Moroccan tiles: zellige, bejmat and cement tiles
The phrase "Moroccan tiles" actually covers four products that share neither the same manufacturing process, nor the same sizing, nor the same use: hand-cut zellige, bejmat, cement tiles and industrial glazed stoneware lookalikes. I have been working with these materials since my very first interior projects in Casablanca, and most of the disappointments I see come not from the material itself but from an order placed too quickly, without a sample from the exact batch and without a setting-out plan. Here is what you need to know before choosing, ordering and installing.
Four materials confused under a single name
When a client tells me they want Moroccan tiles, I always start by asking for a photo. Nine times out of ten, the image shows hand-cut zellige, while the budget and the schedule point to an industrial glazed stoneware lookalike. These are two different worlds.
The four families, one sentence each:
- Hand-cut zellige: clay shaped by hand, glazed, fired in a traditional kiln, then chiselled to size. Undulating surface, varied glaze, irregular sizing. The wall material par excellence.
- Bejmat: a small elongated terracotta brick, roughly 15 x 5 cm and 2 cm thick, glazed or raw. It is a floor material, and a very good one.
- Cement tiles: pigmented mortar cold-pressed, never fired. Geometric patterns, predominantly 20 x 20, a porous and living material.
- Industrial zellige lookalikes: rectified 10 x 10 porcelain or glazed ceramic produced in a factory, reproducing the shaded look of zellige with consistent sizing.
Each one has a field where it is exactly right and a field where it becomes decorative in the worst sense of the word. The choice is as much a matter of architecture as of decoration: if you are unsure about the scope of service you need, I explain the difference in my guide architect or interior architect.
Hand-cut zellige: a living material, not a tile
Zellige starts with grey clay, hand-shaped in a mould, sun-dried, glazed and then fired. The historic workshops are located around Fez and Meknes. After firing, each tile is chiselled to size and bevelled along the edges, which explains the thinner band of glaze around the perimeter and the way the light shifts throughout the day.
Actual sizing, and what it requires
A zellige sold as 10 x 10 actually measures between 9.3 and 10.5 cm, with a thickness ranging from 8 to 13 mm and a back that is rarely flat. This has to be accepted as a project constraint:
- Installation uses adhesive mortar with back-buttering, on a perfectly true substrate, by a tiler used to compensating for thickness variations.
- Joints stay very thin, 1 to 2 mm, often achieved by eye without spacers.
- Shades vary from one firing to the next. The same green can range from bottle to celadon within a single pallet: that is the desired effect, not a defect.
- Allow 12 to 15 % for breakage and offcuts, compared with 8 to 10 % for industrial tiles.
Where it makes sense
As a kitchen splashback, a shower wall, a reception desk facing, or a dado in a living room. On a small, well-lit surface it brings a depth that no digital print can reproduce. On a high-traffic floor, however, the glaze scratches and the irregularity becomes uncomfortable: that is not its place. In my interior architecture projects in Casablanca, I almost always reserve it for a vertical plane, in a single colour, over a clearly defined surface.
Bejmat: the floor that withstands traffic and time
Bejmat is the floor version of the same tradition: an elongated terracotta brick, about 2 cm thick, laid on screed with mortar. It comes in natural unglazed terracotta, in ochres and pinks, and in a glazed version closer to zellige in tone.
It is the material I most often propose when a client wants something "Moroccan" without slipping into pastiche. Its qualities are practical: useful thermal mass in a Moroccan house, a patina that improves over the years, piece-by-piece repairability, and a tight pattern that gives scale to large surfaces.
Setting out and installation
Bejmat can be laid in a herringbone pattern, at 45 or 90 degrees, in chevrons or in a straight bond. The choice matters: a 45-degree herringbone energises a long room but generates a lot of cuts around the perimeter, while a straight bond is more restrained and more economical. The direction of the laying pattern is decided on the drawings, based on the line of sight from the entrance, not on site.
