Designer's Choice tiles: a store selection with texture, pattern and stone looks
Designer's Choice is a store selection of tiles picked for their look, texture and pattern, kept to the band named in the collection title. It spans handmade look subway tiles, stone and travertine looks, terrazzo, a ribbed feature tile, a penny round mosaic and an octagon and dot mosaic, in porcelain and ceramic, from 20mm mosaics to 600 x 1200mm planks.
Designer is a retail label and not a technical category, so this page works from what the listings print. The sections below explain the ranges, which are wall tiles and which are floor tiles, how slip and wear lines decide where a tile goes, and how to build a considered look with a few well-chosen tiles. For the wider store, see the tiles collection.
The price tier
This collection is a merchandising tier defined by price. The store groups tiles with the tag Budget:$50 - $79 sqm, and the collection title is Designer's Choice - Tiles under $80 per square metre. The listed prices pulled from the store on 2026-10-22 run from $59.00 to $229.00 across the variants in this collection.
The tag and title give the store's grouping, and the listed prices on the product pages do not all sit inside the label. That is a store setup question and it does not change the tile. The price on each product page is the figure to rely on when you compare, and the unit it refers to is the one shown on that page. The listing lines (slip, wear, area and application) are still what decide where a tile can go.
What makes a tile a designer tile
There is no standard. The shop pages that use the term mix patterned, handmade look, stone look and textured tiles. A Melbourne retailer says tile trends keep moving between textures, shapes and finishes. It says gloss tiles are popular on walls because the reflective surface brightens darker spaces. Matte and textured tiles are popular on floors because they give better grip underfoot. It lists marble, travertine, other natural stone and concrete among the looks with lasting appeal.
That gives a useful test. A considered tile has a clear job and a finish that matches it, and the listing lines show both. A gloss subway on a splashback, a matte or grip stone look on a floor and a ribbed feature tile on one wall are choices a designer would recognise. The sections below sort the range by those jobs.
Wall tiles with character
The wall tiles in this selection are the ones with the most surface. Luca is a 75 x 150mm hand made look subway in matte and gloss. Its listing describes a tile that is soft to touch with rounded edges, prints Application Walls, P2 and a rectified edge, and says it suits walls, splashbacks, niches and feature walls, indoors. The Melbourne retailer describes handmade look tiles as machine made tiles designed to emulate a handmade tile, with subtle variation in colour, texture, size and thickness.
Sunset is a 50 x 200mm satin ceramic wall tile in a range of colours, intended for walls only. Kew is a 300 x 600mm ribbed decor tile with a textured linear design, listed for walls, with a Slip Rating of Not Rated. Theo terrazzo in 200 x 200mm is a matte white wall tile with a P1 line, and the listing suggests pairing it with the Theo textured subway on the walls. For these shapes, see the subway tiles collection and the feature tiles collection.
Floor tiles with stone looks
The floor tiles are the stone, travertine and terrazzo looks. Cairnwell is a stone look porcelain in white and taupe, in 300 x 600mm and 600 x 600mm. Its matte tiles print P3, recommended for indoor wet areas including bathrooms, kitchens and laundries, and a Wear Rating of 3. Its external tiles print P5 with a grip finish, listed for floors and outdoor areas including uncovered areas and pool surrounds.
Ardenne is a travertine look that draws on cross cut and vein cut patterning, with 24 unique faces in the 600 x 600mm tile. Its listing prints a P4 slip rating, rated to AS 4586, a grip finish named Versa-Touch, Application Walls, Floors and Covered Outdoor Areas and a Wear Rating of 4. Casuarina, Tuscan, Josie, Tilly and Avorio are further stone and travertine looks, and Clio is a large grain terrazzo in 600 x 600mm with Tech Grip and P4. See the travertine look tiles collection, the terrazzo look tiles collection and the floor tiles collection.
Mosaics and pattern
St Kilda is the octagon and dot mosaic, 97 x 97mm octagons on 310 x 310mm sheets in white with a black dot and cream with a burgundy dot. Its listings print light-duty wear lines, and the description names bedrooms and bathrooms. Mooloolaba is a 20 x 20mm penny round mosaic in satin and gloss, white and black, with a cushioned edge and a Floor Category 1 wear line described as suited to an ensuite bathroom with no external entry. For these shapes, see the octagon dot tiles collection and the penny round tiles collection.
