ELLE DECOR Gets Fired Up About New Tile Options
In ELLE Decor’s March issue, the TOOLBOX column, which helps readers with inspiration and ideas for kitchen, bath, and building products, features “a new generation of tile options,” that accomplished shelter writer Tim McKeough says are “shaking up this ancient art form with color, pattern, and texture.” We’re thrilled that the new Sister Parish Design for Country Floors ceramic tile collection is featured among the standouts for 2020. Says McKeough, “Ceramic tile has a split personality. On one hand, it is a product of utilitarian performance – a hard-wearing, impervious, hygienic surface that has become the cladding of choice for the most demanding environments.” Conversely, he writes, “It is an artistic product of the highest order, one that has communicated stories of culture, artistic achievement, and decorative flair for centuries.”
The piece tells the tale of tile’s performance-centric innovations in the last decade when the aspects of tile that exist under the surface were taking precedence. But, says ELLE Decor, “The functionalist reign has come to an end. Tile trends are moving in a maximalist direction as designers and manufacturers embrace more creative designs once again.” But the overarching theme is that, as so often in design, what’s old is new once again. “The rise of room-defining tile may feel like a long time coming, but it is actually the material’s return to form. ‘Throughout history, there’s always been a love of color and a love of detail,’ says Terry Bloxham, assistant curator of ceramics and glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who recently wrote The Tile Book (Thames & Hudson), a tome exploring the lavish tiles produced between the 13th century and the present day. ‘We’re no different from our ancestors.'”
Read the full article in the March 2020 issue of ELLE Decor.