Brick-Look Tiles: A Sydney Designer's Guide
Brick has always meant warmth, honesty and craft. Here's how to bring that character into your home in a tile that's slimmer, cleaner and far more practical than the real thing, from Mediterranean Muretti to London, New York, Chianti and Chelsea.
There's a reason brick keeps finding its way back into our homes. It carries the memory of hand-fired clay, weathered facades and old workshops, and it brings a room something smooth surfaces can't: texture you can read across a wall, and warmth that softens everything around it. As interiors lean into warm minimalism and honest, tactile materials, the brick look feels right again. More than anything it's about light, texture and warmth, and the aged, lived-in feeling they bring together, a sense of history and character that your new build or fresh renovation can so easily be missing.
The catch with real brick indoors has always been the same: it's thick, heavy, porous and hard to keep clean. Brick-look tiles solve all of that. They reproduce the shape, texture and colour movement of brick in a slim ceramic or porcelain tile that goes straight onto a wall or floor, indoors or out, and wipes clean like any tile. This is the conversation we'd have with you across the showroom table: what brick-look tiles actually are, where they work, how to lay and grout them, and the five ranges we reach for most, starting with the Mediterranean Muretti.
Why brick-look, and why now
Brick-look tiles give you the character of a raw brick wall without any of its baggage. Real brick is meant for structure, so using it as a finish means thickness, weight and a porous surface that soaks up splashes and is difficult to seal. A brick-look tile is only millimetres thick, dense and easy to clean, and can be laid on a splashback, a bathroom wall, a fireplace surround or an alfresco floor with none of that compromise.
What's changed is how convincing they've become. The best ranges now carry high surface variation, dozens of different graphic faces across a box, soft cushioned or rustic edges, and colour blends that shift from brick to brick exactly the way a hand-laid wall does. Against timber and limewash a brick-look wall feels rustic and grounded; against white render and brushed brass it reads restrained and contemporary. It's one of the most versatile textures you can bring into your home. Best of all is how it catches the light: the soft shadows across a textured brick face are what give a brand-new wall the feeling of having aged gently into place.
Our Feature Range · Mediterranean Muretti
Muretti Terracotta Brick-Look Wall Tile
If one range captures why we love the brick look, it's Muretti. Inspired by the sun-warmed brick walls of the Mediterranean, it's an extruded ceramic with a soft-touch matt surface, natural shade variation and earthy, organic tone that shifts from tile to tile. It comes two ways: a classic 60×240mm brick, and a delicate 27×98mm kit-kat, a Japanese-inspired finger mosaic that brings the same warmth to a finer, more intricate feature. Both come across White, Beige, Terracotta and Chocolate, with White (V2) and Mixed Colours (V4) blends. It's the one we reach for when a client wants a splashback or feature wall with real handcrafted warmth and character.
- Material: Extruded ceramic, soft-touch matt · cushioned edge
- Formats: 60×240mm brick & 27×98mm Japanese-inspired kit-kat mosaic (plus Decor)
- Colours: White, Beige, Terracotta, Chocolate
- Best for: Splashbacks, bathroom & feature walls · P4 slip available for outdoor
- Price: From around $175/m² (range $175–$220/m²)
The brick-look edit
Brick-look isn't one tile. It's a family of surfaces, each drawn from a different brick tradition, from rustic London stock brick to industrial New York facades to weathered Anglo-Saxon walls. Here are the four porcelain ranges we reach for most, and where each one belongs.
Italian porcelain · P5 slip · From $106/m²
London Brick
Drawn from hand-made bricks fired in early-1900s London, this is the rustic, characterful end of the range. A 60×250mm porcelain in Fog, Beige, Sunset, Multicolour and Charcoal, with a rustic natural surface and earthy blended tones. Rated P5 for interior and exterior floors and walls, alfresco and porches. Laid with a wide 10mm joint, it reads as an authentic old brick wall.
