5 styles of kitchen tiles that are taking homes by storm

The durability and easy-to-clean nature of patterned floor tiles makes them an obvious choice for laying in kitchens, where they are hugely popular in homes all over the world.

With minimal colour schemes and shaker-style kitchens all the rage, tiles with mosaic designs, geometric patterns, and combinations of plain and patterned layouts are being used to offset the calmness of kitchen walls to superb effect.

If historic kitchen design materials appeal to you, Moorish handmade tiles made of compressed cement and soapstone are available from specialists. They are produced in a press rather than fired or glazed, and can bring a wonderful softness to any kitchen floor.

Plain tiles in a grid pattern make for practical, attractive splashback designs for cookers and sinks. Rectangular white tiles with bevelled edges, when combined with dark grout, create a classic, timeless look around your hob but there are plenty of other styles that work well when grid tiling.

Black tiles with white grout work equally well, as do pastel colours and lighter shades of tiles, and if you're feeling bold you could even opt for alternating colours or even a mosaic style to make your splashback really stand out.

One of the most spectacular ways to introduce kitchen floor tiles to your home is to use Penrose tiling. Also known as aperiodic tiling, this style is named after the mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose, who discovered a way to cover flat surfaces using non-overlapping polygons or other shapes.

If you're handy with a tile cutter and want to take on an ambitious project, then a Penrose-tiled floor will make your kitchen completely unique. Any talented professional tiler will relish the challenge of helping you to create one, and while the logistics could be tricky, the results are often dazzling.

Adding mirrored tiles to your kitchen brings all the hygienic, hardwearing benefits of other tiles but with one additional extra: light!

Mirrored tiles bounce light around your kitchen to create brightness along with a sense of openness and space. Place them near underlit cupboards for a truly illuminating bit of imaginative kitchen design.

As effective in kitchen wall tiles as on floors, herringbone or chevron patterns bring a dynamism and energy to your kitchen.

The effect is created by laying rectangular tiles at diagonals to each other, with the pattern's name coming from its resemblance to a fish skeleton. These patterns are on trend in 2020, particularly pale kitchen wall tiles in a herringbone pattern combined with dark grout, or grey stone chevron patterns to create durable-yet-attractive kitchen floors.

Wooden tiles are also popular for herringbone floors, but if you're curious about any of the tiles in this article our advice is to get out and explore the world of tiles – there really are infinite possibilities for creativity in the kitchen.