout on walls

Walls stay cleaner than floors, so lighter grout is more viable here. Matching grout to tile makes the wall read as one plane. Contrasting grout emphasises the grid, which suits subway tile particularly well.

Weight

Large or stone tiles on a wall have real weight. The substrate and adhesive have to suit, and very heavy formats can need additional consideration. Worth raising with your tiler before you buy rather than after delivery.

Our guide to choosing tiles covers materials and formats, and our tiling services cover Sydney-wide installation.