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When it comes to selecting bathroom tile, showers usually get to have all the fun. We’ve seen stripes that stretch to the ceiling, checkerboard in every shade and color combo, and groovy shapes that make you do a double take. But 2025 is the year that the bathroom floor gets to see the action.
We often see plaid on soft goods, like tablecloths and throw blankets. But designers are committing to the pattern in a more permanent way these days. Say so long to traditional penny tile and snoozy stone slabs: here are some of our favorite examples of plaid tiled bathroom floors.
Jazz Up an All White Bathroom
The biggest draw of going with a plaid tiled floor? Everything else in your space—the toilet, the vanity, the shower—can be builder-grade-white and your space will still pack a punch. Take it from this tiny kids’ bathroom designed by Design by Lane and Bass Interior Design, which combines Zia Tile’s 4×4 zellige tiles in Pure White, Glazed Earth, and Skylight.
Combine Squares and Rectangles
To achieve the layered look of plaid, designer Whitney Romanoff of Meet West Studio used three custom Zia floor tiles in this Arkansas bathroom, including burnt orange rectangles and pink squares. Because the two hues fall on the same side of the color spectrum, they help create the illusion of overlapping shades, and the use of small squares at the meeting points gives it the kind of definition you typically see in a Buffalo plaid.
Take It Up the Wall
Prospect Refuge Studio fittingly chose a gingham-inspired pattern for this Wisconsin cabin bathroom. In this case, designer Victoria Sass decided to take the personality-filled custom tiles from Clay Squared up the vanity wall, adding interest to the simple wood millwork.
Shrink the Scale
For their clients Freddy Thomas and Micah Pittard, Ome Dezin designers Jesse Rudolph and Joelle Kutner chose a scaled-down plaid using Zia Tile’s Gambit 5, a lattice design that comes in 8×8 mosaic sheets. Translation: it takes the guesswork out of putting a complex pattern together yourself.
Rely on Discounted Tiles
The more colors you use on your bathroom floor, the more likely you’d be able to pull them from a manufacturer’s scrap pile. At least, that’s what Maggie Clancy did in her Santa Ynez bathroom. While new Heath tile wasn’t in the cards, discarded ones from the Northern California–based brand were. She traveled to check out Heath’s “seconds room,” which is basically a shed filled with discounted tile (some of it is surplus from jobs; others have slight imperfections). She spent seven hours searching for the right number of tiles and colors she’d need to create a plaid design on her guest bathroom floor; her time and effort paid off in the end.