How to create a natural look with wood effect tiles

Wood effect tiles have become enormously popular because they’re realistic, hard-wearing and versatile. Natural wooden floors look beautiful and are highly desirable, but they require a lot of work to both fit and maintain. Wood is susceptible to staining and to damage from dropping or scraping heavy furniture or equipment on it. Wood effect tiles are just as beautiful but are much more practical.

The main advantages of using wood effect tiles instead of wood are:

• You can use them with underfloor heating
• They don’t fade or discolour
• They’re waterproof so won’t stain or warp
• They’re strong and less prone to damage
• No trees are cut down to produce them

Getting the natural look

When you’re laying wood effect tiles, remember that nature isn’t perfect. Whilst wood effect tiles like the Lightwood Brown Matt Porcelain come with a variety of different effects inspired by natural wood grain, they do not have infinite patterns available. So you need to mimic the randomness of nature by making sure there are no repeating patterns running through the tiles, like this Home Tiles customer has done.

Wooden parquet is an enduringly popular flooring in homes, and you can recreate this with the right tiles. Try laying them in a herringbone pattern, or use tiles like our Matalic Wood Metalic Semipolished Porcelain design to mimic squares.

To achieve the unfinished industrial look, try the Inwood Dark, Grey Matt Porcelain tiles. They’re perfect for kitchens or bathrooms.

Grouting

One of the tricks to making wood effect tiling look natural is the clever use of grouting. Choose coloured grouting that’s the closest match to the darkest shade used on the tile itself. This will fool the eye into seeing the grouting as shadows rather than giving away that you’re using porcelain!

Use them anywhere

Wood effect tiles give a room a very warm and cosy feeling. They can be used to create a log cabin effect in any room, or wood effect areas outside for your patio or garden. You can even use them in wet rooms, which would definitely be unsuitable for real wood. They are also practical, stylish and long lasting and that’s why they’re so popular.