We have decided to tile the “living” areas of the house (the kitchen, dining room and living room) in a neutral colored tile.
We are not sure if we want large tiles (12x12) or small (4x4) tiles, though. We are just trying to figure out if large tiles will make the room look smaller or if the smaller tiles will make the room look larger. we just don’t want something that will make the room look smaller.
Or does it make a difference?
I think the larger tiles make a room look larger, and more classy to boot. I used to work in a property developer, and for our upmarket residential projects, we exclusively used larger tiles - larger bathroom tiles, larger ceramic floor tiles and larger marble floor slabs.
We’ve got a fairly small kitchen and did large tiles. The way I see it, fewer lines to break up your overall view = larger appearance. Though we did have the same problem when we made our choice…we could have easily said “more spaces add up to more overall space” but ultimately I chose “less grout to clean.” Don’t let that be confused with “someone who actually scrubs grout” because I ain’t that girl.
Use large tiles. The larger the better. They make the room look larger, and much, much prettier.
Small tiles create lots and lots of parallel lines on the floor, and they very definitely make the room look much smaller.
Where I live, tiles are the only type of floor covering. No carpet, no wood…just tiles. Lots of em…
Real Estate agents list the size of the floor tiles as a selling point. Larger tiles make the house look nicer, and more expensive.
I’d guess the only reason to use small tiles (unless you like how they look) is that they’re slightly more forgiving of a uneven floor than the big tiles, making flaws less obvious. In any event, I’d strongly suggest using a good leveling compound, even if it means you have to stay out of the room until it dries.
Only downside is breakage, make sure you have quite a few tiles left over in case that happens.
If you are using ceramic or porcelain tiles, small ones also break less easily if something is dropped on them. Of course, if you are using any kind of stone, this is not an issue.
I just redid my house with tile. I like the larger tile sizes much better. There is a downside though-it is proportionally less forgiving in matching lines and shapes in the house. That is, we found that we wanted the grout line to line up with a wall edge in one place, which made lining the tile up in another spot harder. It took more time and more skill to get a good look. But it is worth it. So, the small tiles turn out to be easier and therefor cheaper and quicker to install. But the larger tile look is worth the trouble.
Also, large tile is IMO more appropriate to living spaces. Small tiles tend to look bathroom-y, and large spaces done in small tiles look institutional. IMO. But I’m right. 
I say split the difference – go for an eight-inch tile! I’ll add to what people said about the big tiles requiring a pretty level and robust floor. An irregular or spongy floor can result in the tiles cracking. And by the way, just in case that happens, buy some spares, as well as some of the correctly colored grout.
Small tile, to me denotes toilet. :eek:
this is what I am going for 
After thinking about it some more, I agree that the smaller 4x4 tiles would look weird in such a larger amount of space.
I hadn’t even thought about 8x8 tiles, but I kind of like the idea of the larger tile. Mr Geek doesn’t care really as long as it doesn’t make the rooms look smaller.
We will be tiling on concrete slab. We havent ripped up the carpet yet, but we do know that the previous owners tiled over linoleum in the kitchen 
Hopefully the concrete isnt all trashed.
We are going to start tile shopping this week to get some ideas of what we want. If we were just going to be doing the floors, I would probably go with stone, but the crappy, dated, beige (read: ugly) tile countertops with light brown grout are going to be replaced also. Well, the grout may not have been originally brown, but even the bleaching and scrubbing the grout won’t make it come clean :eek:
Thanks for the input.
In terms od perception of room size it does, but your best choice, 4" or 12 " depends on your original perception of room size prior to placing the grid.
Imagine a 3 foot wide hall (small). Three 12" tiles across is going to demand that you recognize its only three feet. The scarcity of lines can also make you conscious of where you place your feet when walking and thus enhance the feeling of confinement. Smaller 4" tiles is best for this situation.
On the other hand, 12" tiles on a 6’ wide hallway will drammatically make the hall appear larger than it is. Smaller tiles will not detract from the size, but will not enhance it.
In short, in a larger than normal area use large tiles. In a small area like the usual residential bathroom use small tiles.
Like others have stated, room size dictates tile size. Tiny little bathrooms deserve the 1" tile treatment. Your typical larger bathroom usually gets the 4" tiles. Transitional spaces like hallways and entryways in a typical house use 8" tiles. Larger, open living spaces can go 10-12" depending on the room size.
Because of their grid pattern they do a lot to define the “scale” of the room and dictate it’s use. If you use large tiles in a large room then the room is normally of single use, like one large open living room. If your going to make that same room multi-use, like “this corners is my little office, that’s the living room between the wall and the back of the couch, the kitchen table goes behind it” all in one large room then you need smaller tiles to define this.