Tiles to make you smile

Inspired by traditional Delft tiles that depict day to day life, contemporary artists are packing whimsy and wit into 5in ceramic canvases. Hal Haines’s cheeky designs (top) come in juicy colours to brighten up a bathroom; Louis Barthélemy’s Egyptian characters flex and frolic (below); and Edith Morris experiments with curious characters from folktales will make you look twice.

In an era of millennial beige interiors and the homogenisation of homewares, these mood-boosting vignettes are a middle finger (or, in Hal’s case, a moon) to conformity, and a bid to bring fun, humour and levity to spaces that deserve to be filled with all three. Joyfully, the skill of these artists means even a single tile creates an impact, making it one of the most accessible design tweaks you can add to your home, too.

From top: Hal Haines’s Peachy tiles from £50, halhaines.studio; Louis Barthélemy’s Egyptomania collection, from £28.40, balineum.co.uk