Laundry Tile Ideas: Floor, Wall and Splashback Tiles for Perth Homes

The laundry is usually the last room people think about, which is exactly why it can handle a little more personality than the main bathroom or kitchen. It is small, practical and private, so you can try laundry tile ideas you may not use in a more visible room. A patterned floor, a feature splashback behind the trough, or a colour you actually enjoy can make sorting the washing feel a little less plain.

The catch is that the laundry also works hard. The floor still needs grip when water gets splashed about, the finish needs to hide everyday lint and marks, and the splashback needs to cope with water around the trough. So, while the laundry is a good place to show some personality, the tiles still have to hold up. I’ve spent years helping Perth renovators choose tiles, and the best laundries almost always come down to the same balance: a look the homeowner loves, paired with a surface that stays easy to live with.

In this guide, I’ll walk through floor, splashback and wall ideas you can picture in your own home, then cover the practical side so you can pick something that copes with a real working laundry. If you want to see the colours and textures as you read, you can browse our laundry tile range online.

Why the Laundry Is Worth Tiling Well

The laundry works harder than most people give it credit for. In a single week, the floor takes water, detergent, foot traffic, pet bowls, school shoes, cleaning buckets, dropped pegs and a steady drift of lint. That’s a lot for one small room, which is why the tiles can’t be chosen on looks alone. You want an easy-clean surface that still looks right after months of real use.

I had a customer fall for a dark gloss floor tile because it looked sharp on the showroom display. On a clean, dry floor it did. At home, every water spot and bit of lint showed within days, and the gloss finish only made it more obvious. The lesson isn’t that dark or gloss tiles are always wrong. It’s that laundry tiles need to match how the room is actually used, water marks and all.

Laundry Floor Tile Ideas

The floor is the biggest surface in the room, so it sets the feel of the laundry more than anything else. It also takes the most daily wear from foot traffic, splashes and cleaning, which means your laundry floor tiles need to look good and cope with real use. I’ll cover slip resistance properly further down. For now, here are the floor looks worth picturing in your own laundry.

Large-Format Tiles: Large-format tiles give you a calm, modern floor with fewer grout lines to scrub. They work especially well in a small laundry because fewer joins make the floor feel less busy and a bit more open.

Herringbone: A herringbone layout adds movement and interest to a small room without needing a bold colour. It looks great in stone-look, concrete-look or timber-look tiles, where the pattern does the work and the colour stays easy to live with.

Patterned or Encaustic-Look Floor: A patterned or encaustic-look floor can turn a plain laundry into a feature in its own right. If you choose this look, keep the walls and cabinetry simple so the pattern leads and nothing fights it.

Mid-Tone Stone-Look Tiles: Mid-tone stone-look tiles are one of the most forgiving choices for an everyday laundry. They hide lint, dust and small water marks far better than very light or very dark tiles, so the floor stays looking clean between mops.

Hexagon Tiles: Hexagon tiles feel classic but still a little different from the usual square or plank. You can run them as a subtle floor field across the room, or frame them with a border for a more planned look.

Terrazzo-Look Tiles: Terrazzo-look tiles are quietly practical because the speckled pattern disguises marks between cleans. They also pair nicely with plain white or timber-look cabinetry, which keeps the room feeling fresh rather than fussy.

One last steer: a mid-tone or warm floor can stop gloss-white laundry cabinets from feeling too clinical. If you want more options to compare, our full range of floor tiles is a good place to start. These laundry floor tile ideas give you a strong base, and the splashback is where you can add more personality.

Laundry Splashback Tile Ideas

A splashback earns its keep by protecting the wall behind the laundry trough from constant splashes and making the whole area quick to wipe down. The useful part for your budget is that a laundry splashback usually only needs to cover the area where water actually hits. That means you can choose a feature tile with more character without covering a large wall area.

Penny Round Mosaic: Penny rounds bring charm and texture, and they read as a deliberate feature behind the trough. They’re best kept to a controlled splashback zone rather than spread across every wall, where all those tiny joins become a lot of grout to keep clean.

Fish-Scale Tiles: Fish-scale tiles suit the water-based nature of the laundry and give the splashback a softer, rounded shape. They look right in white, soft grey, blue-green or a quiet neutral, depending on how much of a feature you want them to be.

Classic Subway Tiles: Subway tiles are clean, budget-friendly and hard to date. You can stack them for a sharper modern look or lay them in a herringbone pattern for more movement, so one affordable tile gives you a few different finishes.

Patterned Feature Strip: An encaustic-look or patterned tile can add real personality in a short run behind the bench. As with the floor, keep the surrounding walls simple so the pattern stands on its own.

