Where to Use Encaustic Look Tiles: Which Rooms Suit Them (and Which Don’t)

You’ve fallen for the patterned encaustic look, and now the hard part starts: deciding which rooms actually deserve it. It’s a statement tile, so a wrong call can mean spending good money on something that won’t last, won’t feel safe underfoot, or simply looks overdone once it’s everywhere. Knowing where to use encaustic tiles is the difference between a feature that lifts a whole home and one you quietly regret.

I’ve spent decades helping Perth renovators choose tiles, and I’ll be straight with you about the misses as much as the wins. This guide gives an honest, room-by-room steer: where these patterned tiles work a treat, and the few spots they fall short. By the end, you’ll know exactly where to commit them in your home.

What Are Encaustic Look Tiles?

Encaustic look tiles are ceramic tiles that recreate the bold, patterned look of traditional encaustic tiles, using a surface-printed design rather than the inlaid coloured clay or pressed cement of the originals. Our encaustic look tiles range is ceramic and comes in a practical 200x200mm format, so you get the vintage character without the weight or the upkeep of the real thing.

Genuine encaustic cement tiles carry their pattern right through the body, built from inlaid coloured clay or pressed cement. They’re full of character, but they’re also porous, heavy and high-maintenance, which is why they suit heritage restorations more than a busy family home.

Our modern version keeps the look and drops the hassle. The pattern is held in the surface print and glaze rather than running through the tile, so the ceramic does the decorating while staying easy to live with. Ours are surface-patterned ceramic, not porcelain, so the design doesn’t run through the body the way it does in an inlaid cement tile.

If you’re wondering whether the look has had its day, I don’t think so. The patterns draw on Victorian, Moroccan and Mediterranean design, and that kind of motif tends to stay in style rather than fade with a passing trend.

The look is shared across three very different tiles, and the differences decide where each belongs.

Tile type	Pattern	Maintenance	Sealing	Best suited to	Stocked at Ross’s
Real cement encaustic	Inlaid / pressed, through body	High	Required (before and after grout)	Heritage / authentic restoration	No
Ceramic encaustic look (our range)	Surface print / glaze	Low, easy clean	Not required	Floors, feature walls, covered outdoor, residential	Yes, 200x200mm
Porcelain encaustic look	Surface print on porcelain	Low	Not required	Heavy traffic, fully exposed external	No (see outdoor / non-slip ranges)

For a Perth home, the ceramic look tile gives the character and the easy-care life. Where you need a heavy-duty external or commercial floor, a purpose-rated tile is the better buy.

What Are Encaustic Look Tiles Good For?

Encaustic look tiles are good for adding instant pattern, character and a focal point to a space, without the cost or upkeep of genuine cement tiles. That mix of high impact and low fuss is what makes them such a useful tile to have in your back pocket on a renovation.

• Instant character. A patterned floor or feature wall reads as a deliberate design choice, not an afterthought. Encaustic floor tiles turn a plain slab into the focal point of a room.
• Low maintenance. Glazed ceramic wipes clean and needs no sealing, unlike the porous cement of real encaustic. You get the heritage look without committing to the heritage chores.
• Budget-friendly statement. You get a strong look for a modest spend, with our range priced at around $60 per square metre. That makes a patterned floor far more achievable than most people expect.
• Flexible placement. They work on floors and walls, as a full field or a defined feature floor, and in a matte or gloss finish to suit the spot.

I’ve had customers walk into Ross’s dead set against encaustic tiles, because they had a preconceived notion that they’re a fragile option with high maintenance needs. Once I explain that the modern ceramic encaustic look tiles are glazed, easy to clean and ready to take home that day, you can watch the worry lift. It’s the same character they fell for, without the maintenance they were dreading.

That versatility is useful, but the room choice is what makes or breaks the result. Let’s go room by room.

Which Rooms Suit Encaustic Look Tiles?

Encaustic look tiles suit entrances, hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, living and dining areas, laundries and covered porches, where their pattern adds character to floors and feature walls. In wet or outdoor zones, check the tile’s slip rating so the surface stays safe underfoot. That covers most of the house, so here’s exactly where to use encaustic tiles, room by room.

