encaustic tiles

Just a quick post on a middle-of-the-night eureka moment I had not that long ago. About a month ago I wrote a post about using cement tiles in the entryway of the Brooklyn brownstone I’ve been working on again recently. Most of the examples I included were green in color, as that is what we had been thinking. But for some reason, I just couldn’t help including this set of robins egg blue tiles from Tierra Y Fuego. Something about them just felt right for the house!

The main project I am working on in the house is a full kitchen redo, which I have written about extensively here (more links below too). We have been planning on a white kitchen, which the homeowner has long dreamed of. But as these weeks have ticked away, it has been weighing on my mind that the kitchen is too white for the house, and doesn’t balance with the lovely dining area opposite.

Cue the epiphany now – using the tiles for a kitchen backsplash! I prepared my battle plan argument for my client – it goes something like this…The tiles would add so much in numerous ways. On one hand, they are very current (almost trendy) right now, while on the other they are a historic material perfect for the period of the house. The colors are ideal – the soft blue-green of the dining room, with a darker blue-teal to ground them and some cinnamon and white for contrast. They are neither too French, too Moroccan, nor too culturally specific. And for good measure, look back at the ceiling molding in the dining room photo – almost too perfect!

Needless to say, it didn’t take much convincing at all. We ordered a sample set of four tiles and they came promptly. But my client still needed to “see it” to “believe it” so she used an age old trick – the photocopier! She made copies of the tiles (only one set in color) and laid them out along the backsplash. Voilá! Instant visual!

Do you ever have late night design epiphanies?

In an earlier life, the Brooklyn house I have been working on over the last few years was an SRO that was then lovingly restored by its previous owner. One thing they never got to was changing out the bad replacement front door that had been installed at some point in the past. The original grand double doors were long gone.

Most of the other houses on the street retain their original double doors in one form or another…

…so it was not at all difficult to get the Landmark Commission’s permission to change the door back to what it should be. You know me, there is nothing I like better than a little “oldating”! Like other typical brownstones, there is a secondary door inside, with a small entryway in between the two doors. Luckily for us, the inside doors remain, giving us an exact plan of what the outside doors should look like.

As the door is being moved forward to its original position, having been set back at some point years ago (you can see this in the very first photo), the marble slab in the entry way floor could not be re-used. Don’t worry, we are saving it for use in the garden, but some other floor covering needs to go into the vestibule between the two doors. It needs to be attractive, durable and period specific.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I have been encaustic tile crazy lately, as is much of the design community.

I’ve heard them called all kinds of names – encaustic, cement, hydraulic, and cuban tiles – but the basic gist of it is they are tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not made by the glaze but actually made of different colors of clay. I’m not going to split hairs over where and when they were invented (the typical cement ones are mid-19th century) or the exact differences in the processes and materials of making them as there are plenty of other sites that do (links at the bottom). Personally, I’ve seen them all over the world, from Argentina to Singapore to France and most recently in Vietnam, and I have always adored them.

At the same time they have become hugely popular, catching everyone’s eye in kitchens lately, for instance here and here. Numerous companies selling both original antique tiles and beautiful new ones based on old designs can be found in countries worldwide. The tiles I saw above in Hanoi are a classic pattern and readily available today.

They happen to also be perfectly age and style appropriate for entryways and were used extensively from the Victorian period onwards to a peak of popularity in the 1920s-30s. They are super practical as the pigment is not just on the surface but runs about one-quarter inch deep into the tile so chips in the surface show the same color underneath.

Cleanup is easy and hundred year old tile still looks amazing. One of our wedding gifts was a set of 16 antique tiles. I can remember some people thinking it was bizarre, but of course it was one of my absolute favorite presents! We set it into the center of our brick patio in our New York garden. I dug out this old photo and you can see the square of tiles in the center although you can’t actually see the pattern well.

While some antique ones would be divine…

…I don’t think the expense is necessary for this project as there are oodles of patterns being made in new tiles. While some tiles have complete patterns on each individual tile…

…most patterns are designed to be complete by grouping 4 tiles in a square to complete the actual pattern. This is called a tessellated pattern.

They remind me a bit of quilt squares that way.

I definitely prefer the four panel patterns to the individually patterned tiles.

There are also numerous border options and solid color coordinating tiles, so I foresee days of fun. Some sites have design tools that allow you to custom color your tiles, add borders and/or rotate them. In addition to all the Moroccan, French and Victorian styles out there, there are Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern and Contemporary patterns to be had. The possibilities are endless!

The US retailers that seem to be mentioned quite a bit include Mosaic House, Tierra y Fuego and Villa Lagoon, and I really liked the Australian site Jatana Interiors. All the tile examples in this post are from those sites. Ten minutes on the internet will bring a dozen sources and many patterns – I’m just starting to sift through them all. For more information, this link has a full history of the tiles around the world, links to global suppliers and all kinds of other videos and details. Link here for the difference between encaustic and cement tiles.

Late Night Design Epiphanies

A New Entryway in Brooklyn…Door Change and Encaustic Tile