Valerie is a travertine look in cobblestone and finger mosaic sheets. The Ava is a satin white finger mosaic. For the shape, see the mosaic tiles collection. The mosaics are small, so the grout does a lot of the visual work.
Walls or floors: read three lines
Read the Application, Slip Rating and Wear Rating lines for any tile in this selection. The wall tiles print Walls or a wear line of 0. The floor tiles print Walls and Floors, with wear lines of 3 or 4, and the grip tiles print P4 or P5. Tiles with a P1 or Not Rated slip line, such as the Theo terrazzo and the Kew ribbed tile, are listed for walls.
AS 4586 classifies the slip resistance of new pedestrian surface materials, and its wet pendulum test uses ratings from P0 to P5. The rating applies to floors people walk on and does not matter for a feature wall. No single rating suits every bathroom or outdoor spot, so confirm with your builder or tiler what the exact surface needs. The wall tiles collection sorts wall formats.
Ceramic and porcelain
The selection holds both materials. A Western Australian retailer says porcelain is fired at higher temperatures than ceramic, with a water absorption below 0.5 percent, and calls it the safe default for floors and wet areas. It says ceramic is more porous and suits bathroom walls, kitchen splashbacks and internal laundry walls, but not wet area floors or outdoor use. A Queensland retailer says most 600 x 600mm tiles are porcelain because they are strong and suitable for floors, and ceramic versions are typically for walls.
That matches the split in this collection. The Sunset and Luca wall tiles are listed for walls only, and the larger porcelain stone and travertine looks carry floor ratings. If a ceramic or a wall rated tile appeals for a floor, choose a floor-rated alternative in the same colour and keep the wall tile for the wall.
Matte, grip and polished
The Western Australian retailer says polished or high gloss tiles drop their slip resistance significantly when wet, which is a real risk in bathrooms and outdoor spaces where bare feet and water meet. Matt and textured finishes retain grip and comply more readily with AS 4586 for wet areas, it says. It adds that they show salt residue and water spotting less than gloss surfaces, so they need less visible upkeep between cleans.
The tiles here carry matte, grip and polished finishes, and some Luca and Perisher tiles are polished. A polished tile suits a wall or a dry, controlled floor, and a matte or grip tile suits the floors that see water. Check the slip line for any floor.
Where to be careful
The Perth retailer is candid about patterned and feature tiles. It advises care across very large open plan floors, in rooms that already have a detailed benchtop or colourful cabinetry, and in resale focused renovations, where a feature may work better in a powder room or splashback than across a main bathroom floor. In a home you plan to keep, it says, you can be more personal.
The same advice covers textured and ribbed tiles. A ribbed wall behind a vanity gives a strong effect, and a ribbed wall across a whole bathroom can feel heavy. Sample a larger area before you commit, and view it in the light of the room.
Bathrooms and wet walls
For a shower wall, the tile is only the visible layer. The Perth retailer says the tile, adhesive and grout sit over the waterproofed surface and do not replace the waterproofing itself, and that the National Construction Code sets out the wet-area waterproofing requirements for bathrooms and showers. The product specification must confirm that the tile suits the intended wall and wet-area use, which is the job of the Application and Area lines.
Ask a licensed waterproofer and tiler to confirm the system for any shower, and share the listing lines with them. For rooms, see the bathroom tiles collection and the kitchen tiles collection.
Feature and field
A Perth retailer's guide to patterned tiles says to treat a strong tile as a feature choice and not a whole room default. It says the easiest way to make a patterned tile work is to pair it with plain tiles that share one colour or tone, and to give the pattern one clear job. A US retailer's Japandi guide says much the same about texture: when the palette is neutral, texture carries the interest, and a fluted or three dimensional tile adds a tactile element to a wall.
In this selection, a plain Casuarina or Cairnwell floor with a Luca or Kew feature wall follows that rule. So does a Clio terrazzo floor with plain white wall tiles. The field tile is quiet and the feature tile is the designer choice. For pattern ranges, see the patterned tiles collection.
Texture without pattern
Many of the tiles here rely on surface and not print. The Kew ribbed decor has a ribbed texture. The Luca has a soft matte surface with small texture. The Ardenne and Cairnwell tiles have a grip surface, and the Cairnwell external tile prints a textured grip surface. The Tuscan feature tile has heavy raised ribbing and is listed for walls only.
