Tile Layout Planning: How to Set Out a Room Properly
Good tile layout planning means deciding where every full tile and every cut will fall before any adhesive is mixed. You measure the room, choose a starting line based on what the eye sees first, test the grid with loose tiles, and only then fix. Done well, the finished room looks calm and deliberate. Done badly, you get thin slivers at a doorway and joints that drift out of line.
This guide walks you through the process we would follow on a London bathroom, kitchen or hallway, with the UK tolerances and wastage figures behind it.
TL;DR
Start from the lines people actually see, such as the doorway, the main sightline and the bath or shower, not from a corner of the room.
Dry-lay a run of tiles to find your true working measurement, including grout joints, then adjust the grid so you avoid small or unequal cuts.
Straight lay is the easiest pattern; brick bond, diagonal and herringbone look richer but need more skill and more spare tiles.
Order 10% extra as a baseline, and more for herringbone, diagonal or large-format tiles.
Check the substrate and flatness before you plan. A beautiful layout cannot hide a poor background.
Table of Contents
Why the layout comes before the tiles
Most tiling disappointments are layout problems, not tile problems. The tiles are fine, but the grid was started in the wrong place, so one wall ends in a 15mm strip or the pattern looks off-centre when you stand at the door.
Planning solves three things at once. It controls where cuts fall, it tells you how many tiles to buy, and it gives you a drawing the tiler can follow. For a full bathroom or a kitchen floor it takes an hour or two, and it is the cheapest part of the job to get right.
If you are still choosing the tile itself, our guide on how to select bathroom tiles covers size, material and finish. Tile size matters for layout because it changes how many grout lines you have and the overall look of the surface, as Artistic Tile notes.
Measure the room and check the background first
Measure each wall at more than one height, and the floor at both ends. London homes, especially Victorian and Edwardian terraces in Fulham, Chiswick and Kensington, often have walls that are not square and floors that fall slightly. Write the measurements on a sketch rather than trusting a single figure.
Mark the fixed features on that sketch:
doorways and thresholds
windows and reveals
the bath, shower tray, basin and WC positions
floor drains or wet room gullies
kitchen units, appliances and the island, if there is one
Then look at the surface you are tiling onto. The Tile Association’s Guidelines for Tile Fixing put the choice of tiles, fixing and grouting materials with the specifier, taking into account background stability, service conditions such as wet or dry areas, and safety. They also set a flatness tolerance for finished wall and floor tiling of plus or minus 3mm under a 2m straightedge. If your floor or wall is out by more than that, levelling or boarding comes before layout, not after.
In a bathroom, the position of pipework and drains also shapes where tile edges land. Our piece on bathroom plumbing layout explains the systems worth settling early, and examples of bathroom layouts helps you fix the room plan before the tile plan.
Choose your starting point
The instinct is to begin in a corner and work outwards. Resist it. Corners are rarely square and rarely the first thing you look at.
Follow the lines people see
Australian supplier VM Tiles advises that a layout should follow the lines people actually see, such as doorways, main sightlines and drains, rather than the room’s corners. In a bathroom, that usually means the line you see as you step through the door, the face of the bath or the centre of the shower.
The same thinking applies to fittings on the wall. Where a heated towel rail or mirror sits against tiling, aligning joints with it looks tidy, and a towel rail placement guide is useful for settling those heights and positions before you finalise the grid.
Start with a full tile at the door
Fine Homebuilding’s floor tile layout guide suggests beginning with a full tile at the doorway leading into the room. That keeps small cut tiles out of the highest-traffic, most visible spot and pushes them to the edges that sit behind furniture or fittings.
Centre or offset?
There are two sensible approaches:
Centre the grid on a feature. Find the centre of the wall or room, snap a line, and see how the cuts fall at each side. If you end with slivers, shift the grid by half a tile so the cuts become equal and larger.
Anchor to one visible edge. If one wall is the main focus, such as the wall behind a bath or the side you see from the door, keep full tiles there and let cuts fall on the hidden side.
Whichever you choose, the target is the same. The TTA guidelines say tiling should be set out to avoid small or unequal cut courses.
