Bathroom Tiles Design: Wall and Floor Tiles, Sizes, Anti-Skid and Price

Good bathroom tiles design uses three tiles, not one: a large glazed tile on the walls, a matt or anti-skid tile on the dry floor, and a small anti-skid tile on the shower floor, where it has to follow the slope to the drain. Tile the shower walls to the ceiling and the rest to about 7 ft, use epoxy grout in the wet zone, and expect to pay ₹34 to ₹356 per sq ft for the tile on Orientbell's April 2026 price tables, with laying on top.

About the numbers below: tile prices are Orientbell's published tables ("Prices updated on 28th April 2026") and product MRPs, which Orientbell lists as inclusive of all taxes, read on 22 Oct 2026. Kajaria, H&R Johnson and NITCO showed no prices on the bathroom tile pages we loaded. Laying rates come from the CPWD Delhi Schedule of Rates 2023: April 2023 Delhi prices, with 18 per cent GST on works included. Slopes, heights and colour advice marked "our guidance" or "our view" are MOA's professional judgement, not a code.

This guide is about choosing tiles. For fashion, see our bathroom trends 2027 post; layouts and full budgets are in the small bathroom design and bathroom renovation cost guides in this series, coming soon.

Bathroom tiles design: three zones, three tiles

An Indian bathroom has a wet shower, a semi-wet WC area where the health faucet sprays, and a dry patch by the door:

Surface	Tile	Finish	Size (our guidance)
Walls	Glazed ceramic or glazed vitrified (GVT)	Gloss or satin; wipes clean	As large as the wall allows: 300 x 600 mm up to 600 x 1200 mm
Dry and WC floor	Vitrified or GVT	Matt or anti-skid	600 x 600 mm, or 300 x 300 mm in a very small room
Shower floor	Vitrified, GVT or ceramic	Anti-skid	300 x 300 mm or smaller, unless you use a linear drain

Orientbell's bathroom tiles page says the shower walls and floor "should always be tiled" and advises against glossy floor tiles, which "can become slippery, when wet".

Design render of a bathroom wall: a dark wood-grain stone-look slab lines the shower behind clear glass, large grey matt tiles run floor to ceiling around a wall-hung WC with a health faucet and a lit two-shelf niche above, and a wall-hung vanity with a vessel basin sits under a backlit mirror — Design render: one patterned slab marks the wet zone, plain large tiles carry the rest of the wall to the ceiling, and the niche is cut into the tile. Image: POOJAN THANEKAR on Unsplash, Unsplash License

Bathroom tiles design for wall: how high to tile

The only rule is a minimum. The Model Building Bye-Laws 2016 (clause 4.5.3) ask for every bathroom wall to be finished in "a smooth impervious material" to at least 1 m above the floor, and for the floor to slope towards the drain. Your city's bye-laws adapt this text, so check them.

Full height or a 7 ft dado?

Inside the shower: tile to the ceiling or false ceiling; steam reaches the top of the wall and paint there peels (our guidance).
Outside the shower: a dado of about 7 ft (2,100 mm) with damp-resistant paint above is the common choice (our guidance).
Full height everywhere suits a small bathroom with large tiles: one surface, no paint line. To a 2.7 m ceiling it uses about 30 per cent more wall tile than a 2,100 mm dado (our arithmetic).

Set the height in whole rows. With 300 x 600 mm tiles laid lengthways, seven rows make 2,100 mm and eight make 2,400 mm, so no thin cut strip sits at eye level; put any cut row behind the WC or under the vanity (our guidance).

Scaled elevation of the 2,134 mm side wall of a 5 x 7 ft bathroom: pink 300 x 600 mm wall tiles in the shower zone run to a 2,400 mm false ceiling with a tiled niche between 1,200 and 1,500 mm, grey tiles beside the WC stop at a 2,100 mm dado line with a trim and paint above, and a dotted line marks the 1,000 mm bye-law minimum — Tile the shower to the ceiling and the rest of the room to about 7 ft, with heights set to whole rows of tile; only the 1 m minimum is a rule. Diagram: MOA

Niches and borders

A niche in the shower wall replaces a rusting caddy. Orientbell notes that tiling niches and recessed shelves "helps prevent mould and water damage". Our guidance: set the sill and head on tile joints, slope the sill slightly outwards, and carry the waterproofing into the recess before tiling, as our waterproofing guide describes.

