We kicked things off with our top three bathroom tile trends for 2025, and now it’s the kitchen’s time to shine. Curated by our Creative Director, Grazzie, here are the three tile updates set to define kitchen style in the year ahead. Whether you’re planning a full renovation or a simple refresh, these are the looks to know.
1. Rethink the Kitchen Island
“Everyone wants a kitchen island; it’s a tale as old as time. BUT for 2025, make that island the grooviest guy out there with textured tiles rather than classic kitchen cabinetry,” suggests Grazzie.
An island may be built for function, but that doesn’t mean it has to play by the rules. Instead of matching your cabinetry, opt for open shelving and tile it top to toe in ridged, grooved designs that bring texture and personality into play. For extra impact, choose a contrasting tile for the worksurface and turn your kitchen island into a tiled statement piece.
Tiles to Do it With
Kinfolk: your kitchen island doesn’t have to be stony-faced though. Take it down a woody route with the wood-effect Kinfolk tiles: each one reeded to give a tambour-like look to your island.
Bamboo: these matchstick tiles come on a mosaic sheet so you can apply multiples to your kitchen island’s surface at one time. You’ll be running your hand across its lightly glossed and undulating surface morning, noon and night.
Palm Springs: if you’ve gone for a marble or marble-effect kitchen island worktop, give the illusion of a whole altar of stone with this marble-style porcelain tile in the fluted finish.
2. The One With No Cabinets
Carrying on the theme of stepping away from classic kitchen cabinetry, this trend goes beyond tiles and considers kitchen design as a whole. “It’s not unusual to see a kitchen with an antique feature or two – a glazed antiqued dresser here, an old and rickety plate rack there – but what is lesser seen in the UK are kitchens that are totally unfitted and a mix of freestanding or custom-made pieces,” reflects Grazzie.
It’s those traditional kitchens, seen more on the continent in charming homes across Spain, Greece, Italy and the such, where this design language is spoken with ease and effortless enthusiasm. It could be a concrete run with spaces carved out and shelving inserted for storage, wooden pan racks suspended from the ceiling, floating wooden or stone shelves on the walls and an 18th-century mahogany dresser filled with crockery and glassware – and it’s a kitchen look that works a total treat in homes much less sun-drenched too. So do away with coloured Shaker kitchen cabinetry, design a kitchen that lives life on the rustic side, and then style it up with tiles that bring that tale-as-old-as-time look to life.
Tiles to Do it With
Nonna’s Kitchen: our just-launched tile collection from the Ca’ Pietra studio, this small batch design is handpainted in the UK and was created with that exact trend in mind: recreating quintessential kitchens of Italy’s pasta grannies.
Maroc: a Zellige-style tile like Maroc is a failsafe for this wobbly-bobbly kitchen look where everything’s supposed to feel a bit more relaxed, imperfect and as nature intended.
Rural Shell: straight out of our National Trust collection, this one’s got a Zellige thing going on too but with some of the painterly softness of Nonna’s Kitchen if you want to bring a gentle dose of charming colour and pattern into the mix.
3. Zoning, But Make It Arty
Some kitchens are big, others are pocket-sized, but zoning your living space is an interior design trick that comes into play no matter the spare metreage to hand. Sectioning up your kitchen is a functional move, helping you make the most of the room, but you can do that in a way that looks as cool as a cucumber.
“I love trends like this where it’s not all about the colour or the pattern of the moment, but is more architectural and digs into clever design touches that rethink a room and how tiles can come into play in a different way to classic walls and floors,” says Grazzie. Switching up floor tiles to denote a different zone with a playful tiled border is the first step but go bigger and broader with your design eye and create room dividers like half ways tiled to carve out a seating nook in your kitchen that doesn’t feel boxed in but does feel intimate.
Tiles to Do it With
Pottery Porcelain: from zingy Kale Green to neutral Oatmeal, these textured tiles are fab on a half-wall. See the bathroom shower room divider as a case in point, close your eyes, and picture it in your kitchen. Sold.
Earthenware: this textural tile has been used in this zen bathroom scheme to create another half wall room divider which we just love. But add that to your kitchen with a striped effect alongside one of its terracotta-coloured companions. The result? Chef’s kiss.
Victorian Style: ending on a colour-loving note, these heritage-inspired square wall tiles are a dream on a room-dividing wall. Whether you’ve got antique furniture in your kitchen, coloured cabinets or glossy white ones, these tiles work every time in their palette of greens and whites.
