From tiles to paint
The traditional porcelain tile has always been the most common way of decorating the bathroom. The reason is that a smooth wall covered by well-sealed tiles, prevents water and damp from penetrating. This is ideal for tight, unventilated spaces where it is tricky to shower without wetting the wall.

However, if you have a large bathroom with natural ventilation through a window, you can afford to be a little more imaginative and save the tiles for the bath or shower and for the area above the sink, and paint the rest of the walls a contrasting colour.

This solution has many advantages:
- It is cheaper than tiling, which requires expensive materials and plenty of manpower time.
- It is versatile in that you can change the look of your bathroom at will, by simply changing the colour of the paint.
- It avoids the difficulty of having to drill into the tiles if you want to hang up a picture or shelf

In small toilets
In spare toilets with no bath that are not used frequently, you can go even further and put up wallpaper. To do this you first need to put up vinyl paper that has a plastic film that protects it from damp and even allows you to clean the surface with detergent. In other cases, it is not the most advisable wall covering since prolonged exposure to moisture and lack of ventilation can cause damp under the paper and even cause it to fall off.

The latest: earthenware
However, glazed earthenware and porcelain remain the favourite materials of those looking to cover the walls and floors of their bathrooms. These are highly resistant materials, that are easy to clean and disinfect, and that come in a wide variety of designs.

Before choosing your decoration bear in mind that bright colours and not too large, smooth earthenware tiles suit smaller bathrooms. If you want to give the bathroom an airy, modem appearance, you could try deeper colours, such as a range of blues, or else cover one wall with a combination of colours.

Larger bathrooms allow you to choose an infinite range of ceramic designs and colours, although bear in mind that if there is a lot of natural light picking shiny tiles or bright colours could be a little too dazzling. Choose toned down colours and matt or textured tiles instead.