Treatment
Unglazed bejmat is porous. It needs a pore-filling sealer before grouting so that the grey grout does not stain the terracotta, then an oil finish or a water- and oil-repellent sealer, to be renewed every two to four years depending on traffic. Without this treatment, a kitchen becomes impossible to maintain within a year. This detail is prepared from the design stage onwards: I systematically build it in when I draw a villa in Morocco, because it determines finished floor levels and thresholds.
Cement tiles: the pattern is drawn before it is ordered
Cement tiles are not fired. They are made in a hydraulic press: a 3 to 4 mm wear layer of pigmented cement mortar poured into a brass divider that forms the pattern, then a body of coarser mortar. The common format is 20 x 20, 16 to 18 mm thick. Curing takes several weeks: a tile delivered too fresh will bloom and stain.
The rules I follow
- The pattern is set out on drawings, tile by tile, with the actual cuts. A pattern that repeats across four tiles loses all meaning if its axis falls in the middle of a piece of furniture.
- A rug rather than wall-to-wall: a patterned "rug" framed by a border or plain tiles, in an entrance hall or under an island, works better than a whole room saturated with pattern.
- Two-stage treatment: pore-filling sealer before installation, cleaning then a water- and oil-repellent sealer once fully dry. Never acidic products, never vinegar, never neat bleach.
- The colour evolves. The pigments soften over the first few months, then the surface develops a patina. Clients need to be told, otherwise the first oil stain turns into a dispute.
On commercial projects I use them sparingly and always outside wheeled-traffic areas. On the My Laser centres the practice designed in Casablanca and Tangier, the logic was different: a calm floor with targeted accents of material. You can browse these projects in the practice's projects.
Industrial zellige lookalikes: honest choice or pastiche?
The 10 x 10 glazed stoneware that imitates zellige has improved a great deal. Glaze variations, slightly irregular edges, a consistent thickness of 8 to 10 mm, stable sizing, a much lower price and quick installation by an ordinary tiler. Over a large surface, on a tight budget, or in premises that need to open quickly, it is a rational choice and I specify it without hesitation.
What it does not give you is refraction. Real zellige reflects light in facets because its surface is slightly warped. The lookalike, being flat, reflects light uniformly. At 30 cm the difference is obvious; at 3 m it fades. So the question is simple: from what distance and under what light will this wall be seen?
The pastiche red line
Pastiche is never a question of material, it is a question of accumulation. A plain zellige wall in a contemporary interior is right. The same zellige combined with horseshoe arches in plasterboard, a laser-cut MDF moucharabieh, gilded wall lights and a coffered ceiling turns into themed restaurant decor. My advice is to choose one strong Moroccan gesture per space and treat everything else in neutral materials.
In offices the rule is stricter still: a zellige accent behind the reception desk is enough to give a local identity, and the rest should stay understated and durable. That is the approach I apply to office fit-outs in Casablanca.
Setting out, grout and installation: everything is decided before delivery
Setting out is the laying plan: actual dimensions surveyed, position of the axes, location of cuts, external corners, sockets and switches. It is done before ordering, because it is what gives you the exact quantity, the distribution of batches and the number of special pieces. Setting out after delivery means discovering that you are two square metres short in a shade that is no longer available.
Grout: the detail that makes or breaks the wall
- Zellige: 1 to 2 mm joint, tone on tone or slightly darker than the glaze. A 4 mm white joint turns a zellige wall into a chessboard and completely flattens the shading.
- Bejmat: 3 to 5 mm joint, in a beige or grey close to the terracotta, never pure white, which ages badly.
- Cement tiles: thin 1 to 2 mm joint, in the background colour of the pattern, so the design reads continuously from one tile to the next.
What I check on site
True and dry substrate, back-buttering, laying plan posted on the wall, boxes mixed to distribute the shades, grout tested on a 1 m² sample panel before grouting the full 20 m². That sample panel is the best investment of the whole job: it costs half a day and avoids having to redo the work.
These decisions are part of my site supervision services, whether the project is in Casablanca or Rabat.
Five common mistakes and relative prices
1. Ordering without a sample from the exact batch. A two-year-old showroom sample guarantees nothing. You need a sample from the batch that will actually be delivered, approved in writing, plus a 12 to 15 % reserve kept on site.