Get your lines square
Once you have a reference line, you need a second one at 90 degrees. The 3-4-5 method is the classic answer: mark 3 units along one line and 4 along the other, and the diagonal between the marks should measure 5, as explained by Tile Monsters. Use any unit you like, such as 30, 40 and 50cm, or 60, 80 and 100cm for a larger room. A laser level makes this quicker, but the maths gives you a check when the laser and the room disagree.
Choose a pattern that suits the room
The pattern changes the look, the difficulty and the wastage. Homebuilding sets out the main options, and the differences are worth knowing before you fall for a photo.
Pattern | How it works | Best for | Difficulty |
Straight (grid) lay | Joints line up in a continuous grid | Most rooms, large-format tiles, modern looks | Easiest, with predictable edge cuts |
Brick bond (running bond) | Rows offset, commonly by 50% | Metro tiles, kitchen splashbacks, shower walls | Straightforward, a traditional choice |
Diagonal (diamond) | A straight lay turned to 45 degrees | Small spaces, where the diagonals can make the room look larger | More cuts, more care |
Herringbone | Rows zig-zag diagonally, traditionally with angled cuts, or in a straight 90-degree version | Feature floors, hallways, shower walls | Difficult, but makes a design feature |
Basketweave and chevron | Pairs of tiles alternate direction, or tiles cut at an angle meet in a point | Statement areas | Skilled work |
Straight lay
A straight lay forms a clean grid, and Homebuilding describes it as normally the easiest to lay. It also works with the biggest tiles, where fewer joints give a calmer surface. The catch is that any drift in the grid shows immediately, so your reference lines must be accurate.
Brick bond
Offsetting rows by half a tile hides small variations and adds movement. It suits rectangular tiles on walls. Plan the offset so that cut ends at the corners are equal on both sides, rather than a full tile on one end and a sliver on the other.
Diagonal and herringbone
Both patterns create cuts all around the perimeter, so layout planning matters even more. For herringbone, decide whether you are using the traditional angled cut version or the straight 90-degree version, because that changes the tile you buy. Set the centre line first and build outwards, as the pattern offers no forgiveness for a starting error. If you would like a herringbone floor in a kitchen or hallway, talk to your tiler about the setting-out method before ordering.
Grout joints and tile size
Grout joints are part of the layout. A grid planned on tile size alone will land in the wrong place once the joints are added.
The TTA guidelines require joints of a minimum of 2mm, wide enough to accommodate any variation in tile size. Under BS 5385 Part 1: 2018, joint widths vary with the facial area of the tile, with a 2mm minimum for smaller tiles up to 600mm in length. The same guidelines allow a maximum variation across joints of 1mm for joints under 6mm wide, and 2mm for joints of 6mm or more. In practice, that means you pick a joint width in advance, use spacers, and let the plan include it.
Wider joints emphasise the shape of each tile, while narrow ones make the surface look more continuous. Rectified porcelain with tight joints suits a contemporary London flat, whereas handmade-look tiles often look better with a slightly wider joint. If you are comparing products, our guide to the best tiling products for bathrooms is a sensible next read.
Plan cuts around obstacles
Cuts are where a layout is judged. The aim is to place them where they are least visible and to make them as large and as equal as possible.
The Tile Association’s Tile It Right advice gives some practical rules:
Plan cuts so that the same size cut is made either side of a window.
Use a spirit level to find the lowest point of the base before you start.
For complicated shapes, such as around a WC pipe or an arched recess, make a template and transfer the shape to the tile.
The TTA guidelines add that tiles should be cut neatly so the specified joint width is kept at the edges. A few habits help on site:
Check each wall for the tile you will meet at an external corner, and use trims where cuts would otherwise show.
Keep a full tile at eye level next to a window or niche, and place the cuts at the top or bottom of the wall.
Where the floor meets a door, plan the threshold in the same step as the tile layout, not afterwards.
On kitchen floors, plan from the visible edge of the units, since the tile under the units never shows.
For kitchens, the layout of units and the tile grid have to be decided together. Our guide to planning your kitchen layout and the kitchen renovation workflow explain where tiling sits in the sequence.
Dry-lay before you fix
Dry-laying is the step most DIY plans skip and every good tiler does. Spread loose tiles on the floor, or hold them against the wall, without adhesive.
Plumbworld’s installation guide advises laying tiles out before fixing to make sure the design works and gives an acceptable finish, taking in doorways, windows, fixtures and fittings.
Fine Homebuilding’s David Hart suggests dry-laying a short run of tiles to establish a working unit of measure, which reflects the combined width of tile and grout joint. Multiply that unit across the room and you will see exactly where the last tile lands.
VM Tiles also warns that a layout that looks balanced on paper may fail at real obstacles such as doorways or drains, so a dry run or set-out drawing is essential. If the dry run shows a sliver, move the starting line by half a tile and try again. It takes minutes, while correcting set tiles takes a day.
A simple dry-lay routine
Snap your two reference lines at right angles.
Lay a row of tiles along each line with spacers in place.
Note where the last full tile ends and how big the cut will be.
Shift the grid until cuts are equal on opposite sides and no cut is smaller than about half a tile.
Mark the final lines, photograph the layout and draw a quick sketch for the tiler.
How many tiles to order
Cuts and breakages mean you always need more tile than the floor area suggests. The Tile Association’s Tile It Right advises allowing 10% extra for breakages and cutting, and notes that larger tiles may need additional wastage.
Pattern pushes the figure up. Topps Tiles recommends 10% extra for 50:50 small-format brick bond tiles under 30×60cm, 15% for herringbone and 20% for diamond layouts.
Layout | Suggested extra |
Straight lay, standard tiles | 10% |
Small-format brick bond | 10% |
Herringbone | 15% |
Diagonal (diamond) | 20% |
Buy all tiles from the same batch at once, and keep a box spare for future repairs. Tiles from different batches can vary slightly in shade or size.
Our perspective: plan it like a joiner plans a cut
We have been renovating London homes since 2006, and the tiling jobs that look best are rarely the ones with the most expensive tile. They are the ones where somebody drew the room first. When a bathroom is tiled by our own team, the layout is agreed before the first tile is ordered, so the person who plans the cuts is also the person who will fix them.
That matters in West and Central London homes, where walls are rarely true. We would rather spend an extra hour on site with a level and a set of spacers than hide a problem with a thick bed of adhesive. Our directors oversee each project, and the tile plan is part of that oversight, not an afterthought.
My advice is simple. Choose the line you want the eye to find, make sure a full tile sits there, and let the hidden edges take the cuts. Then dry-lay everything. If it looks right on the floor, it will look right on the wall.
— Mateja
When to call in a professional
Straight-lay tiling of a small splashback is a reasonable job for a careful owner. Larger rooms, herringbone floors, wet rooms and anything involving levelling, waterproofing or changes to pipework deserve a specialist. The substrate, the falls to a drain and the flatness tolerances all affect the layout, and mistakes can be costly to put right.
If you are planning a full bathroom or kitchen project in West or Central London, our team can handle the set-out, tiling and surrounding trades in-house. See our bathroom refurbishment and kitchen refurbishment services, or ask for a site visit through our main site so we can talk through your tile plan on the spot.
FAQ
What is the best tile layout for a small bathroom?
A straight lay with larger tiles keeps joints to a minimum and makes the room feel calmer. A diagonal layout can make a small space appear larger, but it creates more cuts and needs more spare tiles. Whichever you choose, dry-lay first so that cuts at the door and around the bath are not thin slivers.
Where should I start tiling a room?
Start from the lines people see most, such as the doorway, the main sightline or a drain, rather than a corner. A full tile at the doorway keeps awkward cuts out of the busiest spot. Snap a reference line there and a second at 90 degrees using the 3-4-5 method.
How much extra tile should I buy?
Allow at least 10% for breakages and cuts, as the Tile Association advises. Herringbone typically needs around 15% and diagonal layouts around 20%, according to Topps Tiles. Larger tiles may need more again, so ask your tiler to confirm against your plan.
How wide should grout joints be?
The TTA guidelines set a minimum of 2mm, and the joint should be wide enough to absorb variation in tile size. Choose the width before you plan, because it affects where the last tile lands. Your tile supplier and tiler can recommend the right width for your tile type.
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