Last week was action-packed as I made my annual pilgrimage to Coverings, a trade show for tile and stone. The week-long event took place in Orlando, Florida and was filled with highlights including seeing long-time friends, a face-to-face meeting with designer Alena Capra, and listening to Ryan Fasan, Tile of Spain's Technical consultant, speak about tile trends and design.
 |
| Bill Buyok, Avente Tile owner, at Coverings 2015 |
It's thrilling to share the industry trends with you and unveil our newest lines (drum roll please).
Hexagons are Hot
Anyone in attendance would agree that you could not avoid spotting the sexy six-sided polygon just about anywhere on the show floor. Hexagons tile formats were everywhere - as small mosaics, in elongated forms, bold colors, and in relief formats. Hands down, Elevations concave hexagon and 3D hexagon by Aguayo was one of my favorite tile finds.
 |
 |
| Elevations 3D Hex in three shades of grey adds interest to a classic pattern with concave and convex dimension. |
 |
| Concave Hexagon in black with a waxed finish is a new cast cement line from Aguayo. |
Formats, Patterns, Texture and Technology Blend
Ryan Fasan mentioned that the tile industry is at an exciting crossroads of blending artisanal technique with technology to provide a blending of looks never before seen or achieved. Think of this as cement tile meets thin formats and ink jet printer techniques, Last year I saw wood-look, stone-look, and cement tile designs infused on porcelain tile. Now, these different material looks (wood, stone, metal, and pattern) are being subtly blended onto tile to create sophisticated designs. While this is most prevalent in the state-of-the-art factories of Spain and Italy, you are seeing the same effect in the hand-crafted tiles in the Americas.
The new Hex line by Original Mission Tile shows how classic shapes are mixed with pattern to create complex, interesting and modern designs.
 |
| Pattern plays on popular hexagon shapes using metal grey and warm earth tones. |
 |
 |
| The rustic wood look of this beach house vignette is created with tile |
 |
| Cascading gold hexagon mosaics from Onix. |
Textured Tile Shapes
There is a strong trend to add interest to classic geometric shapes with texture and relief. The popular hexagon shape gets reinterpreted with concave relief as shown above. But, I love the rich and sexy shape of this teardrop in chocolate brown. Wouldn't this be lovely in a bathroom with different shades of blue? This also part of the new Elevations line from Aguayo that will be available from Avente soon.
 |
| Concave drops in chocolate brown create the sumptuous look of leather and add richness with the relief texture. |
 |
| Apavisa gold hexagons create a luxe look with a classic shape |
Textile influences are also growing with the emphasis of textured surfaces. Pins and Needles is a line completely inspired by fabrics, lace, and textile. The cast cement line is available in almost any color; but I love this line in its classic look on white. This is another line by Aguayo Cement Tile.
 |
| Brussels Lace showcases texture inspired by fabric and lace. |
The folks at In-Pietra from Mexico have captured the essence of creating dazzling texture in stone.
 |
| Texture created by carved stone and effective lighting adds richness to any design. |
It's not easy to recap a week of inspiration, trends, and learning. I came back from the show energized and excited. This is the best of the best in one (short) post and captures the essence of the show and what excites me. I'll share more trends in a future posts as we launch many of these new lines over the next six weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment