Introduction
Wioleta Kelly, interior designer from Abbeyfeale Interiors, joined us at our Ashbourne showroom to share professional design insights for Irish homes. Having designed interiors for clients across Ireland, Wioleta offers practical advice on selecting bathroom tiles, pairing textures, and optimizing layouts for spaces of any size.
Whether you are planning a compact ensuite renovation or upgrading a main family bathroom, these five expert design strategies demonstrate how to combine wall tiles, floor finishes, and fixtures for a functional, balanced space.
Our expert shares 5 bathroom ideas for elevating interior design!
We had the pleasure of interviewing superstar home stylist Wioleta Kelly about her top bathroom tiles ideas and design inspiration. Below are 5 top tips for transforming your bathroom on a budget, regardless of the size.
TM = Tile Merchant | WK = Wioleta Kelly
Where to Find the Best Bathroom Inspiration in Ireland
Finding practical bathroom ideas in Ireland requires seeing how materials respond to realistic room dimensions, natural light levels, and moisture exposure. While online mood boards offer initial visual ideas, evaluating tile textures, grout pairings, and vanity proportions in person provides a clearer picture of the final result.
For homeowners searching for reliable bathroom inspiration in Ireland, visiting dedicated tile showrooms remains the most effective step. At Tile Merchant, our showrooms, feature fully dressed bathroom bays showcasing realistic layout options, including compact ensuite bathroom ideas, wet room walk-ins, and space-saving cloakroom setups.
- Examine Real Surface Textures: Compare high-gloss glazes, anti-slip matte floor tiles, and ribbed feature tiles under accurate showroom lighting.
- Test Fixture Pairings: See how brushed bronze, matte black, and chrome brassware interact with natural stone and wood-effect porcelain tiles.
- Get Expert Layout Advice: Bring your floor plan measurements to discuss tile format selection, expansion joints, and waterproofing requirements with our team.
Tip #1) Bring back the bronze! - Top Bathroom Ideas for a Timeless Look
TM: Hi Wioleta!
WK: Hi!
TM: Welcome back to the showroom. I wanted to ask you today about some of your top bathroom design ideas and the trends which are shaping bathroom design in Ireland in 2024. First off, we think this year’s top trend is gonna be brushed bronze. And the detail you’ve put into this bay in particular is amazing. You’ve looked after every single detail in bronze.
WK: Yep, bronze is definitely the way to go. It looks so luxurious, and guess what? It would look even more luxurious in darker, smaller bathrooms—it’s like a home spa, which is exactly what you want. For example, look at this shower now. We have a gorgeous rainforest shower head and a gorgeous little shelf which is so convenient for family bathrooms. The shower tray here as well—it’s just super easy to clean and looks so luxurious.
Brushed bronze fixtures continue to grow in popularity across Irish bathroom renovations. Unlike high-shine polished chrome, bronze introduces a warm, muted metal tone that pairs exceptionally well with neutral porcelain tiles and dark accent walls.
In smaller or dark bathrooms, brushed bronze reflects warm ambient light without creating harsh glare, giving the room a subtle spa-like quality. Integrating functional elements in matching bronze, such as a low-profile shower shelf and exposed thermostatic valves, keeps shower enclosures organized while maintaining visual consistency throughout the space.
Tip #2) Elevate bathroom fixtures for the illusion of space
TM: We’ve also began to see a big trend in Irish interior bathroom design with people lifting the vanities up off the floor to create the illusion of space. Do you agree that this is a good tip?
WK: Oh, 100%. Especially if you add some LED lights underneath, it will not only elevate your space but also make it bigger. And look, as a busy mummy I love floating bathrooms and vanity units, because they’re also easier to clean underneath, making cleaning the floor a whole lot quicker!
TM: Good tip! Thank you!
Floor space is often tight in small bathroom ideas for Irish homes, particularly in urban renovations and compact downstairs ensuites. Raising vanity units and sanitaryware off the floor creates an uninterrupted floor plane, which tricks the eye into perceiving a larger room layout.
