What is the best size tile for a small entryway?

Question

We currently have 12x12 size tiles, they look fine, but it;s a small entryway and I'm wondering if a smaller size tile will look better. We may be putting our house on the market and plan on making small improvements during the next year. The entire tiled areis about 9 ft. long and 3.5 ft. wide.

I should mention, we aren't changing them for no reason, the middle ones are cracked and they are boring white tiles. Our house isn't huge and we just want to make it look as updated as possible without spending a lot.

Answer 1

Stick with the 12x12 tiles when you replace them. Someone above me mentioned that putting a design in the floor when you replace it will add to the entryway. That is an outstanding idea, as long as that sort of thing fits into your decor.

If you feel that a pattern in the floor will be a bit too much in your small entryway, there are also other options. A simple decorating trick for small spaced is to put tiles down on a diagonal. This fools the eye into making the room appear larger than it is. Humans use line, color, and form to guage space, so by extending the visual lines in the center of the room, we believe the space to be larger than it actually is. Unfortunately, the room is 3.5' wide, so the illusion will be destroyed as soon as people realize that they can stand in the middle of the entryway and touch 2 walls the entire length of the room.

However, for practical purposes, the description of your entryway is actually a hallway. Hallways are a but trickier, but the same ruled still apply. No amount of visual trickery will disguise the fact that it is less than 4' wide, so the alternative is to make it appear to be longer than it really is. Have you considered replacing the tile with a wooden floor? Doing so will extend the visual line down the length of the hallway to make the entry appear to have more length and depth, if not more width.

No matter how you decide to go with the floor, I would recommend trying to glitz up the entry with some other features when you go to sell your home. Otherwise, prospective buyers will simlpy see it as a hallway with a nice floor.

Good luck,
-SD-

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What is the best size tile for a small entryway?
We currently have 12x12 size tiles, they look fine, but it;s a small entryway and I'm wondering if a smaller size tile will look better. We may be putting our house on the market and plan on making small improvements during the next year. The entire tiled areis about 9 ft. long and 3.5 ft. wide.

Answer 3

Any size tile will work. You have a long hallway, so there really is no effective "middle". What I like to do to add visual interest is to get away from a simple grid pattern and offest the tiles in some way, either diagonally or in a herringbone or brick pattern, and add a 6" or so border around the edge of the room. This alone makes a world of difference, but takes longer to plan and lay out, and to cut tiles on a diagonal you really need a wet saw. The results, though, are well worth the extra effort.

If you want to see some examples, email me and I can send you some pics of some floors I have done in this way.

Answer 4

Entry Way Tile

Answer 5

Stay with the 12x12. Smaller doesn't look any better IMHO and taking up tile just to replace it is either expensive or a pain in the butt and definitly not worth the effort..

Answer 6

I would suggest a slate tile. A neural entry is a great way to start off when you put your house on the market. The buyer can add their own personal touch.

Answer 7

If it were me, I'd replace them with 4x4 tiles, with a dramatic pattern in the middle. Dazzle them as soon as they open the door.