How to Choose a White Marble Tile?

Porcelain Tiles with white marble look are timeless and very much in demand. However, many people find these tiles slightly too busy once they see it in person. Thus, what they fell in love in flooring magazines or on websites like Pinterest or Houzz does not have the same impact in person. But why is that?

What’s The Manufacturer’s Perspective When Designing a White Tile?

For manufacturers they take the consumer’s design preferences and changing interior styles into consideration when developing tile designs. Ultimately the manufacturers’ goal is to produce a beautiful white tile with a unique design that will become their own version of Carrara, Statuario or Calacatta marble. So they want their tile to be recognized within the flooring society and support their brand. For example, TAU’s Baranello tile is among the most successful white tile designs and It’s a name that most of the trade professionals know.

So, What Do They Do?

As some may know marble veining has a distinctive character that creates beautiful, random patterns when put together. Like the brushstrokes of a painter on a canvas where we can’t see the whole design until it’s done. Because of the unique look of marble tile and veining it creates a challenge for manufacturers to develop something that looks authentic. In order to do this the design must both be visually appealing as a whole and as individual tiles. So, like the pieces of a puzzle, one wrong piece can compromise the aesthetic of the whole design.

Therefore, any reputable factory won’t produce a white marble porcelain tile that won’t look like marble. So in order to offer the look that many customers have in their mind, they instead reduce the contrast on the graphics by softening the color of the veins on the tile. 

But What About Tiles With Little Veins?

Now coming from marble wholesale, knowing what the demand was from tiles, but not knowing what exactly end-customers’ demand was, we had our own experience with “White Tile with Little Veins” when we ordered our very first white porcelain tile from Spain when transitioning from wholesale to retail.

So, when placing that order, we were under the impression that the product was going to be a great seller. Because we listened to our customers, and we brought what everybody asked for. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. It took more than three years for us to sell that tile that we thought it would be sold out in a matter of days. Those little grey veins on a white background, created a busy and honestly a weird look that had nothing to do with white marble.

Therefore if you want a white floor tile that’s going to look like marble but won’t have too much going on, we suggest you consider a white tile with low contrast and soft grey veining. 

So, What’s A Face and Why Is It Important?

Face is what we call the design on the tile, and it’s slightly different than the variation. Unlike old tiles where every single tile repeated the same design, today tiles come with multiple faces to maximize the resemblance to real marble of which every piece is a unique piece.

For that reason, if you want to create a white marble look with slight veining, we advise tiles with soft veining and lower contrast than tiles with little veins to avoid a busy look. If you still have questions or want to learn more, click below to learn more.