Can I use porcelain stoneware for my shower?

Can porcelain stoneware tiles be used on shower walls?

Nowadays, even the most intimate corners of our homes are stylishly designed and furnished.
Just beyond the door of the living areas, which are featuring more and more sophisticated interior design solutions, lies an area of the home that may offer no less potential for refined surface aesthetics: the bathroom. It is the ideal space for a versatile covering with undeniable benefits like porcelain stoneware, which combines an exquisite appearance with a solid, practical material. Apart from the bathroom floor and walls, there is another area which requires particular care when calculating the room’s overall appearance: the walls of the shower.
You may wonder about the best shower lining material – the ideal material for tiling the inside of the shower

This question is very easy to answer, and in this article we will also examine the most effective ways in which this material can be used. Porcelain stoneware is not only excellent for the shower enclosure, but is also one of the most highly recommended materials for shower interior tiles.

The benefits of porcelain stoneware for shower walls

Why use porcelain stoneware for tiling your shower?
There are many reasons. The many personalisation options, easy installation, durability, exquisite appearance and resistance to time and water. All these characteristics make it one of the most highly recommended materials for shower tiles, not to forget the unrivalled aesthetic potentials of porcelain stoneware. From wood effect to marble and stone finishes, this is an extremely versatile material, able to give the entire room a unique look and feel and easily adapting to the most widely varying moods.
Let’s look, for example, at one of today’s trendiest styles: industrial. This inspiration is not only suitable for large living spaces: quite the contrary, it is also a sophisticated, modern choice for the wall coverings inside a shower. If you want to extend the austere, simple beauty of concrete and the industrial style to your shower enclosure, the Re-Play Concrete by Provenza collection offers six different colour solutions (Anthracite, Verdigris, Grey, Dark Grey, White and Sand) in three different finishes (Recupero, Cassaforma Flat and Cassaforma 3D). 

Porcelain stoneware is resistant to water

Water is ever-present in the bathroom, a factor to be borne in mind when choosing shower enclosure tiles, either for a new project or for a refurbishment.
One of the most pressing concerns when selecting the right tile for a shower enclosure is the choice of material, in view of the prolonged contact with water and steam. It is easy to envisage materials damaged by the erosive action of water and other unpleasant, unsightly, unhygienic outcomes. All these risks can be easily avoided by choosing porcelain stoneware for the shower lining. This type of tile has extremely low porosity: the water will slide over the surface without penetrating into the tile. Porcelain stoneware is perfect for damp locations, is immune to mould and bacteria, and is perfectly compatible with water.
In the bathroom, in particular, hygiene must always be the top priority, especially on the internal surfaces of the shower. Here again, porcelain stoneware provides unbeatable quality standards, thanks to its intrinsic antibacterial characteristics: it ensures that surfaces can be sanitised effectively with very convenient, easy cleaning, without any impairment of its characteristics.
All these qualities would be unthinkable if we imagine, for example, using wood as a shower lining material. However, if we still insist on the warm, authentic effect of wood surfaces, help is at hand from the catalogue of the Alter by Provenza collection. A style that transcends the passage of time and celebrates the natural beauty of oak wood, with coloured resin inserts, for an attractive, tasteful visual effect. Available in Sbiancato, Miele, Noce and Bruciato colours, Alter is the gateway to infinite design pathways, also with regard to shower tiles.

Porcelain stoneware is resistant and durable

The benefits of using porcelain stoneware as a shower wall covering do not end here. Another fundamental characteristic of this versatile, eclectic material is its outstanding resistance to damage and the effects of time. Its natural ability to withstand knocks makes it highly resistant and immune to wear and tear.
Porcelain stoneware is untouched by external agents and the passing years, and has minimal maintenance requirements.
When choosing the material for tiling our shower, we should always pay attention to the durability factor, to ensure we do not find ourselves in the unpleasant position of having to change the covering after just a short time due to the materials’ poor performance.
Luckily, a porcelain stoneware covering has a long lifetime – and naturally, this also applies to shower tiles.

 Porcelain stoneware is available in a variety of colours

This practical, efficient material, resistant to water and time, easy to sanitise and install, also offers an extremely wide range of aesthetic potentials.

It is just this combination of practicality and style that makes porcelain stoneware the best solution for shower tiles.
Porcelain stoneware’s textures and finishes are many and varied, and suitable for all styles. Classic, minimal, industrial, modern, Provencal and Nordic. There is the right covering for every style requirement, and shower tiles are certainly no exception.

From ultra-modern effects to the concrete looks typical of industrial style, by way of the celebration of natural elements, from wood to marble and stone, porcelain stoneware enables sophisticated elegant design schemes and colour contrasts with a strong individual personality.

For tangible proof of the stylistic power of porcelain stoneware as a shower wall covering, we need look no farther than the Unique Travertine by Provenza collection. A blend of the classic and the contemporary, it is a unique opportunity for combining an exquisite appearance with a high-performing material. The collection is a reinterpretation of travertine, available in four colour variants (White, Silver, Cream and Chocolate) and the same number of finishes, which explore all travertine’s potentials and all vein pattern directions (Vein Cut, Minimal, Ruled and Ancient).

From the most traditional to the most daring, porcelain stoneware offers the best solution for combining design and quality, from the entrance halls of our homes right through to the walls inside the shower enclosure.

21 December 2021

Magazine

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