Restaurant Tile Design Ideas

Image: Tapestri Denim Blend Porcelain Restaurant Wall Tile from Arizona Tile

Design is just as important in commercial settings as it is in residential settings, if not more so. In commercial settings, you have to create a style that is neutral enough to speak to most peoples’ design preferences, but safety is a huge factor. Fortunately, there is tile to satisfy both elements—less slick and aesthetically desirable.

In a restaurant setting, every design element is essential. Plus, commercial settings, especially in this category, must follow guidelines for equal access (ADA), safety regulations, and health compliance. While many components feed into these factors, slab and tile provide beneficial benefits.

Not One Size Fits All

One thing you’ll quickly see is that one type of tile or slab can’t be used interchangeably across the board. In a restaurant, different areas benefit from different hard surfaces. The “front-of-house” (the dining area) needs an aesthetic and functional approach, while tile in the “back-of-house” (the kitchen and stock rooms) also requires functionality and an outside dining area needs materials that are appropriate for weather changes. Whereas the perfect tile for safety in the back-of-house serves its purpose, putting it in the front-of-house could derail from the aesthetic. Likewise, putting beautiful large format tile in the back-of-house may compromise safety, while its beauty and functionality for the dining area is perfect.

Image: Concerto White Matte and Glossy Porcelain Bar Backsplash and Portofino Classico Honed Quartz Countertop from Arizona Tile

Before we look at the dining space, we need to touch upon the most important part of a restaurant: the kitchen! Without a functional, safe, well-designed kitchen, you don’t have a restaurant. While a quartz countertop, tile accents, and a beautifully charming floor look nice, a commercial kitchen has specific requirements for health standards and slip resistance that these materials may not always meet. Countertops are often a more industrial surface like stainless steel and backsplashes may be some plastic-type material, but flooring is where we can help best.

Back-of-House

Back-of-house planning isn’t based around décor and aesthetics, it is around safety and durability. Kitchen floors can get wet and slippery in the blink of an eye, so you can spare yourself a headache later by planning with this in mind now.

The Quarry Metro series is a full-body, 100% clay tile, making it very dense, extremely durable, and slip-resistant. This product is designed for use in heavy-traffic areas, especially commercial kitchens. As you read further, you’ll learn about large format tile and its benefits, but one benefit to this tile is its small 6×6 size. When tile is smaller, it has more grout lines—the more grout lines there are, the more gripping the surface will have. In a kitchen, this is incredibly essential. While Quarry Metro—offered in red and grey—isn’t the most beautiful tile we offer, it will keep your back-of-house staff safer so the front-of-house customers are happy.

Front-of-House

This is the space that all your customers will see. You want the aesthetics to be on-point, you want materials that are easy to clean and low maintenance, and you want flooring to be ultra-durable so it can withstand heavy traffic. Drinks will get spilled, floors will get dirty, but, through it all, you’ll want them to hold their own and radiate beauty.

Image: Reflexion Night & Reflexion Mercury Mosaic Mesh Porcelain Restaurant Floor Tile from Arizona Tile

Reflexion is one series that can do this for you, and here’s why:

1. Porcelain tile is an exceptionally durable material. It’s stain-resistant, non-porous – preventing liquids from soaking in and causing discoloration, scratch-resistant, and resistant to mold and bacteria growth. Plus, it requires very little maintenance, making it an ideal choice for both style and practicality.
2. It’s a large format tile. Large format tile adds a streamlined, expansive look to a space, be it large or small—here you have 12×24 and 24×48 options.
3. Maintenance becomes easier. With large-format tile, there are fewer grout lines, which means fewer nooks and crannies for dirt and crumbs to snuggle into. At the end of a shift, closing duties are enough as is, who wants to worry about cleaning grout lines?!
4. Recommended uses are plentiful. Walls, floors, showers, pools, exterior cladding… the choice is yours.

It is beautiful. Reflexion comes in four colors—Bright, Mercury, Night, and Titanium—and has a shimmery look of metal with infinite transformations of light and reflections while offering a modern appeal.

Image: Montreal Quartz Restaurant Bar Countertop from Arizona Tile

The floor is not the only thing you’ll focus on during design, you have surfaces and backsplashes to consider, too. If you have tables that butt against a wall, if you have a nice bar area, etc., you will want that vertical surface to make a statement. While it will look nice, this tile will protect the wall and create a smooth, easy surface to wipe clean. Concerto glazed porcelain is an amazing option.

In seven smoky hues, glossy or matte finish (matte only if for flooring), its neutrality offers an appealing aesthetic to many styles. This series combines well with other tile series and slabs to create a customized, cohesive design. Consider pairing it with Portofino Classico Honed—a white quartz with soft, grey veining that appears as marble, or Montreal—a white quartz with thin gold veining throughout, that also, provides the look of natural stone. Quartz slabs combine beauty and functionality and are perfect for a bar top and tabletops.

Image: Prism Crema/Sky Honed Patterned Marble Bar Wall from Arizona Tile

Outside Dining

Still technically grouped with front-of-house, outside dining adds one element: weather. When weather gets thrown into the mix, finding slip-resistant flooring that can uphold weather fluctuations and is aesthetically charming isn’t as hard as you may think.

Image: Pietra Italia Porcelain Restaurant Flooring from Arizona Tile

Pietra Italia can handle the task. This is a rectified through body porcelain that emulates limestone, providing a clean, natural stone appearance to any environment. With all the same five points as above, there is one additional feature: R11 Anti Slip Finish. This tile has a unique finish that creates a gripping on the tile surface without altering its appearance, thus making it a great choice for exterior applications. Even better, Pietra Italia can be used inside and outside to create a seamless look—no need for a transition or to mix and match flooring.

So Many Possibilities

With all the amazing slab and tile products we offer, it’s hard not to design the restaurant of your dreams. While you’re planning your commercial space, stop by an Arizona Tile store or slab yard to see our products. When you have some ideas in mind, use our Just Imagine Tile and Slab Visualizer to develop a better visual of your tile ideas. If you have questions, please send us a message and our knowledgeable staff will be happy to help!