Fitting warm LED strip lighting directly underneath a floating vanity unit casts light down onto the floor tile, accentuating the sense of open space. From a practical standpoint, floating furniture eliminates hard-to-reach corners around the base, making floor mopping significantly faster.
Tip #3) Natural tones create a warm, timeless colour palette
TM: Wioleta, the big question that we’re all asked — in your industry and in ours—is colour schemes. How do you pick the right colour scheme for your bathroom?
WK: Hmm, well I love natural colour schemes — so warmer tones — which we can actually see in this bathroom. So we have gorgeous bronze accessories. We have a natural colour palette in the tiles, with a gorgeous feature wall and then larger-format tiles on the floor and the remaining walls.
TM: Definitely, you’ve done such a great job here.
WK: Thank you! For me, it’s all about being classy, timeless, and this bathroom screams classy and timeless. It will last for years to come. This is truly the perfect colour scheme for any bathroom actually, because the colours are muted—they’re really soft and gentle, and will make your bathroom appear much bigger than it actually is.
Selecting a neutral color palette prevents your bathroom design from looking dated as interior trends evolve. Warm stone tones, soft greys, and muted cream tiles provide a grounding backdrop that adapts easily if you decide to change towels, mirrors, or decorative accessories later on.
To keep a neutral room visually interesting, combine different formats of the same tonal family. Using large-format floor tiles alongside a softly textured feature wall adds visual depth while maintaining an open, calm atmosphere.
Tip #4) Combine tiles and colour in a half-and-half design
TM: Wioleta, when it comes to bathroom floor tiles ideas and other bathroom design ideas in Ireland’s interiors, what would you recommend to take a bathroom or shower room from dull to dashing?
WK: That’s a great question! With this bathroom, for example, I designed using natural elements as well as texture and wood-effect tiles to really bring this small space to life! It’s very important to remember that if you want to create a really luxurious space — something that’s going to be timeles s— first of all you should use natural elements, like this gorgeous marble-effect tile, before then spicing it up with a tiny bit of colour.
TM: Right!
WK: Here we went for half-and-half, so we have the marble-effect tile on the bottom part of the wall, and the Moroccan-inspired metro green tile on the upper part of the wall. And this is an amazing way of making your space look more interesting — more polished-looking. Next, adding texture. Texture is used on everything in this space, from this gorgeous ribbed-glass shower panel and the textures on the shower tray, to the textures on this gorgeous metro wall tile in green, and then — last but not least — we have brass accessories, like these taps, which makes this space look ultra luxurious.
TM: Texture is literally everywhere you look!
WK: Right! This is something that will last for years to come, and is definitely going to wow you, your family, and your visitors. One last thing, though. Every time you install tiles floor to ceiling, you still want to balance it off with a tiny bit of wood — you don’t want things to look too stark or too cold. Here is a perfect example of this — using a wood-effect tile on the floor, with a stressed look, too, which makes the small bathroom warmer and a tiny bit more folky.
Dividing wall treatments horizontally, known as a half-and-half layout, is an effective strategy when planning bathroom design with tiles. Installing durable tiles on the lower section of the wall protects against splashes near basins and toilets, while painting the upper wall allows for simple color updates over time.
Adding varied textures elevates a half-and-half layout. Consider combining smooth marble-effect porcelain on lower walls with glossy, glazed metro tiles or ribbed glass shower screens above. To ensure full-height wall tiling does not feel overly cold or sterile, balance glazed ceramics with a warm wood-effect porcelain floor tile.
Tip #5) Mix two to three different tiles
TM: Thank you so much, Wioleta, for all of the tips you’ve given our readers so far!
WK: Thank you for having me!
TM: Before we let you go, I wanted to ask you one last question about small bathroom tiles design [read our tips on small bathroom design here]. When choosing the right bathroom tiles for your renovation or redecoration, what’s the best way to go?
WK: Right, yes! If you want to make your bathroom look a million dollars, I have just the tip for you. An amazing way of decorating bathrooms is not to just use one tile, but instead to mix two or three different tiles, just like we did here in this bathroom. So what we did here is we used two different tiles and wall panelling on top of that.
TM: Our Woodlux wooden wall panelling?
