Our tile ideas will inspire you to make your kitchen look larger, brighter and more stylish.
Small kitchens can become highly practical when equipped with compact solutions. In kitchens that need plenty of equipment and utensils, limited space can be addressed with cupboards, drawers and shelving. Yet choosing the right surfaces can also make a small kitchen look larger through a visual illusion. Although tiles may seem like details within the overall design, they are among the most important ways to change our perception of space.
Considering tile size alone may not be enough to make a kitchen look larger and wider. The first step is choosing the right colours. To make a small kitchen appear bigger, choose light, airy shades such as white, cream, bone, nude, beige and pastels. Dark tiles can make your kitchen look darker and more dramatic.
The Beyaz series by Çanakkale Seramik meets this need perfectly, covering both floors and walls in white. Kalebodur’s Iceberg marble-effect porcelain series offers another solution with its light palette, deep veining and bookmatched decorative options. The Alegra collection from Çanakkale Seramik brings movement to interiors through its wave relief decoration. Available in light shades such as beige, grey and white, the collection includes both floor and wall tiles.
To work a little visual magic and make a small kitchen seem larger and wider, choose glossy rather than matt tiles for floors and walls. By reflecting and distributing light, these designs help the kitchen feel lighter and more relaxed.
Çanakkale Seramik’s Miniatile-Avenue series offers glossy metro tiles. With its woven relief texture, Natte is another way to bring shine to kitchens. For those who want a glossy marble texture, we recommend Çanakkale Seramik’s Fiore series.
Beyond traditional laying patterns, new techniques have become popular in surface coverings in recent years. Used on both floors and walls, they add individuality to the kitchen while changing the perception of space. If you choose long, slender tiles, for example, lay them in a chevron or herringbone pattern. Longer floor tiles in a zigzag arrangement can create the same spacious effect. If you choose rectangular wall tiles, laying them vertically rather than horizontally will make the kitchen appear taller.
We have emphasised the importance of a coherent colour and texture scheme in small, narrow kitchens. A related tip is to use the same tiles on the floors and walls, and even continue the same palette through the cupboards. Tile size matters here because some floor coverings, such as wood-effect tiles, may be too long for walls. To use your chosen floor tile on the wall as well, we recommend keeping its length to a maximum of 40 cm.
If you want geometric motifs on your wall tiles, make sure the pattern is not too large. It is similar to the mistake of a larger person wearing clothing with oversized floral prints. Smaller patterns, on the other hand, create an overall look that does not make the space feel cramped and can even make it appear larger.
If your colour scheme is light, you can create geometric interest through tone-on-tone transitions. If you choose this approach, we recommend applying the tiles to an area without cupboards. A few shelves—not too many—can be hung on the surface to break up the wall’s monotony.
For example, the Pera collection, designed for those who want to enjoy the geometric dance of traditional decorative tiles in their kitchen, is one of Çanakkale Seramik’s most popular collections. Those who prefer to add movement through shape alone can create this atmosphere with the same brand’s Grafen series, in which hexagonal wall tiles are complemented by square tiles.
We tend to think in purely practical terms when addressing space problems in small kitchens. Yet aesthetic ideas drawn from trends can also make a kitchen look larger and wider. In 2021 kitchens, for example, porcelain tiles reflecting the textures of different materials are coming to the fore, with marble-effect tiles leading the way. Bringing a luxurious touch to any interior, marble-effect tiles create shine, natural appeal and a sense of scale. We are also increasingly seeing kitchen walls covered in mirrors. Splashbacks made from square mirrors, particularly antiqued designs, deepen perspective and make the space appear larger.
Visual creativity and bold surface treatments can sometimes change a room’s apparent proportions. If the space feels monotonous and you want to add interest, choose a focal point—preferably behind the worktop—and use tiles in a completely different design but in darker shades of the room’s existing colours. This creates a burst of colour and makes the remaining lighter areas stand out more.
Using small tiles such as mosaics adds numerous grout lines, which can make a space feel boxed in. If you choose small tiles or mosaics, ensure that the grout matches the tile colour so the lines visually disappear.
