Living Room Flooring Tile Ideas: Materials, Shapes & Designs

When it comes to tiling, the areas of the home that get the vast majority of attention tend to be the kitchen and bathroom – rooms prone to moisture and therefore in need of a practical, water-resistant material like tile.

An often overlooked area of the house as far as tiling goes is the all-important living room. This hub of the home is, more often than not, decorated with soft furnishings and carpeting – but the truth is that some well-placed tiles on floors can have a dramatic style impact in the living room, making for a luxurious and eye-catching space.

In this post, we’re sharing some living room flooring tile ideas for your home – breaking down the most popular living room tile materials, shapes, colours and designs to help you get your next interior design project underway.

Living room floor tile materials

The beauty of floor tiles is in the huge variety of material options available. In your search for tiled living room floor ideas, you have a wealth of stunning and durable materials and finishes to choose from – each with their own set of welcome practical properties and styling options galore.

Some of the most popular living room floor tile materials include:

• Porcelain: the hardwearing properties of porcelain make it the ultimate floor tile material, particularly in rooms of the house that see a lot of daily wear due to foot traffic – and this certainly includes the living room. With options in classic white, cream and grey, as well as luxurious marble-effect and rustic wood-effect designs, the options are virtually endless with porcelain living room floor tiles
• Quarry: quarry is an extremely heat-resistant tile material, making it a match made in heaven for fireplace hearths. If your living room is home to a working fireplace, look no further than quarry for your hearth’s design – with a range of timeless colour options available, including black, white and Victorian green
• Quartz: on the more luxurious end of the floor tile scale, you’ll find genuine quartz, which brings a touch of sparkle to living room floors along with a tough, durable finish. Quartz tiles are available in classic monochrome shades like white, black and grey, as well as deep and vibrant colour options such as red, purple and even lime green
• Terracotta: to channel the iconic Mediterranean look on your living room floors, choose terracotta. These rich, earthy, orange-coloured tiles are strong, mould-resistant and extremely easy to clean. These practical properties, along with terracotta’s warm and sumptuous colouring, make these tiles positively perfect for contemporary Mediterranean-influenced living room floors

Living room floor tile shapes

Your choice of tile shape has an instant impact on the aesthetic of the room and can make or break your design theme depending on the ambience or era you’re trying to evoke. Tiled living room floors are a bold style statement in themselves – and if you’re still undecided on which shape will help you to channel the right look for your space, we’ve got some ideas.

When it comes to tile shapes suitable for living room floors, you can take your pick of:

• Square: the ultimate in classic tile shapes, square tiles make for a simple, timeless living room aesthetic, whether in a plain design in an off-white shade or in a two-tone vintage patterned design. If you’d rather decorate your living room floors in a tried and tested style than reinvent the wheel, square tiles are your best bet
• Rectangular: rectangular living room floor tiles are ideal for imitating the appearance of other materials, such as rustic hardwood or cool slate. Rectangular-shaped tiles take the form of large, wide strips of tile, allowing their texture and finish to shine in the absence of distracting grout lines. Particularly if you’re looking to mimic the wood floor look without the wear and tear that comes with genuine hardwood flooring, rectangular living room tiles are ideal
• Hexagonal: for something a little more outside the box, hexagon living room floor tiles are just the ticket. Forget traditional, understated flooring – create an eye-catching honeycomb mosaic effect on your living room’s floors. Hexagons tessellate beautifully, producing a striking effect whether used on walls or floors
• Octagonal: vintage lovers, look no further than Victorian-inspired octagon floor tiles for your living room. These retro-style tiles generally come in single-colour designs, separated by black diamond filler tiles, or in intricately patterned geometric designs – so you can go as simple and stripped-back or vibrant and complex as you like with your octagonal living room floor tiles

Living room floor tile designs

Now for the fun part. Choosing your living room floor’s design is a high-stakes decision, as your flooring brings the whole room together and should either complement your wider design scheme or, if you’re feeling brave, serve as a statement feature in its own right.

Here are some of our favourite living room flooring tile design ideas, from the timeless classics to the weird and wonderful:

• Classic monochrome: a modern, minimalist living room design demands a naked, monochrome colour scheme. Shades like white, off-white, cream and pale grey all serve to enhance the lightness of the living room – creating the illusion of additional space, especially where large tiles are used. Black should be used strategically in living room design, perhaps on statement floors complemented by pale-coloured soft furnishings for a sense of contrast
• Earthy neutrals: to create warmth and ambience in your living room’s design, experiment with cosy neutral colours like beige, cream and wood-inspired shades such as oak. A softer alternative to a stark monochromatic colour scheme, an earthy, neutral palette is ideal for living rooms where evening mood lighting combined with your soft-coloured flooring will create a palpable feeling of warmth
• Marble, terrazzo and onyx effect: with tile, you can replicate the look of sought-after materials without the associated price tag. Marble-effect designs are right at home in luxury-look living rooms, with their dainty veining bringing softness to the space. Terrazzo-effect flooring brings the appearance of texture along with beautiful specks of shape and colour to floors, while opulent onyx-effect living room floor tiles create a heavenly, almost cloud-like effect on floors for a positively decadent aesthetic
• Vintage and geometric patterns: feature walls are a staple of contemporary interior design, but homeowners inspired to make a really bold style statement can go one step further with feature floors. From iconic Victorian-inspired vintage designs to dramatic, multicoloured geometric patterns, decorative living room floor tiles guarantee that your floors are the star of the show – leaving you ample opportunity to coordinate with your walls, furniture and soft furnishings

With a practical and hardwearing tile material in a simple yet striking shape adorned with a design and colour palette that makes the style statement you want to make, you have the ultimate foundation for a jaw-dropping living room makeover.

When you’re ready to find the right canvas for your own living room redesign, dive into our huge floor tile collection. We’ve curated this diverse range of tile flooring to bring you materials, shapes, colours and designs galore – leaving you with tiled living room floor ideas galore and ample inspiration for your home design update.