Screens are the number one cause of tile regret. Every week someone emails us tossing up between two whites they have only ever seen on a phone. A screen cannot settle that argument. Three samples for $5 sitting on your benchtop can, and it takes about 10 minutes to get a proper answer out of them.
Why your screen lies about colour
Your phone is a backlit panel, tuned cool, showing a photo taken under studio lighting. Your bathroom is lit by a warm LED downlight and whatever daylight makes it through the window. Same tile, three different colours.
The gap is worst with whites and near-whites. On screen, our Mildura White and Mildura Bone look nearly identical. Hold them against a stone benchtop in afternoon light and Bone goes distinctly warm while White stays neutral. People pick the wrong one from photos constantly. Nobody picks the wrong one holding both in the room.
The short version: never order a full tile run off a screen. Order the samples, put them in the actual room, and give them 10 minutes across the checks below.
The 10 minute method
1. Check it under two lights. Look at the sample in the morning with natural light coming in, then again at night with only your artificial lights on. Warm bulbs (2700K, most Australian homes) push every tile yellower. If a tile only looks right under one of the two lights, that is a no.
2. Hold it against three surfaces. Benchtop, cabinetry, floor. A tile never sits alone in a finished room, and undertones only show up next to the things they will live with. A travertine look like Hobart Ivory reads calm next to oak but can fight a grey-based stone benchtop. You will see it within seconds of holding them together, and never from a photo.
3. Look at it wet and dry. Splash water on half the sample. Matte tiles darken a shade or two when wet, and shower walls and floors spend half their life wet. If you like it in both states, you are safe. This is also where gloss finishes show their glare, so do this one under your downlights, not by the window.
What you are actually looking for
Undertone shifts. Whites hide pink, yellow or grey underneath. The undertone decides whether the room feels warm or clinical, and it only shows next to your other surfaces.
Gloss glare. A gloss finish like the Wilsons kit kat range throws light around. On a splashback under pendant lights that sparkle is the whole point. Across a large wall it can be a lot. The sample under your lights answers this in seconds.
The grout gap preview. Tiles read differently once grout lines break them up. Sit your sample on a sheet of paper, rule lines 3mm off two edges, and shade the gap roughly grout-coloured. Crude, but it previews the finished pattern well, especially on small formats and terrazzo looks like Lorne where the chips and the grout compete for attention.
The maths on this is not close
Samples are 3 for $5. Tiling the wrong tile into a bathroom and living with it, or paying a tiler to rip it up and start again, runs well past $500 once you count tiles, labour and waterproofing. Ten minutes and $5 of samples is the cheapest insurance in your whole renovation.
Every tile we sell has a sample version. Pick any three you are tossing up between, and they ship flat to your door for $5. That is the two whites question, the matte or gloss question and the safe option, all answered in one hit.
Once you have picked, read how many tiles you actually need before you order, so you get the quantity right in one batch.