Choosing tiles that still look right in ten years

Porcelain is denser, less porous and better underfoot; ceramic is lighter and easier on walls. For a wet room floor, porcelain with a decent slip rating is worth the extra.

Grout colour ages the room faster than the tile does. Mid-tone grout in a bathroom floor hides life far better than brilliant white.

Setting-out is where good tiling is won or lost: full tiles where the eye lands, cuts pushed to the edges, niches and pattern centred on the fittings rather than the wall.

Feature walls, fish-scale, herringbone, metro, work best against a calm large-format field tile, so the pattern reads as a deliberate choice rather than noise.