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Italian porcelain · Matt · From $115/m²
New York
Industrial chic, straight from New York's iconic neighbourhoods. A 60×250mm matt porcelain in Almond, White, Grey and Black, with a new glaze that gives real material impact and the refined edge of a Brooklyn or Upper East Side facade. Suitable for internal and external floors and walls, it's the contemporary, urban member of the family.
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Italian porcelain · Rectified · P5 · From $110/m²
Chianti
A homage to Tuscan architecture, with the warm, sun-baked character of the Chianti region. A generous 125×250mm glazed porcelain with a rectified edge, in Terracotta, Rossa and Grey. Rated P5 for indoor and outdoor floors and walls, its slightly larger brick format suits a softer, more architectural feature.
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Porcelain · High variation · From $154/m²
Chelsea
Inspired by the raw charm of Anglo-Saxon urban brickwork, Chelsea is the most textural of the porcelains, with four distinct surface structures and 60-plus unique faces for genuinely natural, weathered movement. A 60×250mm matt tile with cushioned edges, in Coffee House Charcoal, Kings Road Cotto, Main Street Terracotta and Whitehall White Brick. Indoor and outdoor floors and walls, modern or traditional.
View Chelsea →Where brick-look works best
Brick-look tiles are generous, and they belong in more places than most people expect. In kitchens and laundries, a brick-look splashback in Muretti or New York brings warmth and texture behind the bench without dominating the room. In bathrooms and powder rooms, a single brick-look feature wall, especially in a soft terracotta or a crisp white brick, turns a small space into the most characterful one in your home. Around a fireplace, brick-look tile does exactly what it should, grounding the hearth in honest material. And outdoors, the P5-rated porcelains, London and Chianti, carry that character out to courtyard walls, alfresco floors and pool-side surrounds.
One rule worth keeping: let the brick be the texture in the room. Its character is the feature, so the surfaces around it, the joinery, stone and paint, generally want to stay calm and natural. Paired with timber, limewash, matt black tapware and greenery, a brick-look wall carries a space on its own.
Laying patterns, grout and living with brick-look
Half of a brick-look tile's character comes from how it's laid. The classic is a running or half-brick bond, each row stepped across by half a tile, exactly like a real brick wall. Stack bond, with the bricks aligned in a clean grid, gives a calmer, more contemporary feel; a vertical stack draws the eye up and suits a tall splashback; and herringbone turns the tile into a rich, deliberate feature. There's no wrong answer, only the mood you're after, and it's one of the most enjoyable things to work through together at the showroom.
Grout does the rest. A tone-on-tone grout in warm sand, greige or clay lets a brick-look wall read as one soft, textured surface. A contrasting mortar tone, paler grout against a darker brick, emphasises each individual brick and gives that authentic pointed-brick look. For the more rustic ranges like London, a wider joint of around 10mm is recommended to bring out the character of the tile.
Living with them is simple. The porcelain ranges are dense and non-porous, so they mop clean with no sealing required. The Muretti ceramic has a soft-touch matt surface and takes a light seal, especially on a splashback, to keep it easy to wipe down. Either way, you get all the character of raw brick with none of the dusting, crumbling or staining of the real thing.
The full brick-look range, at a glance
Every brick-look range we stock, at a glance. Tap through for colours, sizes and current pricing.
How we help you get it right at our Rockdale showroom
Brick-look is all about texture and tone, and both are impossible to judge on a screen. Our Rockdale showroom carries the full range, the Mediterranean Muretti, London, New York, Chianti and Chelsea, displayed in real light so you can see how each surface catches the light and how the colour shifts from brick to brick. We'll talk through ceramic versus porcelain, laying patterns, grout colour, slip ratings and whole-home flow in one unhurried conversation.
A consultation with our design team is free and tailored to your project, whether you're planning a single brick-look splashback or a whole feature wall. Bring your plans and your inspiration. For clients outside Sydney, we run virtual consultations and post sample tiles, so the texture is in your hands before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
What are brick-look tiles?
