It is as important to follow trends for bathroom walls as it is for bathroom floors. While many people agonise for hours over their design choices for flooring, they often don’t spend as much time thinking about and incorporating the latest trends in bathroom wall tiles into their planning.

In this guide, we’ll take you through some of the top trending wall tile ideas for bathrooms that have stolen the show in 2023. Some of them are very similar to floor tiling trends seen this year, and the beauty of most of them is that they can be interchanged easily in this way – allowing a seamless transition between floors and walls.

We’ll highlight the top five emerging trends and give you some ideas on how to incorporate them into your own home. Whether you're looking for a sleek and modern look or something more classic, CTM has got you covered.

Why Choose Tiles For Bathroom Walls?

First, let’s unpack why choosing tiles for bathroom walls is such a great design choice over other options like wallpaper or paint.

• Tiles are easy to clean and enable you easily keep your bathroom space sanitized and clean.
• Tiles are water-resistant making them ideal choices for wet areas like bathrooms.
• Tiles are durable and long-lasting making them a great design choice as well as a very functional long-term choice for the home too.
• Tiles offer you the ability to play with colour and design thanks to the large variety of bathroom wall tile designs available.
• Depending on the tile you choose, they can be a cost-effective choice versus wallpaper or paint.

Top 5 Current Trends in Bathroom Wall Tiles

We pretty much guarantee that once you read through this list of modern bathroom wall tile ideas for small bathrooms and large ones, you’ll fall in love with at least one of the ideas.

#1 - Industrial Style

The industrial look is very in right now. This industrial design trend for bathrooms includes using elements like black chrome tap ware, and black shower doors and hinges. These black elements are contrasted beautifully with pure white subway tiles on the walls (patterned in many different options too). This mega contrast of black and white brings a modern, industrial feel to any space. Pops of colour can be brought in through design elements like finishes and décor or you can choose to add in a colourful feature wall in a bright mosaic like in the shower floor and walls.

#2 - Organic Natural Look

A natural and organic look for a bathroom is both modern and classic. Choosing wood-look tiles for bathroom walls (and floors) brings in a depth of character and warmth to a bathroom space. Wood-look tiles pair well with white, large format tiles which can be used for the flooring. Hues of greens, blues and pinks can then be brought in through plants, light finishes and other design elements to perfect this look.

#3 - Shiny and New

Everyone is talking about dramatic, dark, metallics when it comes to bathroom wall tiles right now. Bringing in a touch of shiny drama through metallic tiles and metallic mosaics can bring a contemporary and luxurious feel to any bathroom space. If you’re not keen on tiling all the walls of the bathroom in metallic tiles, choose one feature wall or specific area to bring them into the space in.

#4 - Cement Creativity

If you told designers we’d be using cement-look tiles in bathrooms ten years ago they would have giggled at you. Cement was always thought to be a cold, harsh surface but today it’s become a very popular design trend. Thanks to cement-look ceramic tiles, you can bring highlights of light greys, whites, and dark greys into a bathroom space to create a calm, peaceful space. We love the cement look trend and think it works best in a larger room with that gets a lot of natural sun and light into it.

#5 - Marble Luxury

Marble and bathrooms go together like peas and carrots. Marble-look tiles for bathroom walls has (and probably always will be) and popular design trend that many South Africans love. Consider choosing a marble-look tile for a floor-to-ceiling effect that will make your room feel airy and spacious.

How to Incorporate Modern Bathroom Tile Trends into Your Home

Whether you’re renovating an older bathroom, or completely recreating something new, it is possible to bring modern trends into any bathroom space. Here are our tips for incorporating tile trends into your own space.

• Work with the space you have. If you have a small bathroom, it might not be wise to choose the metallic tile trend to follow.
• Take the elements of a trend you love and use them, and discard the parts that you don’t. It’s your space and give yourself the creative licence to know your own style.
• Don’t design a bathroom for anyone but yourself. Creating a bathroom your neighbours will love it is not wise, choose tiles and other décor items that you will love to look at each day.
• Stick to your budget. Know what your price range is and stay within it. Luckily, at CTM we have a range of tile styles and designs to make everyone’s budget work.
• Start with your choice for bathroom wall and floor tiles and take it from there. The biggest job in any design project is to get these two elements right, and the rest will follow.

Where To Find Bathroom Wall Tiles?

Are you getting excited about turning your old bathroom into a 2023 trend setter with CTM? You’ll find tiles to match all of the trends we’ve spoken about and more in CTM’s range of Bathroom Wall Tiles online now.

Shop at CTM online now and get your tiles (and other accessories) delivered to your door now.