WK: Yes! The reason this bathroom looks so amazing is because we have this feature wall. The feature wall is made from wood-effect slat panelling, as you say, which gives a lot of texture and warmth to this space. The tiles that we used in here are balancing with that warmth of the wood panelling — we’ve used a marble-effect tile on the walls and concrete-effect tiles on the floor. The reason everything looks so amazing in here is because we’ve used a lot of different textures. So, we’ve balanced the warmth of the wood with the high-gloss tiles and then the matt of the marble. These three elements work so well together. So if you want your bathroom to look timeless and amazing for many years to come, then this is the way to do it.
TM: Gorgeous.
WK: Another reason this bathroom looks so amazing is because we’ve added a pop of colour in here. So in this case we used navy on the vanity unit, and then we have this lovely navy detailing around the mirror, too. A pop of colour is equally as important in the bathroom as it is in your sitting room or kitchen. If you want your focal wall to look really amazing — not only with texture but with another element of design — then make sure that there’s some kind of light on kit. In this case we went for this gorgeous large round LED mirror. Round is particularly useful here because it adds a feminine element to an otherwise very masculine bathroom. Everything in bathrooms is usually masculine because it’s square or rectangular, so this round mirror is perfect!
TM: Wow, I’d never thought about combining the feminine and masculine elements to create a balance in interior design, that’s a really fantastic tip. Thank you once again so much for coming down, Wioleta, I can’t wait to chat with you more!
WK: Thank you for having me!
Relying on a single tile collection across every surface can make a bathroom feel flat. Incorporating two or three distinct tile surfaces creates contrast and highlights specific architectural features like shower niches or vanity backdrop walls.
A balanced surface combination includes three key elements:
- A Tactile Feature Wall: Use vertical wood-effect slat panelling or fluted ceramic tiles behind the vanity to add vertical height and physical texture.
- A Smooth Wall Surface: Pair textured accent walls with classic marble-effect or muted stone wall tiles to keep the room feeling bright.
- A Low-Reflectance Floor Tile: Install matte concrete-effect porcelain on the floor to provide necessary anti-slip grip underfoot.
Adding a focused accent color on vanity woodwork, paired with round LED mirrors to soften sharp tile gridlines, completes the space without cluttering the layout.
Recapping Wioleta’s expert tips for bathroom tile ideas
With years of experience working at Abbeyfeale Interiors, Wioleta dispensed some invaluable insight into how to decorate your bathrooms, toilets, and shower rooms — not only how to give your bathroom a timeless aesthetic, but also to ensure that it feels vibrant, fluid, dynamic and practicable for many years to come.
For smaller bathrooms, Wioleta even offered some ideas to help make the space feel bigger.
To recap, her 5 top tips were:
- Brushed bronze detailing is the hottest trend right now, and create a truly luxurious colour palette—which is easy to match—for any bathroom.
- Elevated bathroom fixtures create the illusion of space, making your bathroom feel bigger than it actually is. Elevated fixtures also make bathrooms easier to clean!
- Natural tones create a warm, timeless colour palette which helps elevate the look and feel of even the smallest bathroom.
- By combining tiles and colour in a half-and-half vertical design, you can add some much needed texture and vibrancy to your bathroom’s overall aesthetic
- Mixing two to three different tiles with a wood-effect feature wall combine the innate masculine energy of a bathrooms blocky, straight lines with the more soothing feminine energy of softer shapes.
And that’s that! Five simple, straightforward tips from the interior design expert on how to redesign your bathroom. Stay tuned on the Tile Merchant Style & Advice blog for further interviews with Wioleta.
Why Tile Merchant?
Tile Merchant Ireland offers extremely competitive pricing on our entire range of tiles and likewise.
Tile Merchant stocks a huge range of wall and floor tiles and our prices are competitive for retail and trade. Our stock is widely available in our tile stores in Ireland, which are open 7 days a week.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to shop our tiles online, we can supply you with samples delivered for free.
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Article written by Calum
Cal Bannerman is a freelance writer, editor, podcaster and voice actor from the Scottish Borders. He runs the storytelling podcast "Stories from the Hearth" and lives in a wee Glasgow Flat with his partner and their cat".