Entrances & Hallways

An entry or hallway is one of the best places of all for a patterned floor. It’s the first thing guests see, it takes constant foot traffic, and a bold tile makes an instant impression in a spot that’s usually wasted on something plain. Glazed ceramic handles that high-traffic wear without complaint, which is why encaustic tiles in a hallway work so well: the pattern hides everyday grit and marks far better than a flat, pale tile. In Perth homes, a patterned entry can also tie the front door, hallway and covered outdoor areas together without needing the same tile across the whole house.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms are one of my favourite rooms for this tile, both underfoot and as a feature wall. Customers often ask me whether they can use encaustic tiles in bathrooms, and my answer is yes, with one sensible check: a floor in a wet area needs the right slip rating, which I’ll come back to shortly. A patterned floor brings real warmth to a space that can otherwise feel cold and clinical. The tile is only the finish, remember. Your waterproofing lives in the substrate beneath under AS 3740, so an encaustic look tile on a bathroom floor is perfectly fine over a properly waterproofed base. Our bathroom tiles give you plenty of patterns to weigh up.

Kitchens

In a kitchen, encaustic tiles work a treat as a floor or a defined feature zone, marking out an island or a walk-in pantry. A patterned kitchen floor gives you the character of a feature without eating into bench or storage space. The one spot I’d point you elsewhere for is the splashback, because that deserves its own treatment rather than a few lines here. If a patterned splashback is the look you’re chasing, we’ve pulled together an article about using encaustic tile designs for a kitchen splashback for more dedicated advice.

Living & Dining Areas

In living and dining areas, I’d treat encaustic tiles as a feature rather than a blanket. A patterned feature floor is a clever way to zone an open-plan space, marking out a dining nook or a sitting area without building a single wall. Keep the surrounding finishes neutral so the pattern reads as a deliberate choice rather than visual noise. Encaustic tiles in a living room work best framed this way, and our range of living room tiles pairs nicely with a feature run if you want to define a zone without overdoing it.

Laundries

The laundry is the easiest win on the whole list. It’s a small, purely functional room, which makes it the ideal spot to have a bit of fun with a bold pattern for very little money. The durable, easy-clean surface suits a work zone that copes with detergent, damp and constant traffic, and the small footprint keeps the spend right down. Our laundry tiles are a good starting point if you want to lift a laundry from strictly practical to something you actually enjoy walking into.

Porches & Covered Outdoor Areas

Covered outdoor areas get a yes from me. Using encaustic look tiles on a porch, verandah or covered alfresco is a lovely fit. Perth’s mild winters mean the freeze-damage issue you often read about overseas is rarely the problem here. The two things I’d actually watch are the slip rating underfoot and Perth’s harsh direct sun. For a fully exposed spot like an open patio or a pool surround, skip the decorative interior ceramic and choose a purpose-rated tile made for outdoor use from our range of outdoor tiles.

Where Encaustic Look Tiles Don’t Work So Well

Encaustic-look tiles are versatile, but some areas need a stronger, more durable tile than decorative ceramic can provide. So here’s the honest other half of the encaustic tile pros and cons: the places where I’d point you somewhere else.

• Shower floors. A shower base has to do two things a patterned 200x200mm floor tile isn’t built for. It needs a high slip rating underfoot when wet, and it needs small-format tiles that can follow the fall to the waste. For the shower base itself, an encaustic look tile is usually the wrong call. Save it for a feature wall or the main bathroom floor instead, and put a properly rated option on the base from our non-slip tiles range.
• Open, fully exposed outdoor areas. Pool surrounds and uncovered patios sit in full Perth sun and take rain straight on the surface. A decorative interior ceramic isn’t made for that load, so reach for a purpose-built external tile with the slip rating and low water absorption the spot demands.
• Vast wall-to-wall floors. A pattern that lifts a hallway or a laundry can swamp a whole open-plan floor, and the look tends to date faster when it’s running everywhere at once. Use it as a feature, not a blanket. A defined run reads as a design choice, while a sea of pattern reads as a decision you’ll second-guess.
• Heavy commercial or high-abrasion areas. The pattern on our range is surface-applied, so under years of harsh commercial traffic it can wear in a way a through-body porcelain won’t. For that kind of punishment, a porcelain tile is a better choice. In a normal Perth home, a ceramic look tile copes with ordinary high-traffic wear without any trouble.

