Mosaic Tiles

Mosaic tile is small-format at its smallest. The 48x48 mm square is the most common here, with 48x98 mm, 25x25 mm and 15x15 mm chips, and a few sheets of 97 to 98 mm squares. Sheets are mostly 300 to 306 mm, with one at 375 mm.

Materials are porcelain, glass and natural stone. Finishes are gloss, matt and tumbled. Colours cover white, grey, charcoal, blue, green, red, beige and a multi-colour mix. Where a listing states a use, check it for the specific sheet.

Small chips mean many joints, so grout colour does a lot of the work. Matching it to the tile makes the sheet read as one surface. Contrast shows each chip as its own unit.

• Sheet joints must vanish. Keep the gap between sheets equal to the gap between chips.
• Dry-lay sheets before fixing and check where each seam falls.
• Plan the edges so the last row is not a thin strip of chips.
• Use mosaic on one wall, a niche or a splashback band, and keep the room around it calm.

To estimate boxes, measure the wall in square metres, subtract openings, and add 10% for cuts. Add 15% if the edges are handmade-look. Divide by the box coverage on the listing, which ranges from about 1.0 m² to 2.1 m². A 3 m² splashback with 10% becomes 3.3 m². At 1.87 m² a box, that is two boxes.

For related ranges, see finger tiles and shaped tiles.