Brick-look tiles are ceramic or porcelain tiles that reproduce the shape, texture and tonal movement of real brick in a thin, easy-to-lay tile, usually in a long, slim format such as 60×250mm. They give you the character of a raw brick wall, the weathered surface, the colour variation, the handmade edge, without the depth, weight and porosity of laying actual bricks. Ranges like our Mediterranean Muretti, London, New York, Chianti and Chelsea each capture a different brick tradition.
What's the difference between brick-look tiles and real bricks?
Real brick is thick, heavy and porous, which makes it hard to use on walls indoors and difficult to keep clean. Brick-look tiles reproduce the same look in a slim ceramic or porcelain tile that's only millimetres thick, so it can go on walls and floors, indoors and out, and wipes clean like any tile. Porcelain brick-look ranges are also frost and stain resistant, which real reclaimed brick often is not.
Are brick-look tiles ceramic or porcelain?
Both. Our Mediterranean Muretti is an extruded ceramic with a soft-touch matt surface, made for feature walls and splashbacks. The London, New York, Chianti and Chelsea ranges are porcelain, which is denser, harder-wearing and rated for floors and outdoor use as well as walls. As a rule, choose ceramic brick-look for a characterful wall feature and porcelain brick-look when the tile also needs to handle floors, wet areas or the weather.
Where do brick-look tiles work best in a home?
Brick-look tiles are happiest where a room wants texture and warmth: kitchen and laundry splashbacks, bathroom and powder-room feature walls, fireplace surrounds, entry and hallway walls, and alfresco or courtyard walls and floors. Slim porcelain formats like London and Chelsea also work underfoot for a characterful floor, while ceramic ranges like Muretti are best kept to walls and splashbacks.
Can brick-look tiles be used outside?
Yes, the porcelain ranges are built for it. London Brick carries a P5 slip rating and is rated for exterior floors and walls, alfresco, verandahs and front porches. Chianti is also P5 and rated indoor and outdoor. New York and Chelsea are suitable for internal and external floors and walls. Always confirm the slip rating suits the specific outdoor area before ordering, and our team will check it with you.
What grout colour works best with brick-look tiles?
It depends on the effect you want. A tone-on-tone grout in a warm sand, greige or clay lets a brick-look wall read as one soft, textured surface. A contrasting grout, a paler mortar tone against a darker brick, emphasises the individual bricks and gives that authentic pointed-brick look. For rustic ranges like London Brick, a slightly wider joint (around 10mm) is recommended to bring out the character of the tile.
What laying pattern suits brick-look tiles?
The classic is a running or half-brick bond, where each row steps across by half a tile, exactly like a real brick wall. Stack bond (bricks aligned in a grid) gives a cleaner, more contemporary feel; vertical stack draws the eye up and suits a splashback; and herringbone turns a brick-look tile into a rich, textural feature. The right pattern depends on the room and the mood, and it's one of the things we love working through with clients at the showroom.
How much do brick-look tiles cost in Sydney?
At Design Tiles, brick-look ranges span a wide spread: London Brick porcelain from around $106/m², Chianti from $110, New York from $115, Chelsea from $154, and the Mediterranean Muretti ceramic from $175. Installation, grouting and any sealing are separate. Prices shift with sales and stock, so check the current product page or ask our team.
Are brick-look tiles hard to maintain?
No. The porcelain ranges are dense and non-porous, so they mop clean like any porcelain floor or wall with no sealing required. The Muretti ceramic has a soft-touch matt surface and a light seal is recommended, especially on a splashback, to keep it easy to wipe down. Brick-look tiles give you all the character of raw brick with none of the crumbling, dusting or staining of the real thing.
Where can I see brick-look tiles in Sydney?
Our Rockdale showroom at 407 Princes Highway displays the full brick-look range, Mediterranean Muretti, London, New York, Chianti and Chelsea, in real light, where you can see how the texture and colour variation read across a wall. Consultations with our design team are free and bookable online, and we post sample tiles to clients outside Sydney.
See brick-look tiles in real light
Book a free consultation with our design team, or visit our Rockdale showroom to see the full brick-look range warm against real materials. No pressure, no obligation, just thoughtful guidance from the team that has been helping Sydney homes since 1999.
