Platinum (metallic) Skirting Tile 152x152mm

Yes. Every Artworks piece in this finish is rated for internal walls, wet and dry, so a shower enclosure, wet room walls, the wall behind a bath and a splashback are all within scope. There is nothing to seal.

The caveat is about maintenance rather than suitability. A metallic finish shows water marks and limescale sooner than a coloured glaze, and the usual remedy — a descaling spray — is precisely what will damage it. In a hard water area, plan to wipe it down while it is wet rather than to clean it chemically later. On that basis it is entirely at home in a bathroom.

What it is not rated for is a floor. Artworks is a wall range from end to end.

No, and here the answer is firmer than for the rest of the range. Artworks is a wall glaze throughout and is not rated for foot traffic, but a metallic finish has a further problem: the brightness is a surface effect, and walking on it would take it off. The decorated tiles carrying real gold and platinum are the same.

That is rarely a constraint in practice, since the pieces made in this finish are a skirting, two narrow mouldings and a half tile — borders and bands rather than fields. Tell us the room and we will suggest a floor to sit beneath it. Call 01344 620211, or come to the showroom.

There is some variation, as with any fired metallic, and it shows differently from the variation you get on a coloured glaze. What differs is not hue but the exact quality of the reflection — how bright, how even — and on a surface bought for its brightness that is worth taking seriously.

Order the whole job at once and ask us to confirm the batch when we book it, and keep a spare piece or two from it. Because these pieces are used in short runs rather than across whole walls, a single continuous run drawn from one batch is usually easy to achieve if the order is placed in one go.

Warm water, a mild detergent and a soft cloth. Nothing else. This is the one part of the Artworks range where the cleaning advice is not a formality: the Platinum finish and the gold and platinum decoration are real precious metal fired onto the face of the tile, and they behave like metal rather than like a coloured glaze.

What to keep away from it: acidic limescale removers and descaling sprays, cream cleaners, scouring pads, anything gritty, and bleach-based sprays left to sit on the surface. Any of those will dull or lift the metal, and unlike a scratch in an ordinary glaze the damage cannot be polished out. Think of it as you would a gilded frame or a piece of silver plate.

In a shower or above a basin in a hard water area, the practical answer is to wipe the surface down while it is still wet rather than to let deposits build up and then attack them with a chemical. Done that way it keeps its brightness indefinitely.

The four plain pieces and the eight decorated tiles are usually in stock. Because several of them are sold by the piece or in small packs rather than by the square metre, it is worth sending your run lengths over so we can confirm quantities and availability before anything is committed.

Delivery is free on UK orders over £1,000. You are very welcome at our family-run showroom at 67 High Street, Ascot, where the Original Style range can be seen in person, or speak to the team on 01344 620211.

Four, and we stock all four: the Half Tile, the Skirting Tile 152x152mm, the Sigma Moulding 152x26mm and the Omega Moulding 152x12mm. That is the complete list Original Style make in this finish.

There is deliberately no field tile, no cornice, no corner trim and no ornamented moulding in Platinum. It is an accent finish rather than a tiling finish, and it is designed to be used against plain tiling in another Artworks colour — a bright band at the top of a dado, a skirting course, a fine line of metal closing an edge. Anyone planning a whole wall in it is planning something the range does not support.

Alongside the four plain pieces we also stock eight decorative tiles carrying real platinum, several of them with real gold as well: two Art Deco Fans, two Manhattan Borders, two Fleur de Lis Borders and two Fleur de Lis two-tile sets, on Brilliant White, County White or black grounds. Those are decorated tiles rather than Platinum tiles, and they are the usual way people bring the metal into a scheme.

Because it is a brightness rather than a hue, it has nothing to clash with, so the question is really which plain Artworks colour you run it against. It is at its sharpest on the darks — a bright metal line across Jet Black or Charcoal Grey is the strongest thing this range can do — and at its quietest on the whites, where it reads as a fine silver edge rather than a statement.

For metalwork, chrome, nickel and polished steel sit with it exactly; brass and aged gold set up a deliberate warm-against-cool contrast, which is the logic behind the decorative tiles that carry both metals at once. Mirror and cut glass amplify it. It is equally at home in a period scheme and a modern one, which is not true of most of the range.

Bring us the colour you are tiling in and we will put the two together on the bench. Our showroom is at 67 High Street, Ascot, and the team are on 01344 620211.

Yes. Cut samples are free to collect from our Ascot showroom, or we can post one to you for the cost of postage. Seeing the glaze in your own light is the surest way to judge how it will sit against your paint, stone and metalwork.

As a guide, add around 10% to your measured area for cuts and breakages, and nearer 15% for a herringbone, diagonal or brick-bond layout. It is also worth keeping a few spare tiles from the same batch in case a repair is ever needed.

Original Style say it does, and the mechanism is straightforward enough: the glaze is highly reflective, so it picks up whatever light is in the room and puts it back rather than absorbing it. In a space short of daylight that is a real effect, not a figure of speech — a windowless cloakroom, an internal shower, the blind end of a hall.

Two honest qualifications. It works on the light already present, so it repays a room that has a lamp, a mirror or a window to work with, and it does correspondingly less in a room with nothing to bounce. And because the range runs to four pieces, what you are usually adding is a band or a border rather than a wall — a bright line at eye level does a surprising amount, but it is a different proposition from tiling a room out in a pale colour.

If the room is the reason you are considering it, bring us the dimensions and where the light comes from. Cut samples are free to collect from our Ascot showroom, or posted to you for the cost of postage.