Chequerboard Tiles

Pairing two tones or colours together, chequerboard is one of the oldest, most distinctive patterns in tile design, and one of the most adaptable. It suits a floor or a wall equally well, and sits equally at home in a hallway, a kitchen, a bathroom or beside a fireplace. At its boldest, that means a monochrome black-and-white marble floor with genuine Victorian-era pedigree; at its most restrained, two calmer stone tones placed next to one another give the same idea a softer, more layered finish.

Colour tends to live on the walls here rather than the floor: white teamed with a single strong shade, or two colours squared off against one another, both push the pattern toward something more playful than a plain run of tile.

However it's laid, orientation changes the character of the pattern: square to the walls for a traditional grid, or set on its point for a diamond that reads especially well carried partway up a wall or across a fireplace surround. As a format, our chequerboard range spans everything from a period hallway floor to a contemporary splashback, with the two-tone structure doing most of the work in either direction.