2. Setting out after delivery. Quantities are calculated from a laying plan, not from a gross surface area plus 10 %. Otherwise you end up with visible colour mismatches or material paid for and never used.
3. Choosing a grout that overwhelms the pattern. Too wide, too light, too contrasted: the most common mistake and the hardest to correct once it has set.
4. Laying zellige on a circulation floor. The glaze scratches and the edges chip. Use bejmat, that is what it is made for.
5. Ignoring the treatment of porous materials. Natural terracotta and cement tiles without a pore-filling sealer: the job is lost at the first grouting.
Relative prices, 2026 orders of magnitude
I prefer to think in ratios rather than fixed prices, because rates vary widely depending on the workshop, the colour and the quantity. Taking natural bejmat as base 1 for supply:
- Industrial zellige lookalike: roughly 0.7 to 1.2
- Glazed bejmat: roughly 1.3 to 2
- Patterned cement tile: roughly 1.5 to 2.5
- Hand-cut 10 x 10 zellige: roughly 2.5 to 5
- Bespoke cut zellige mosaic: above 6, with workshop lead times to allow for
Add installation: zellige takes two to four times more labour time than a large-format industrial tile. These orders of magnitude should be confirmed by supplier and installer quotes. As for fees, my indicative 2026 ranges are public: on-site assessment from 1,500 to 2,500 MAD (Moroccan dirhams), interior architecture services from 10 to 20 % of the value of the works, with full details on the fees page.
One last regulatory point: replacing a floor or wall finish requires no permit. As soon as the project affects the structure, the facades or the floor areas, the application goes through the Rokhas platform and must be submitted by an architect registered with the Ordre, in accordance with law 016-89. The steps are set out in my guide on building permits in Morocco, and the other topics are gathered in my guides.
What clients ask me most
What is the difference between zellige and bejmat?
Zellige is a hand-cut glazed tile, usually square, intended for walls: splashbacks, showers, wall facings. Bejmat is an elongated terracotta brick of roughly 15 x 5 cm and 2 cm thick, designed for floors and laid in herringbone or angled patterns. Same tradition, same clay, but a thickness and durability aimed at completely different uses.
How much does zellige cost in Morocco?
The price depends on the workshop, the colour and the format. Hand-cut 10 x 10 zellige costs, as a supply item, two and a half to five times the price of natural bejmat, and bespoke cut mosaic goes well beyond that. Installation represents a significant share of the cost, since it takes two to four times longer than industrial tiling. These are 2026 orders of magnitude to be confirmed by quotation.
How do you maintain cement tiles?
Sweep, then mop with a neutral soap or diluted black soap. Never use acidic products, vinegar, limescale removers or neat bleach: they attack the cement and dull the pigments. A water- and oil-repellent sealer applied once the tiles are fully dry, then renewed every two to four years, limits grease stains in a kitchen.
Can zellige be used in a bathroom or a walk-in shower?
Yes, it is in fact one of its best uses. The condition is substrate preparation: waterproofing under the tiles carried out properly, a true substrate, back-buttering and a thin water-repellent joint. Zellige itself is not frost-sensitive or affected by humidity, and it ages very well in a wet room.
How can you tell real zellige from an imitation?
Look at the edge and the back: hand-cut zellige has a variable thickness, a rough back and irregular bevelled edges. On the surface, the glaze is slightly warped and reflects light in facets, with shades that change from one tile to the next. Industrial imitations are flat, calibrated to the millimetre and repeat their variations across a limited number of faces.
What grout colour should you choose for zellige?
A tone-on-tone joint, or half a tone darker than the glaze, at 1 to 2 mm maximum. A wide white joint outlines every tile and destroys the continuous, sheet-like effect that makes zellige worthwhile. I always have a 1 m² sample panel made before grouting the whole wall.
Let's talk about your project and its materials
Tell me about your project: the surface involved, the room, its use, the condition of the substrate and your budget. I will tell you frankly which material will hold up in your case, what it means in terms of installation and maintenance, and what a support and supervision service would involve. You can write to me from the contact page or call me on +212 661 25 78 84.
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