Vertical-Stack Subway Tiles: Laying a plain subway tile vertically instead of horizontally makes the splashback feel more current and draws the eye upward, which is a handy trick in a compact room.

Whichever look you choose, decide early whether you want the splashback to match your cabinetry for a calm, built-in feel, or contrast with it to give the trough area more definition. If you want to compare options, our splashback tiles range covers most of these looks.

Laundry Wall and Feature Wall Tile Ideas

The first wall decision is how high to tile. Full-height wall tiles are practical, hard-wearing and easy to wipe clean, which suits a room that takes plenty of splashing and the odd scuff. Half-height tiles with paint above keep the room lighter and bring the cost down, so they are a sensible middle ground if you do not want tiles running all the way up. Because walls do not need slip resistance the way floors do, this is where you can carry more colour, pattern and texture without worrying about grip.

All-White Wall Tiles: All-white wall tiles keep a small or windowless laundry feeling crisp and bright. Choose your grout carefully here, because a stark white-on-white can look a little clinical, while a soft grey grout adds just enough definition.

Feature Wall Tiles: One tiled feature wall gives the room character without committing the whole laundry to a strong pattern or colour. It is an easy way to add personality while keeping the rest of the space calm and flexible.

Dark Wall Tiles: Dark wall tiles make white appliances and cabinetry stand out against them. They work best in a laundry with some natural light, or balanced with a lighter floor so the room does not close in.

Fluted or Textured-Look Tiles: Fluted or textured-look tiles add shadow and quiet interest without relying on colour. They’re a good pick for a modern but still calm laundry, where the texture does the work.

You’ll find these styles across our wall tiles range if you want to see them in different colours and finishes.

Quick Laundry Tile Ideas Comparison

Before we get into the practical side, here is a quick way to shortlist the looks. This table shows where each idea works best and what to check before you lock it in.

Look	Best For	Watch Out For
Large-Format Tiles	Small laundries, modern homes, fewer grout lines	Very large tiles can be awkward around tight troughs and appliance recesses
Herringbone	Movement and interest in a small room	More grout lines than large-format tiles
Patterned Floor Tiles	A bold laundry feature	Keep walls and cabinetry simple
Mid-Tone Stone-Look Tiles	Everyday family laundries	Choose the tone against your cabinetry and benchtop
Hexagon Tiles	A classic look with shape	Strong grout contrast can make the floor feel busier
Terrazzo-Look Tiles	Hiding lint and everyday marks	Pair with plainer walls if the pattern is strong
Penny Round Mosaic	Splashbacks and feature zones	More grout to clean if used too widely
Subway Tiles	Budget-friendly splashbacks	Layout and grout colour make a big difference
Feature Wall Tiles	Adding personality without tiling everything	Best kept to one wall or one zone
Fluted-Look Tiles	Subtle texture and shadow	Check cleaning requirements before using near heavy splash zones

Tiles For a Small Laundry

Here is the part that surprises people: a small laundry does not always need small tiles. Large-format tiles can make a compact room feel bigger because there are fewer grout lines cutting up the floor. The space reads as one calmer surface rather than a busy grid. One of the most useful small laundry tile ideas is to size up, not down.

A few things that help a small laundry feel larger:

• Use large-format tiles for a calmer floor with fewer grout lines, which stops a tight room from looking cluttered.
• Run the same floor tile from an adjoining space into the laundry to create a continuous floor that visually stretches the area.
• Stick to light tones or a mid-tone matte finish to keep the room open without making every mark stand out.
• Keep the floor simple and save any bold pattern for a small splashback or a single feature wall, so the colour has impact without shrinking the space.
• Skip very large slabs if the room has tight machine recesses, a narrow trough or fiddly cuts, where a slightly smaller tile is far easier to lay.

If you are still weighing up what size tile for a laundry room makes sense, our guide to picking the right tile size walks through it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting the Balance Right in Your Laundry

The laundry is small enough to carry some personality, but it works too hard for looks to be the only thing that matters. The best laundry tile ideas balance both. Floors need grip and easy cleaning, splashbacks need to protect the wall where water hits the trough, and walls can carry more colour, texture or pattern because they do not take foot traffic.

My advice is to settle on a look you will still like in five years, then make sure the surface suits how your laundry is actually used. If you would like to see the colours, textures and finishes in person, come and visit our Guildford showroom, where you can feel a floor tile underfoot before you commit. You can also browse our laundry tiles online, with a flat-rate $100 Perth Metro delivery if you would rather shop from home.