Practical tips
Choosing the perfect grout colour
Choosing tiles is a wonderfully exciting part of designing your room. It's where you can get really creative with colour and texture, selecting from an array of beautiful glazes and shapes. But how many of us consider grout colour at the design stage?
Though it perhaps doesn't sound like the most creative of decorating decisions, grout can be used to striking visual effect, and the colour you choose has a real impact on the impression a wall of tiles makes.
Perhaps you'll let opposites attract and select a grout that contrasts with your tile colour to accentuate the geometry of your tile layout. Alternatively, you could choose to closely match the colour of your grout with your tile to create a minimal look, where the grout lines all but disappear.
Below, for example, are photos of the same tile - Manton Hollow from our Savernake collection - using two different grout colours. On the left, the darker, medium grey grout provides a blended look across the tiles, whilst on the right the lighter, silver grey grout accentuates the tile shapes for interest and definition.
L-R: Savernake Manton Hollow with medium grey grout and on the right with silver grey grout.
At Marlborough we have a small but considered offering of different grout colours, shown below from left to right: white, jasmine, silver grey, limestone and medium grey.
Let's look at each of these grout options a little more closely, and consider some of the different ways you could use them...
White Grout
White grout is always a popular choice and creates a fresh look when used with any tile colour.
As you can see below on the left, used alongside darker tiles such as Manton Hollow from our Savernake collection, white grout accentuates the grid pattern of the tiles.
On the other hand, used with a paler coloured, off-white or white tile, such as our Cool Companions long brick in Nice & Easy, white grout creates a wonderfully crisp, clean feel where tiles and grout blend seamlessly.
Use white grout with any tile colour - with dark colours or patterns to accentuate the look, or with light colours to create a blended, harmonious effect.
L-R: Savernake squares in Manton Hollow and Cool Companions long bricks in Nice and Easy, both with white grout.
L-R: Emma flax blue handpainted tiles and Marlborough Matts skinny bricks in Diminished Blue, both with white grout.
Jasmine Grout
Our jasmine grout is a soft, pale yellow with pink undertones and a wonderful choice to bring through the warmth of a tile. Here, it adds a cosiness to Heather Bank bricks from our Seasons collection, and accentuates the golden tones of the glaze of our Halcyon squares in Ochre.
Jasmine grout works beautifully with green, yellow, orange, pink, terracotta and purple tiles, bringing out their depth. For floor tiles, pair with terracotta for a warm, natural look.
L-R: Heather Bank bricks from our Seasons collection, and Halcyon squares in Ochre, both with jasmine grout.
L-R: Seville small bricks from our Andalucia floor tile collection, and Seasons Autumn Fall wall tiles, both with jasmine grout.
Silver Grey Grout
Our silver grey grout is a soft pale grey, which beautifully complements tiles in blues and greys. Here it creates a wonderfully calming effect used with Morning Mist bricks from our Seasons collection, while it picks up the highlights in the reflective glaze of our Soho brick in SoSpruce.
Silver grey grout can also be used to complement darker blue tones, such as the flat, matt Coldharbour Green in our Marlborough Matts collection, and the sumptuous varied tones of Islay, part of our Isles collection.
Silver Grey pairs perfectly with all shades of blue and grey tile.
L-R: Morning Mist bricks from our Seasons collection, and Soho brick in SoSpruce, both with silver grey grout.
L-R: Coldharbour Green bricks from our Marlborough Matts collection, and the Islay skinny brick metro tiles from our Isles collection, both with silver grey grout.
Beige Grout
As you'd expect, our beige grout is a warm stone colour. Used here alongside Packhorse square tiles from our Ullswater collection and Soho SoLinen bricks, beige coloured grout adds earthiness and warmth, enhancing the lines of their crackle glazes, and creating a look that's very much at one with nature.
Beige grout is perfect when used with off-white and white tiles for a rustic, traditional look. It also pairs beautifully with brown, red, yellow, orange, taupe and beige tiles.
Beige is perfect for use on the floor too, a great companion to stone effect and wood effect tiles.
L-R: Packhorse square tiles from our Ullswater collection and Soho SoLinen bricks, both with beige coloured grout.
L-R: Seasons Evening Glow tiles and Ridgeway Wessex porcelain floor tiles, both finished with beige grout.
Medium Grey Grout
Medium grey grout is also a very classic choice, and whilst it is our darkest grout colour, it is a softer, subtle alternative to black.
Below, Medium Grey grout is used for four different effects. On the top left, the classic subway tile look is created using Simplicity large brick in Pure White in a half brick bond layout. Note how the eye is drawn to the geometric patterns created by the contrasting coloured grout lines.
On the top right, the same grout colour sits beautifully with the grey blue of Grace square tiles from our Halcyon collection, to create a more blended feel.
Below, it is used alongside our Aged Crackle wall tiles for a traditional, Victorian look.
Finally, Medium Grey grout can be used with dark, bold tiles to accentuate their pattern and colour.
Use medium grey grout alongside white and off-white tiles for a traditional look, or pair it with greys and light blues to blend tile and grout perfectly.
Alternatively, use it with dark tiles, especially blues and greens, to accentuate their form and colour.
L-R: Simplicity large bricks in Pure White, and Grace square tiles from our Halcyon collection, both with medium grey grout.
L-R: Aged Crackle rustic squares, and Slate Blue skinny metro tiles from our Marlborough Matts collection, both finished with medium grey grout.
As you can see, grout colour choice can make such a significant difference to the final appearance of tiles that we think of it as being a key decision, and not one to take lightly. The right shade for you will depend very much on the look and feel you wish to achieve in the room.
Each of our tiles show the ideal tile and grout colour pairing on the product page so you can choose the perfect grout colour with confidence.
Our design team has a great deal of experience in such matters, and we would be very pleased to help you make a decision. Simply get in touch.
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