Unleash the Creativity of Hexagon Tile: Hexagon Tile Uses and Design Ideas

It’s no secret that hexagon tile is one of the most popular tile designs and one of our personal favorites.

Hexagon tile’s secret to success: It delivers the best of both worlds.

Both retro and a staple of modern design, hexes are playful yet inspired by nature itself. This honeycomb tile design is a hybrid with a key to everyone’s heart.

It helps that hexagon tile looks great just about everywhere and in every look and tile style. Think we’re exaggerating? Just keep reading to see what we mean.

Hexagon Tile Applications: Where to Put Hexagon Tile

You can use hexagon tile on any surface inside or outside your home. Here are some of our favorite hexagon tile applications.

Hexagon Tile Backsplash

pasted image 0 — This contemporary kitchen tile backsplash features white hexagon tiles that pop against the gray tiles.

Backsplashes are a perfect place for hexagon tiles, putting them front and center as you cook or get ready for the day. Perhaps the most popular way to use hexagon tiles is on kitchen backsplashes.

Hexagon Tile Feature Wall

pasted image 0 1 — What better place to flaunt this gorgeous hexagon tile mosaic than a full feature wall?

A feature wall is another great place to show off your hexagon tile, turning it into a (literal) wall-to-wall piece of art.

This hexagon tile mosaic feature wall doubles as a media nook, with a built-in shelf for showcasing pictures and decorations.

Hexagon Tile Fireplace Surround

pasted image 0 2 — If you want your hexagon tile to be the central focus of the room, a fireplace surround is a great place to use it.

The fireplace is the center of any room, making it the perfect place to make a design impact with hexagon tile. This hexagon tile fireplace surround expands its surface to the entire wall surrounding the fireplace. With hexagon tiles this beautiful, more is more.

Hexagon Tile Flooring

Hexagon tiles are quite at home on the floor of any space. As a rule of thumb, you’ll have more versatility with the pattern of larger hexagons on larger floor spaces, and smaller hexagons on smaller floor spaces.

This modern living room creates a hexagon floor tile design by strategically arranging the gray and white tiles for a one-of-a-kind look.

Hexagon Tile Shower

Retro black and white hexagon tile bar front — A tiled bar front may be all that’s necessary to take your business from typical to trendy.

When we said hexagon tiles would look great anywhere, we meant anywhere, including places you might never think to tile, such as the front of a bar or kitchen island.

This unique floor-to-bar solution is stunning. Plus, ceramic tile adds durability to an area that might suffer bumps from furniture and swinging feet.

Popular Hexagon Tile Styles

Now that you have an idea of where you might put your hexagon tile, let’s take a look at some of your options for hexagon tile designs.

Retro Hexagon Tile

Retro black and white hexagon tile bathroom floor — White and black hexagon tile mosaics create an iconic vintage look.

Black and white mosaic hex tile has a distinctive retro vibe that you can customize for a contemporary twist, such as the bathroom flooring above in a random pattern.

Mosaic hexagon tiles were often used in bathrooms as part of the hygiene movement of the Victorian era, typically in all-white designs or with black accent tiles. The design was such a hit that it never went out of style, and we still see black and white mosaic hex tile all the time, not only on flooring but in all sorts of applications and spaces.

White Hexagon Tile

Keep it simple and elegant with an all-white hexagon tile design. Play up the hexagon pattern by using a colored grout that accentuates the honeycomb design or use matching white grout to reduce the visibility of the hexagon shape.

You can make white hexagon tile mosaics more contemporary by enlarging the tile size, as in the floor pictured above.

Black Hexagon Tile

Black hexagon tile is the ultimate sleek design, often using a lighter or even white grout to highlight the design. If you’re looking for an ultra-contemporary hexagon tile design, black hexagon tile is for you.

Multicolor Hexagon Tile Mosaics

Blue and white hexagon tile mosaic floor — Colorful hexagon tile mosaics add both fun and creativity to a wide range of applications.

While original hexagon tile mosaics were mostly black and white designs, contemporary hexagon designs have given rise to creative multicolor styles. Multicolor hexagon tile mosaics often feature highly polished or iridescent finishes and slightly uneven textured surfaces, and are popular choices for showers, bathrooms, and kitchen backsplashes.

Tiny Hexagon Tile

Tiny black hexagon tile mosaic bathroom floor — Tiny hex tile is similar in appearance to penny round tile.

If multicolor mosaic hexagon tile isn’t your style, you can still harness the allure of small hexagon tile with a monochromatic design. This tiny black hexagon tile reflects the light in the bathroom for a dazzling effect.

Large Hexagon Tile

Large hexagon wall tile — Large hexagon tiles are one of the biggest tile trends of 2021 (pun intended).

Hexagon tiles are getting bigger than ever this year — in both size and popularity. In fact, large hex tiles are one of the top tile trends we expect to take off in 2021.

This living room, which features large hexagon tiles that span two floors and two spaces, is a great depiction of what’s possible with large hexagon tiles.

Patterned Hexagon Tile

White hexagon wall tiles with a vintage-look pattern — The delicate pattern on these marble-look hexagon tiles creates a look fitting for the decor style.

Patterned beige hexagon wall tiles in a staggered design — Graphic patterns on the beige hexagon tiles paired with a staggered transition into wood-look ceramic tile create a bold feature wall in this living room.

Hexagon tiles create a stimulating layout pattern with their shape, but you can add even more interest by choosing patterned hexagon tiles. Your options include geometric patterns, florals and leaves, Art Deco designs, and more.

Both of the patterned hexagon tile designs above enchant us. Which do you prefer?

