This clever design mixes ceramic and wood tiles in a herringbone pattern to divide the bedroom and bathroom in a compact Parisian home without the need for chunky partitions. Ceramic tiles are used for the spaces that are likely to be exposed to water, and warm wood for the others.

To create the effect, interior designer Stéphanie Kalb needed to find ceramic and wood tiles that had exactly the same dimensions, which proved tricky. Her solution was to start with the ceramic ones and to cut oak panels to the same measurements.

For the sake of continuity, she colour-matched the light-grey grout on the ceramic tiles with a mix of adhesive and wood-dust on the oak sections (tile grout cannot be used with wood).

Next came the challenge of working out the geometric pattern. Kalb advises restricting the length of the area in which the materials appear to merge to a maximum of two metres; this will help to maintain a sense of flow.