Moroccan Tiles in Bengaluru: Patterns, Uses and Layout Tips

Moroccan tiles are the patterned squares you see in cafe floors, kitchen backsplashes and old-style verandahs: stars, lattices, petals and interlocking lines repeated across a surface. They add colour and detail in a way plain tiles cannot, and a small area of them is often enough to give a room its personality.

What makes a tile "Moroccan"

The name refers to the look, not the material. Traditional Moroccan and encaustic tiles were made from coloured cement pressed into moulds. The Moroccan tiles in most tile shops today are ceramic tiles with that pattern printed onto the glaze. You get the same busy, handcrafted look, but with tiles that are lighter, more uniform and far simpler to lay.

Most are 300x300 mm (1x1 ft) matt ceramic tiles, each design sold under a number. The matt surface helps the pattern look like the older cement versions, which never had a shine.

Typical patterns include:

• Eight-point stars and crosses
• Lattice and trellis lines
• Floral medallions and petals
• Quarter motifs that form a full circle when four tiles meet
• Faded or "washed" designs that look aged

Where to use them, and where not

Moroccan tiles are used on kitchen floors and backsplashes, bathroom walls, balcony floors and walls, living room feature walls and even house elevation. A few points decide whether a particular tile suits a spot:

Good fit:

• Kitchen backsplash, either the full strip or a panel behind the stove
• A bathroom wall behind the washbasin, or the dry area wall
• Balcony floor in a covered apartment balcony
• A living room feature wall or the wall behind a dining table

Check before you buy:

• Floors need a floor-rated tile. A ceramic tile made for walls is thinner and softer. On a floor it can chip or crack. Ask the shop whether the design you like is floor grade.
• Open, rain-soaked areas need grip. Matt helps, but on an open balcony or terrace edge, check that the surface is not slippery when wet.
• Shower floors are better done in a dedicated anti-skid tile, with the pattern kept on the wall.

How the pattern lines up

Each design works in one of two ways. Some tiles carry a complete motif, so every tile looks the same and the pattern repeats tile by tile. Others carry a quarter or half of a motif, and the full shape only appears when tiles are turned and placed together.

Before fixing, lay out a few rows dry on the floor. Rotate tiles until you like the effect, then number the backs or take a photo. Printed patterns sometimes come with slight variations between tiles, which adds to the handmade look, but shuffling tiles from different boxes spreads that variation evenly.

Mixing with plain tiles

Moroccan tiles look best when they have room to breathe. A few ways to balance them:

• Use them as a rug in the middle of a floor with a plain border around it
• Keep the floor plain and put the pattern on one wall only
• Pick the plain tile from one of the colours in the pattern, for example the blue or terracotta
• On a backsplash, frame the pattern with a plain band at the top or sides

If you want more ideas for this, see our highlighter tiles page and the kitchen backsplash ideas guide.

Layout and wastage

Pattern tiles waste more than plain tiles. A cut at a wall edge slices through the motif, so it is worth centring the layout in the room or on the wall, leaving equal cut pieces on both sides. Start from the most visible line, such as the edge of a counter or the doorway, not the hidden corner.

For quantity, measure the area, use the tile calculator, then add extra for pattern matching and breakage. Our page on 300x300 mm tiles explains how many tiles cover a square foot area at this size.

See the patterns in person

Printed colours look different on a screen. Ask the shop which Moroccan designs are in stock now, and contact the shop to plan a visit with your wall or floor measurements.