None of this means scaling back your plans for the sake of it. It just means putting the tile where it earns its keep, and choosing something purpose-made where the room genuinely asks for it. Get that right, and the only thing left to sort out is how much looking after it actually takes.

Do Encaustic Look Tiles Need Sealing or Special Care?

No, our ceramic encaustic look tiles don’t need sealing, and they clean up with ordinary tile care. That’s the big practical difference between them and genuine cement encaustic, which is porous and has to be sealed before and after grouting, then resealed for the rest of its life.

The protective surface on our tiles is part of the glaze and print, so the tile already resists everyday spills without a penetrating sealer doing the work. I see this worry most with customers who love the pattern but have lived with high-maintenance stone or cement products before. Once they realise this is a glazed ceramic tile, not a porous cement tile, the upkeep concern usually disappears.

Weekly care is about as simple as tile gets. Sweep or vacuum to keep grit down, then damp mop with a pH-neutral cleaner. There’s no special product, no annual ritual, and nothing you can’t pick up at the supermarket.

The one part that needs a moment’s thought is grout. Grout lines need the usual grout care, and I’d steer you away from a dark grout against a light patterned tile. The pigment can mark the lighter glaze over time, so choose a grout colour that either frames the pattern or quietly blends with it. Get the grout right at the start and you’ll save yourself a headache later.

The pattern is printed on the surface, so it won’t take harsh abrasive scrubbing year after year. Normal household cleaning is all it ever needs, so this isn’t a tile you’ll be forever having to take care of. Place it well, and it’ll look after itself.

How to Choose the Right Encaustic Look Tile for Each Room

Once you’ve worked out where the tile belongs, choosing the right one for each room comes down to four things: slip rating, finish, pattern scale and grout choice.

• Slip rating. For any floor in a wet or high-traffic area, check the tile’s slip rating against how the room actually gets used. Australia classifies slip resistance under AS 4586, which rates surfaces from P0 to P5. The wetter or busier the zone, the higher the rating you want. Before you buy a tile for a bathroom floor or a covered outdoor area, confirm that specific tile’s rating suits the use.
• Finish. A matte surface gives better grip underfoot than a gloss one, so it’s the safer pick for any floor. Gloss earns its place on a feature wall, where grip doesn’t matter and the sheen lifts the pattern.
• Pattern scale and placement. A bold, busy repeat suits a contained feature zone, while a calmer pattern sits better across a larger floor. Our tiles are 200x200mm, a format that keeps the pattern repeat tight and the look authentic to the originals. Picture how much floor the pattern will cover before you commit to it everywhere.
• Grout choice. Grout colour either frames the pattern or blends with it, the same call from the care notes above. Remember that more, smaller tiles mean more grout lines, so a 200x200mm tile run across a big floor adds up to a fair bit of grout to keep clean.

Get those four calls right and you’ve settled every real decision this tile asks of you. The questions below cover the few details customers still tend to raise before they buy.

Encaustic Look Tile FAQs

So, Where Should You Use Encaustic Look Tiles in Your Home?

After all that, the verdict is a generous one. Encaustic look tiles earn their place in entrances and hallways, bathrooms, kitchens, living and dining zones, laundries and covered outdoor areas, used as a feature rather than wall-to-wall, with the right slip rating wherever the floor is wet or busy. The pattern does its best work when it has room to stand out, not when it’s fighting a whole open-plan floor for attention.

So the one steer I’d leave you with is simple. Treat these tiles as a statement, match the finish and the slip rating to the room, and keep them off shower bases and fully exposed patios where a purpose-rated tile does the job better. Get that right and you’ve got the character you fell for, in a tile that’s easy to live with for years.

When you’re ready to choose, come and see the full range of encaustic look tile at Ross’s Discount Home Centre, where you can hold the patterns against your own colours and floor plan. If you already know what you’re after, order online and we’ll deliver anywhere in the Perth Metro area for a flat $100. Our 14-day money-back guarantee also gives you extra confidence before you commit to your encaustic tiles Perth project.