Tile With a Hexagon Pattern

Gauged porcelain tile panels/slabs with a hexagon design — An overlapping hexagon pattern adds a unique, modern edge to this gauged porcelain tile panel/slab wall.

An alternative to patterned hexagon tiles is tile with a hexagon pattern printed onto it, as with the gauged porcelain tile panels/slabs above.

Hexagon Tile With a 3D Cube Design

Three lines on these hexagon tiles create a three-dimensional cube design that seems to pop off the wall. This wall takes the cube design one step further by arranging the tiles to create a secondary pattern.

Stone-Look Hexagon Tile

White marble-look hexagon tile kitchen backsplash — White marble-look hexagon tile with subtle veining makes for a highly sophisticated kitchen backsplash.

Stone-look tile and hexagon tile are two highly popular options, and combining them only strengthens their impact. Options include marble-look tile as in the designs pictured above as well as slate-look tile, granite-look tile, and gemstone-look tile.

Concrete-Look Hexagon Tile

Concrete-look irregular hexagon tile flooring — Hexagon tile’s playfulness and concrete-look tile’s utilitarian style make for a perfect balance with these modified giant hexes.

Industrial decor is a great way to create a modern, urban look, and concrete-look tile is a great way to achieve industrial decor. Adding hexagon tile to the mix adds a touch of playfulness to what could be a somewhat austere design.

Textured Hexagon Tile

Textured hexagon tile comes in a wide range of sizes and colors, and we see this in creative combinations of tile mosaics. A slightly uneven surface can give textured hexagon mosaic tiles a natural aesthetic that you’ll want to reach out and touch.

Variegated Hexagon Tile

Variegated tile features subtle color differences to create a natural aesthetic. Combining variegated colors with the nature-inspired honeycomb shape is a “natural” way to achieve biophilic design — design that helps us connect with nature.

Staggered Hexagon Tile

Staggered black hexagon tile backsplash — The extra-thick grout lines on this black hexagon tile add even greater emphasis to the staggered edge of this backsplash.

Hexagon tile is perhaps the best tile shape to create a staggered tile transition because of its unique design.

What are staggered tile transitions? These “unfinished” looking tile designs are simply installations that end along the tiles’ natural shape rather than in a straight line.

We love the design created by staggered hexagon tiles and the fact that you can alter the installation’s edge depending on how you position the hexagon tiles. For example, the first example above positions the hexagon tiles with one of their sides facing up, whereas the second creates a zigzag design by positioning the points upward.

Hexagon Tile With Colorful Grout

Hexagon tile wall with blue grout — Blue grout adds a pop of creative color to this neutral hexagon tile backsplash.

The best thing about hexagon tile is the unique layout pattern created by its six-sided shape, and colorful grout is a great way to draw even more attention to this pattern.

To make the design stand out as much as possible, choose tile and grout colors that contrast strongly with one another, such as the neutral tile and blue grout above.

Elongated Hexagon Tile

Who said hexagon tiles had to have even sides? Elongating hexagon tiles creates a completely new look while maintaining the original design’s playfulness.

Hexagon Subway Tile / Horizontal Picket Fence Tile

Marble-look horizontal picket fence tile — Picket fence tile is a creative combination of subway tile and hexagon tile.

Elongating white hexagon tiles and arranging them in a subway tile-like pattern gives you what’s known as horizontal picket fence tile (if you flip the tile on its side so that it’s vertical, it resembles a white picket fence). Any combination of these two popular tile trends is good news in our book.

Distorted Hexagon Tile

Distorted concrete-look hexagon tile wall — The concrete-look irregular polygon tile feature wall is the defining element of this industrial chic living room.

Another option to mix up the shape of hexagon tiles is to distort them so that they’re irregular polygons (shapes with inconsistent sides and angles). This inconsistency can give hexagon tiles even more of a natural look.

Tile Shapes That Combine to Form Hexagons

Blue and white triangle tiles combined to form hexagon tiles in a kitchen backsplash — Combining triangle tiles is a great way to create the look of hexagon tile with even more visual interest.

Floor tiles in hexagon, triangle, diamond, and trapezoid shapes — Creative chaos reigns in this combination of triangle, diamond, trapezoid, and hexagon color blocks on hexagon tiles.

You can achieve unique hexagon looks by combining color blocks printed on hexagon tiles or combining other shapes into a hexagon.

The effect you achieve will depend entirely on the shapes you use and how you lay them out. For instance, the first example above creates a kaleidoscope look by using triangle tiles and arranging them into a hexagon. The second example achieves a remarkably different effect by randomly arranging hexagon tiles with color blocks of different shapes.

Hexagon Tile With Other Shape Accents

Hexagon tiles interlaced with rhomboid tiles on a bathroom wall — These hexagon tiles are interlaced with rhomboid tiles, creating the look of stars with hexagon centers.

You can add a little spice to a hexagon tile design by sprinkling in some accents in the form of other tile shapes. While this bathroom wall would be quite lovely with white hexagon tiles alone, the addition of the gray rhomboid combination turns the feature wall into a one-of-a-kind design.

Head Over Heels for Hexagon Tile

White hexagon tiles with pink and maroon tips — Printing pink and maroon onto the corners of these white hexagon tiles creates an enchanting tile backsplash wall.

After admiring so many beautiful hexagon tile designs, we know you must be head-over-heels in love — and already eager to see even more hexagon tile ideas.

Don’t despair — we have more hexagon tile inspiration for you to explore in our Design Gallery and on Pinterest, plus another feature showcasing some of our favorite hexagon tile designs on Instagram.