The Melbourne retailer's point about finish applies: gloss brightens a wall, and matte and textured surfaces suit floors. A ribbed tile on a wall behind a vanity gives the effect of a feature at a modest scale, and a plain tile on the rest of the wall lets it stand out. For the ribbed Tuscan tile, see the Tuscan travertine look tiles collection.
Layouts that suit the tiles
A tile layout guide describes the 1/3 rule: offset each row by about a third of the tile's length instead of half. It says the layout looks more natural than a half offset and can make the surface feel smoother, because long tiles tend to curve up slightly in the middle and a half offset puts low ends beside raised centres, creating lippage. The same guide says it works best with longer tiles. For the 300 x 600mm and 600 x 1200mm tiles here, ask your tiler whether a third offset suits the tile.
For the small subway tiles, a running bond, stack bond or herringbone each change the wall. See the brick bond tiles collection, the vertical stack tiles collection and the herringbone tiles collection for the layouts.
Joints and grout
Most of the rectified tiles recommend a gap of 1.5 to 3mm, and the cushioned edge tiles such as Mooloolaba and St Kilda recommend grout lines of 3mm or more. An Australian styling blog says a cushion edge tile most likely needs a joint of 3 to 5mm, and that smaller joints are generally better for rectified tiles. With textured and hand made look tiles, the grout colour is a design choice: close to the tile for a quiet surface, contrasting for an outline.
The listings print the gap for most ranges, and the others leave it to the tiler. Share the listing details with your tiler before ordering.
Setting out
A national retailer's DIY guide recommends dry laying before fixing, with centre lines marked, to check the layout and the quantity, plan the cuts and see how the tiles look together. It says that for tiles with V3 or V4 variation, dry laying is especially important to get an acceptable blend of shades, and that the golden rule is to avoid small pieces of tile or keep them hidden. Many tiles in this selection are V3, so open several boxes and mix them as you lay.
The same guide says movement joints are not usually needed through small residential tiling, apart from a perimeter allowance of at least 3mm filled with silicone and not grout, and that outdoor areas need movement joints no more than about 4.5 metres apart. That matters for the P5 external tiles. It refers to AS 3958.
Colour across the selection
The colours here are mostly white, grey and beige, with black, green, pink and blue in the smaller ranges. That palette is deliberate for a mixed selection: neutrals carry a feature. An Australian retailer's colour guide says warm neutrals such as ivory, sand, limestone, beige and travertine soften visual contrast and pair with timber vanities, brushed brass tapware and natural stone, and that white is clear and calm, particularly in smaller spaces.
The same guide says a tile covers a large, uninterrupted surface and so shapes the mood of a room more than paint does, and that its look depends on natural light, artificial light, finish and grout. It recommends ordering samples to see tiles in your own room at different times of day. Do that for the feature tile and for the plain tile beside it, because the pair is what the room will show.
Samples
The Perth retailer recommends laying samples both flat and upright, because tiles can look very different under ceiling light, natural light and shadow. With a ribbed or hand made look tile, a sample also shows how the light falls across the surface, which a photograph hides. Lay two or three together if you can, and place the plain tile you plan to pair with them beside the feature.
Underfloor heating and boxes
The Casuarina and Tuscan listings carry a note recommending the tiles be paired with underfloor heating for a warmer, drier, mould resistant bathroom. Check the heating maker's instructions and the adhesive data sheet with your installer. Box lines vary by range: the 600 x 600mm tiles are packed four to a box, the 600 x 1200mm tiles two to a box, and the small subway tiles in boxes of over a hundred, so read the coverage line before you count.
Ordering
The listings recommend ordering an extra 15 percent over the exact quantity, to cover breaks and offcuts, and say colour, size and texture can vary from batch to batch. Order the full quantity at once, and keep a few spare tiles for repairs. Installation must be carried out by a licensed tiler to the appropriate Australian standards, according to the listings.
Choosing a designer's choice tile
Start with the room and the job. For a wall that should carry a feature, choose the Luca, Kew ribbed or Sunset tile, or a mosaic. For a floor, choose a stone or travertine look with a grip finish and read the slip line. For a small zone with pattern, choose St Kilda or Mooloolaba.
Then keep the rest of the room quiet: one feature, plain tiles in a matching tone, one grout. Order a sample, and view it in the light of the room.
