Is This Once Trendy Tile Design Making Your Kitchen Look Outdated?

When content creation is a business strategy, there's a pressure to conform to whatever is "trendy" (profitable). Keeping up with what's popular can be frustrating as a homeowner looking to buy, sell, or renovate because of the effort it takes to change room aesthetics. The Tuscan kitchen aesthetic was all the rage in the early 2000s, and a decade later, the bright white minimalist aesthetic took hold. And just as wallpaper and white refrigerators are things of the past, yet another trend is on the chopping block in 2025.

Some homeowners are ditching subway tile, and there are a couple of reasons why you might see this change in the coming years. New homeowners are moving away from the "millennial gray" minimalist aesthetic and embracing pops of color and natural elements. Wooden floors, plants, industrial appliance accents, and painted cabinets are taking over Pinterest boards. And the rectangular, urban look of subway tile doesn't mimic the natural world or mesh with many of these new design choices.

Real tile is generally a pain to install, requiring cement and grout work that's not fun to pay for or DIY. White grout can make kitchens look dirty, turning brown if not properly maintained. If people are going to go through such effort, then using real stone creates more harmony with plants, stained wood cabinets, and stainless steel refrigerators. There's really not a compelling reason to go through all this effort with subway tile when inexpensive peel-and-stick backsplashes exist.

With these easy to DIY peel-and-stick options, there are a lot of fun and creative patterns that people can choose from other than plain white rectangles. Marble dominates kitchen backsplashes at the moment, with vertical wood planks, stonework patterns, and mosaic tiles close behind. Subway tile can become more exciting with new colors and asymmetrical patterns. An ashy dark gray or sandy beige subway tile with varying rectangle lengths will mimic the palette of the natural world, pairing with neutral wall and cabinet colors.

Subway tile, like just about everything else, risks falling in and out of trend. What's more important to curating a beautiful kitchen space is intentionality in your design choices. Touching up a table from a yard sale or putting flowers in a pot you made in fourth grade are the sort of things that make a house feel like home. Yesterday's relics could be tomorrow's chic, and subway tile can have a place in your kitchen if it feels like it belongs there.