Shape Your Surfaces With New Tile Textures and Forms

Shape Your Surfaces With New Tile Textures and Forms

Technology has taken our movies, TV shows and printing to three dimensions, and now it is taking tile. Tile not merely has taken on textures like damask, stacked fabrics and stone in its new appearances, but has become an integral component of architecture, together with sculptural tiles adding new dimensions to walls. Tiles bulge, undulate, weave, wave, crimp, crumple, produce rhythms and draw our palms, which cannot resist touching them to check them out. Philippe Starck has even turned into the way we examine joints between tiles upside down. Below are some of the most interesting innovations I watched in the spring 2013 Coverings stone and tile show in Atlanta.

Patterns with large scale shapes. Separate tiles work collectively, meeting at the corners to create new shapes; it is like the wall was a sizable crumpled-up bit of paper that has been somewhat smoothed out.

Revealed:Apavisa

Inspired by piled stone. This appearance is a more uniform and modern take on piled rock’s popular aesthetic.

Revealed: Archistone by Ceradisa

Sculptural patterns. These layouts on wall tiles play with shadow and light and provide the entire wall an artistic quality in addition to depth.

Revealed:Lamosa

Tiles with various levels and textures. Famous designer Philippe Starck has a new line called Flexible Architecture for Sant’Agostino which means tile installation in a new manner. “The horrible joint was a problem; now the ugly joint becomes longer than the advantage. It becomes a reason to exist,” Starck explains. Think of the horizontal area between the shiny squares as enlarged joints.

Here is stated Starck combined: The glistening part and the reduced rough part are on precisely the exact same tile, so there are two distinct depths on a single square tile. There are various tile options (some are just the rough part, some have rough edges around all four raised sides, some have two rough edges, some have just one rough border etc.) and interesting ideas for configuring these tiles which you can take a look at in the catalog. I guarantee the pictures explain it much better than my words, and the idea is really brilliant and easy!

Seriously sculptural. The Archconcept Collection by Apavisa takes 3-D tiles to a whole new dimension. These tiles and the tiles beneath are anything but flat. They have the ability to totally transform interior design. And no, I really don’t have any clue how to clean them!

Hieroglyphic style. This tile and the one below are both from Egypt. They seem like they’re straight out of an archaeological dig.

Subtle patterns. Subtler patterns work well in a more minimalist room, whether cream tiles (all these are out of Viva) cover an whole wall or …

… just form an interesting border or stripe.

Revealed: Ascot

Small-scale 3-D tiles. Tiny tiles are in on the routine game also; here the small tiles provide the wall depth and attention in a mosaic pattern.

Revealed: Abita by Sant’Agostino

Fabric-inspired textures. Patterns like damask will also be appearing in relief on tiles.

Revealed: Interceramic

Other tiles are carrying on a rough linen or burlap look.

Revealed: Sant’Agostino

Tiles are also incorporating intricate borders, emblems and other decorations.

Revealed: Apavisa

Here is a closer look at these thorough border pieces in a shade of golden bronze.

Bronze Greek key details break this up tile wall.

Revealed: Ascot

Little beads in wavy patterns draw the eye. Ornamental pieces like these are like jewelry for walls.

Revealed: Apavisa

More new tile : The wood appearance

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