A border finishes a 7 ft dado neatly. CPWD prices a 75 mm glazed border tile in a dado at ₹216.20 per metre, laid (item 11.46A), about ₹66 per running foot; a slim metal edge trim does the same job without pattern (our guidance).

A walk-in shower lined with large dark grey stone-look tiles laid in a grid with thin matching joints, a rectangular niche set into the back wall holding three bottles, a chrome rain shower, a round concealed mixer and a hand shower, with a tiled half-height wall on the left — A niche framed by whole tiles, with grout matched to the tile so the joints almost disappear. Image: immo RENOVATION on Unsplash, Unsplash License

Bathroom tiles design for floor: anti-skid ratings

"Anti-skid" on a box is a marketing word unless the maker states a test. Two things to know:

The BIS change. Under Amendment No. 2 to IS 15622:2017, the floor-tile friction test is now titled "slip resistance/coefficient of friction" and must follow IS 18433 (Part 1) or IS 18433 (Part 2). BIS's 2 April 2026 guidelines set 28 June 2026 as the last date for licensees to comply, and add a test for lead and cadmium given off by glazed tiles. The circular does not give a pass value we could quote.
What makers say. Orientbell's anti-skid page says its anti-skid tiles are tested for an R-value (ramp test) "between 9 and 13", and its bathroom floor page says "an R10 or higher slip-resistance rating is generally suitable for residential bathroom floors", with higher ratings where there is more water.

At the dealer, ask for the slip-resistance value, the test behind it and the water absorption group; the two Orientbell product pages we opened listed none of the slip data. With elderly parents or small children at home, choose a grippier tile for the shower than for the dry floor (our guidance).

Shower floor tiles: small tiles that follow the slope

A shower floor is not flat. With a single trap in the middle, it is four sloping planes that meet at the drain. The tiles have to fold along those lines, which tilers call envelope cuts. Small tiles take the folds; a large rigid slab cannot bend, so it is cut on the diagonals or it rocks and cracks (our guidance). Orientbell's anti-skid page puts it simply: smaller tiles "such as 1ft x 1ft help create an easy slope for water to drain in bathrooms".

We found no Indian code that fixes the gradient. As common practice (our guidance), allow about 1 in 100 across the dry floor and 1 in 50 to 1 in 60 in the shower, with a second trap for the health faucet and the door side highest.

Scaled plan of a 5 x 7 ft bathroom: a shower at the far end behind a glass line, floored in 300 x 300 mm tiles that fall from all four sides to a centre floor trap along red envelope-cut lines, and a dry area with a WC and basin floored in 600 x 600 mm tiles that falls from the door to a second trap where four tiles meet — Small tiles in the shower fold into the four slopes to the trap; the dry floor falls gently the other way, from the door to its own trap. Diagram: MOA

If you want large tiles on the shower floor too, use a linear drain along one wall. The floor then falls one way, in a single plane, and a 600 x 600 mm or larger tile can lie flat to it (our guidance). Ask the plumber for the drain's outlet depth before the sunken floor is filled.

A walk-in shower seen through its glass door: large grey terrazzo-look tiles cover the floor and back wall, white herringbone tiles line the left wall, two brushed-bronze rain showers and a hand shower are fixed to the left, and a slim linear drain runs along the foot of the left wall — With a linear drain along one wall, the shower floor falls one way only, so large tiles can be laid flat to it without envelope cuts. Image: iris lavoie on Unsplash, Unsplash License

Bathroom tiles for small bathrooms

In a 5 x 7 ft or 4 x 6 ft bathroom, put large tiles on the walls and small ones underfoot:

Walls: go large. Orientbell's bathroom wall page says larger tiles "can make a tight space feel roomier" and, with fewer grout lines, are easier to keep clean.
Floor: small or medium. 300 x 300 mm or 600 x 600 mm slopes to a trap better than slabs (our guidance).
Quiet joints. IS 15622:2006 has makers size modular tiles for a nominal joint of 1.5 to 5 mm on porous wall tiles and 2 to 5 mm on denser groups. Grout close to the tile colour so the joints do not draw a grid.
One patterned surface. A patterned floor or one shower wall, with the rest plain, reads calmer (our view).
Light colours such as white, pastel blue, cream, grey or yellow make a small bathroom look larger, Orientbell's bathroom tiles page notes.

