I’ve Been Obsessing Over Bathroom Tile Murals — Here’s How They Work, and How You Can Get the Look Easily
Mural tiles are my favorite way to turn a bathroom into the most exciting room in the house. While every other room in your home receives the luxury of having its walls adorned with beautiful prints, paintings, or even family photos, bathrooms are excluded from this pleasure. With endless opportunities for splashes and spills, any kind of precious art is generally a no-go in the bathroom. This restriction can often leave these spaces feeling rather… bland.
So, when we spotted the trend of mural tiles popping up all over our feeds, we were instantly intrigued. Finally, a modern bathroom idea that emphasized character and personality.
Mural tiles have the power to transform your bathroom into a liveable piece of art. They dedicate an entire wall to telling a story through color and form. They are an eye-catching centerpiece, letting the rest of your bathroom design take the back seat and let the mural do the talking. Endlessly variable, these designs can be as personal as you’d like them to be. Alternatively, you can choose from a pre-made tile design for a fast track to a striking bathroom.
What Are Tile Murals?
Amy’s beautiful mosaics are all handmade and designed with her client in mind.
(Image credit: Amy Exton design for Kirstey Merrett)
Much like a typical mural, tile murals are a beautiful way of adding character and visual interest to a room. They allow you to transform any room into a piece of art, dedicating an entire wall to painting a scene that will set the tone of the space.
With all the benefits of a traditional mural, the tile interpretations allow for a more durable and water-friendly version, perfect for bathroom designs. These murals can be the focal feature of the room, taking up an entire wall, or just a smaller addition, highlighting a specific area of your bathroom or adding a bit of personality to what may have otherwise been a lackluster spot.
There’s plenty of room within this design style for personalization, allowing you to create a unique and sentimental piece of decor. Amy Exton, a designer specializing in mosaics, has expertly perfected this highly personal approach. “My mosaics add something completely one-of-a-kind and unique, and even when just applied to a small area, they can really transform a room,” she explains. “The intricacy of mosaics can add delicacy and texture to a space which can often be quite flat and stark.”
However, these designs don’t necessarily have to be as intricate and labor-intensive as a hand-made mosaic. Plenty of specialist tile companies have developed their own ranges of mural tiles.
These ranges allow you to build a striking visual feature in any room, with multiple impressive scenes to choose from. Becca Keenan, the designer behind some of the most impressive mural tiles on the market, says, “Mural tiling is a stunning way to add personality and artistry to a bathroom. Creating a bold focal point, Original Style’s Palm House mural has been inspired by luxurious orangeries, delivering a bold, visually arresting backdrop, whilst the Eastern Mist mural features illustrations of misty mountains, pine branches, and a peaceful pagoda, offering a soft, neutral palette.”
The scene you select for your space can completely dictate the atmosphere of the room. We love how the English Garden design brings a sense of bucolic serenity, which would make a stunning shower room idea.
Amy graduated from CSM in 2012 with a BA in fine art, specialising in immersive installations and writing her thesis on the fandom of Elvis Presley. She fell into the world of set design after being invited to take part in a film-making residency in Sicily, in affiliation with the Fiorucci Arts Trust, and spent the following decade working as a set designer across the fashion, music and commercial industries, working with clients such as LEGO, Disney and Lazy Oaf.
What Does Mural Tiling Add To Your Bathroom?
Baked Tiles mural range bring elements from the natural world into your home.
(Image credit: Baked Tiles)
“Murals add character, elegance, and a sense of individuality to a bathroom,” explains Lesley Taylor BIID, Interior Designer and creative lead at Baked Tiles.
“Unlike plain tiles, they introduce a visual narrative — whether it’s the organic flow of stone effect tropical patterns or the bold artistry of more intricate designs like the Tuscany Botanical mural. They also offer a clever way to define zones in larger bathrooms or make smaller spaces feel more expansive when used across a full wall. Their durability and versatility make them both a practical and beautiful choice for bathrooms,” she says.
Baked Tile’s illustrative mural tile range focuses on nature-based iconography, bringing a sense of the wildness of the natural world into your home. The richness of the colors and the striking visuals make these tiles an easy focal point in a room, while their durable nature makes them a great choice for high-moisture areas.
Although these tiles bring a striking splash of color to your home, other styles can offer a more pared-back look.
With scenes from her own garden, Phaedra’s mural is a perfect example of how personal your design can be.
(Image credit: @houseandgardendog)
In her home bathroom, Phaedra Brown opted for a classic blue and white design, creating a calming and traditional aesthetic. “My mural is a chinoiserie-inspired version of my own backyard. I worked directly with the artist to include the many birds we see visiting our pond — herons, ducks, and cardinals, among others – and elements such as our birdhouse and garden flowers,” Phaedra says, “The bridge is in our real-time view as well, but the pagoda folly is a figment of my imagination! The shower was precisely framed during the renovation to avoid the need to cut any tiles (other than at the ceiling), and the mural was designed to fit the exact space, working the design around the shower head and handle placements.”
Phaedra’s bathroom is a testament to just how intricately personal these tiles can be. Not only do they create a beautiful spa bathroom feel, but they also reflect Phaedra’s lived experience and her home.
This sense of personalization is also present within Amy’s designs, where the finished product is an amalgamation of various inspirations — blending Amy’s personal style and influences with her client’s vision. In this way, her designs are mosaics in both form and nature, taking fragmented ideas and transforming them into a whole.
“I hope to create focal points in rooms, a space that draws the eye and that you can’t stop looking at because of their detail; mosaics tend to have that effect. I also love that with mosaics, you can really see the hand of the maker in all of the cuts and imperfections, which is not something you get with larger, machine-made tiles. Design-wise, my mosaic combines both a traditional/vintage and contemporary aesthetic,” she explains.
How to Style Mural Tiles
Phaedra complements her custom mural tiling with white and blue accessories.
(Image credit: @houseandgardendog)
As our experts have suggested, the beauty of tile murals is that they do the heavy lifting in your bathroom’s design, effortlessly becoming the star of the show. However, when combined with other attention-demanding features, these elements can quickly turn against one another, competing for the viewer’s attention and creating a visually overwhelming space.
As Phaedra says, “I think you need to allow the mural to be the star. You need to be able to view it as a whole, so I would want to put it in a space where you can enter the room and see the shower ahead of you.”
She adds, “I prefer simple, classic elements to complement the mural without competing with it — I chose a marble basketweave and dark wood-looking tile, a restored claw-foot tub, vintage-style console sinks, and freestanding antique and vintage furniture pieces. I especially love the idea of a tile mural in an ‘unbathroom’ bathroom setting.”
These vintage-style pieces are especially effective alongside the delicate artistry of Phaedra’s chinoiserie-inspired tiles. However, mural tiles can also be used for more contemporary, minimalist design styles.
Becca agrees with Phaedra’s approach, saying: “It’s important to let the mural take center stage without competing for attention. Opt for neutral tones like soft whites, greys, or muted pastels on the surrounding walls and try to keep décor simple and refined to avoid overwhelming the space.”
This style has quickly become one of our favorite ways to add a striking visual feature to an otherwise plain bathroom.
However, if this style is too out-there for you, there are plenty of other tiling trends to explore. We’re big fans of the monochromatic simplicity of the tile-drenching trend, and bathroom subway tiles are a proven classic.
