New Carrara Tile Designs...coming soon

We are working on a whole new catalog that will be full of Carrara designs.  Here's a sneak peek.

New Pattern Tile Designs

Our designers have been working their tails off on new product for our upcoming catalog.  Lots of new styles with vibrant colors.  Here are some preliminary photos of a few new patterns.

 

We'll post more as we get more photos. 

New Tile Designs

A few things in the works:

Click on any of the pictures for close ups.  Feel free to let us know what you think.  We'd love to hear it!

Accent Tiles from Corner Pieces

While we are coming up with new designs, we create a good amount of prototype tiles.  You'll see tiles of all shapes and colors spread out over every available horizontal surface in our art department.  It is quite fun, actually.  Just like when Mom takes a batch of cookies out of the oven, we are all drawn to the trays of new tiles as they come in from the production area.  We "ooooh" and "ahhhh" over the ones that catch our eyes first and everyone has a favorite.  For our Designers, there's a special satisfaction in seeing a design that was born on the computer screen transformed into a real, solid stone tile that has character and depth.  

Okay, it's a pie, not cookies, but isn't it a great image?

We purposely let the prototype tiles hang around for a while.  We might eliminate one or two designs or colors right away, but we let the rest sit and "marinate."  After living with them for a while, we can start to see the designs with more clarity and sometimes have different opinions than our first impressions.  We get ideas about how some tiles work together - or don't work together ("What were we thinking?!")  We can see which colors have staying power.  Maybe we liked the pastel-ish green color when we first saw it, but after looking at it day after day, we realize how anemic it seems compared to the deeper, stronger colors. 

Our "marinating" process can result in some serendipitous discoveries.  One example is that we've seen how the corner pieces that we create can be put together to form their own unique patterns. 

Metal Amore Scroll Corner

Eden Spring Corner

Zellii Fusion Corner

Colony Palm Corner

Saldano Corner

Cathedral Corner

We did go ahead and make accent tiles from the various Colony Collection Corners that we were playing with.  But we only have so much room in the catalog and these did not make the cut.  So here they are making their worldwide debut.  Just for you, blog readers:

Introducing the "Lost Colony Accents."

Colony Royal Accent Tile

Colony Queen Accent Tile

Colony King Accent Tile

An end to boring stone tile

New tile book coming soon.  Really!

Deep, rich colors - a makeover for our Marseille Collection

From the moment that we introduced it, our Marseille Collection has been one of our most celebrated and popular tile designs.   We have seen this versatile pattern used in kitchen backsplashes, large and small, and also scaled up for large format flooring applications.   It even won the coveted Platinum Award for Design Excellence (ADEX) for 2009.

The Marseille Collection was inspired by Jacobean embroidery, using highly stylized floral designs with flowing vines and leaves.  This type of embroidery was popular during the reign of King James I of England, in fabrics used for elaborate tapestries, bed hangings, curtains and even stylish jackets worn by both men and women. 

Ladies, can you imagine dressing yourselves in all those layers of embroidered, lace finery every morning?  And Gentlemen - how many of you could rock that terrific gold, leafy shirt like this guy is doing?  (Hawaiian shirts don't count.)  He owns that look.

We originally introduced this collection with three colorways - Red, Blue-Green and Green-Yellow.

In the past few months, our designers have been working to create different color palettes for this design.  We are going with rich, deep hues that really make a statement - Burgundy, Sage Green and Deep Brown.  Earthy and warm, but with enough boldness to add a stunning focal point to any room.

Burgundy

Sage Green

Deep Brown

The colors that you see here will become a bit more muted after these designs are printed on our stone tiles.  The shading of the natural stone will show through in the areas that are white in these pictures.  The warm color and natural texture of the stone will add so much to the unique beauty of these designs.  You will never get quite the same result on a porcelain or ceramic tile.  The natural stone gives this collection a warmth and a timeless feel that maintains the connection to its historic origins.

Even more New Tile Designs!

Quick preview of what we are working on.  

If it weren't for the potential kidnapping charges, we'd lock the doors and not let the design team leave until they finish all of these beautiful new collections.  They are doing an excellent job!  We are very, very close to finalizing.

Exciting new collections in development

Here is a quick look at new designs we've been working on.

 

  

  

 

Our designers have been working hard and we are really looking forward to finishing them up and launching these new tile collections.  Stay tuned....

And let us know what you think by leaving a comment!

Design with US #3 - New murals

Here's a preview of some new mural prototypes we are considering.  Let us know what you think!

Mural #1

20" high x 28" wide on 4x4 Micro-bevel Durango

Mural #2

30" high x 24" wide on 6x6 tumbled Botticino

 Mural #3

30" high x 24" wide on 6x6 tumbled Durango

  Mural #4

24" high x 24" wide on 6x6 tumbled Botticino

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