Design render of a compact bathroom: grey and white patterned cement-look tiles cover the floor and the shower wall behind a sliding glass door, the other walls are plain white with a lit niche, a white drawer vanity, a dark wall-hung WC and a black health faucet — Design render: the pattern is kept to the floor and the shower wall, and every other surface stays plain, which keeps a small room calm. Image: Bilal Mansuri on Unsplash, Unsplash License

Before ordering 600 x 1200 mm tiles, check they fit in the lift and that the wall is flat; a large tile shows every hollow (our guidance).

Design render of a minimal bathroom wall: four very large pale pink-grey tiles meet at joints centred on a wall-hung WC and its black flush plate, a fluted panel with a black handle sits to the right, a black health faucet to the left, and a light wood-look plank tile floor — Design render: on walls, very large tiles leave few joints, and here the joints are set out on the centre line of the WC. Image: Bilal Mansuri on Unsplash, Unsplash License

Grout and epoxy in wet areas

In a wet zone the joints are the weak point (our view), and grout makers draw a clear line:

Cement grout. Asian Paints' SmartCare cement-based grout, for joints up to 5 mm, is described as water repelling, but its sheet says not to use it "when high chemical, impact, stain resistance, is required", and to use the company's epoxy grout instead.
Epoxy grout. Pidilite's Roff Starlike fills 1 to 15 mm joints in 16 shades, is described as waterproof, stain-resistant and strongly acid-resistant, even for submerged areas, and needs 24 hours after tiling before grouting and 48 hours to cure.

Our guidance: epoxy grout in the shower and around the WC, cement grout on dry walls, and flexible silicone sealant where planes meet (wall to floor, wall to wall, tile to counter or glass channel), because those joints move.

Smaller tiles mean more joints, so epoxy costs more. CPWD prices epoxy grouting of 3 mm floor joints at ₹373.35 per sq m for 500 x 500 mm tiles, ₹309.05 for 600 x 600 mm and ₹244.75 for 800 x 800 mm (item 11.48): about ₹35, ₹29 and ₹23 per sq ft.

Colours that hide hard-water marks, and cleaning

Hard borewell and tanker water leaves a white film of scale as it dries. Orientbell's bathroom floor page says medium tones such as "grey, beige, taupe, and brown" hide everyday dirt and stains best, and that subtle patterns disguise marks between cleanings. In our view:

Near-black gloss tiles show every white spot on a shower wall.
Mid-tone, matt or speckled tiles, such as terrazzo-look or stone-look, hide scale best.
White gloss hides scale but shows yellowing grout; pair it with grey or beige epoxy grout.

For cleaning, Orientbell advises gentle detergents on anti-skid tiles and no abrasive tools or cleansers. Our guidance: squeegee the shower walls after use, and use a mild descaler rather than strong acid, which attacks cement grout over time.

Bathroom tiles design price: per sq ft, with laying separate

Of the four makers whose bathroom tile pages we opened, only Orientbell published prices. Its bathroom tile tables, "updated on 28th April 2026", list:

Tile (Orientbell)	Size	Price per sq ft
Bathroom wall tiles	200 x 300 mm	₹34 to ₹49
Bathroom wall tiles	300 x 450 mm	₹42 to ₹335
Bathroom wall tiles	300 x 600 mm	₹50 to ₹356
Bathroom wall tiles	600 x 1200 mm	₹66 to ₹150
Bathroom floor tiles	300 x 300 mm	₹34 to ₹59
Bathroom floor tiles	600 x 600 mm	₹64 to ₹71
Bathroom floor tiles	600 x 1200 mm	₹99 to ₹128
Anti-skid tiles	All sizes listed	₹50 to ₹100

Product pages can sit outside these bands. Orientbell's BFM EC Plain White, a 300 x 300 mm matte ceramic floor tile, lists an MRP of ₹61 per sq ft, and its DGVT Safegrip Rustic Grey LT, a 600 x 600 mm anti-skid GVT, ₹107, both "incl. of all taxes"; a 600 x 1200 mm tile on the floor page is listed at ₹423. Buy every box for the room from one batch, plus spares.

