And 50 years ago, only small tiles - four or five inches square - could be pressed.

The floor was made of small green tiles on which Sharpe lay on his belly.

He was working one of those puzzles where you have to move small plastic tiles around until you get the numbers in the right order.

Some partial re-roofing has now been carried out in smaller red tiles that break up the surface effect of the roof.

Thus small mosaic tiles offer less of a defense than large format tiles.

Products are being designed so that small, medium and large tiles will align when combined into larger patterns.

"I noticed that the floor had an interesting pattern of small colored tiles," he says.

The floor inside was small octagonal tiles that must have been white when they were put down but now seemed a brownish gray.

Choose small tiles for a small room or to cover small areas.

A bearded man in a black cowboy hat placed a small wooden tile on the table.