CPWD's schedule prices each item laid, including mortar, labour, overheads and GST, and lists the bare tile rate separately, so the gap is roughly what laying costs:

CPWD item (2023, Delhi)	Laid, per sq ft	Tile alone	Everything else
Ceramic wall tiles in dado, on mortar (8.31)	₹118	₹21	about ₹97
Ceramic floor tiles 300 x 300 mm, white, ivory or grey (11.37)	₹102	₹19	about ₹83
GVT matt or anti-skid, 600 x 600 mm (11.41A.3.1)	₹136	₹45	about ₹91
GVT matt or anti-skid, 600 x 1200 mm (11.41A.3.2)	₹167	₹66	about ₹101

The last column is our arithmetic from CPWD's per sq m rates and carries CPWD's overheads and GST on the tile, so it slightly overstates labour. Subtract a ₹70 shop tile from the ₹118 wall rate instead, as the renovation cost guide in this series does, and about ₹48 remains. CPWD prices fixing tiles on polymer-modified tile adhesive, which large tiles need, at ₹753.25 per sq m, about ₹70 per sq ft, in place of the mortar bed (item 11.43). City rates in 2026 will usually be higher than CPWD's 2023 Delhi rates. For the rest of the home, try MOA's free home cost calculator.

Latest bathroom tiles design ideas

Large wall slabs, small handmade-look squares, matt floors and warmer colours lead for 2027; see our tile trends 2027 post. For placement, see Vastu for bathrooms and toilets.

FAQ

Which tiles are best for a bathroom floor?

Matt or anti-skid vitrified or GVT tiles. Orientbell says R10 or higher is generally suitable for home bathrooms; since Amendment No. 2 to IS 15622:2017, ask for the slip-resistance value tested to IS 18433 (Part 1 or Part 2).

What size tiles are best for a small bathroom?

300 x 600 mm to 600 x 1200 mm on the walls for fewer joints, and 300 x 300 mm or 600 x 600 mm on the floor so it can slope to the trap; in the shower, 300 x 300 mm or smaller unless you use a linear drain.

How high should bathroom wall tiles be?

The Model Building Bye-Laws ask for at least 1 m of impervious finish. Common practice is about 7 ft (2,100 mm) outside the shower and full height inside it, set to whole rows of tile.

What is the price of bathroom tiles per sq ft?

Orientbell's April 2026 tables run from ₹34 to ₹356 per sq ft for wall tiles and ₹34 to ₹128 for floor tiles, with anti-skid tiles at ₹50 to ₹100. On CPWD's 2023 Delhi rates, laying adds roughly ₹83 to ₹101 per sq ft.

Is epoxy grout necessary in a bathroom?

In the shower and around the WC, yes: grout makers recommend epoxy where stain and chemical resistance matter. Dry walls can take cement grout.

Choosing tiles for a new bathroom or a renovation? Find an interior designer on MOA and filter the directory by your city.

Sources

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (TCPO): Model Building Bye-Laws 2016, clause 4.5.3 (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Bureau of Indian Standards: Guidelines for implementation of Amendment No. 2 to IS 15622:2017, 2 Apr 2026 (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Bureau of Indian Standards: IS 15622:2006, Pressed Ceramic Tiles: Specification, Tables 1, 3, 5 and 7, via Public.Resource.Org (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
CPWD: Delhi Schedule of Rates 2023, Volume 1, preface, basic rates 2762, 2763, 7800 and 7801, items 8.31, 11.37, 11.41A.3, 11.43, 11.46A and 11.48 (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Orientbell Tiles: Bathroom tiles (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Orientbell Tiles: Bathroom wall tiles, prices updated 28 Apr 2026 (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Orientbell Tiles: Bathroom floor tiles, prices updated 28 Apr 2026 (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Orientbell Tiles: Anti-skid tiles, prices updated 28 Apr 2026 (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Orientbell Tiles: BFM EC Plain White and DGVT Safegrip Rustic Grey LT product pages (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Kajaria Ceramics: Bathroom tiles; H&R Johnson (India): Bathroom tiles; NITCO: Bathroom tiles (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Asian Paints: SmartCare Tile Grout, cement based, product information sheet (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Pidilite: Roff Starlike epoxy grout (accessed 22 Oct 2026)
Unsplash: Unsplash License (accessed 22 Oct 2026)