Mosaico+ has a winner in Dialoghi

Another favorite from Coverings last year was back this year with a new booth and a new product line that's really fired my imagination. That vendor was Mosaico+ (Mosaico Piu in Italian) and one of their new product lines is Dialoghi. Dialoghi means dialog in English and it's certainly an apt title.

Dialoghi consists of a number of mosaic shapes that are available in a host of stones, colored glasses, woods and metals. In a few weeks there will be an interactive planner on their website available where you'll be able to mix and match their tiles to your heart's content. You'll then be able to design your own, fully-custom mosaic pattern and it'll arrive as 30cm x 30cm sheets, all ready to install.

Planners and randomizers aren't unusual on manufacturer's websites when it comes to the mosaic niche. What makes Mosaico+ so cool is their shapes. It's easier to show rather than tell so here goes.

See what I mean? Bravi Mosaico+! Their new website will be up and running in a few weeks but in the meantime, you can look at the rest of their offerings.

Italian manufacturer Sicis at Coverings

I make no secret of the fact that I love fine-art mosiacs. Even though they're a different category all together, I have a great fondness for mosaics produced in a more production-oriented environment too. A longtime favorite among these mosaic factories is Ravenna-based Sicis.

Sicis' work provocative and it's wonderful to see an Italian company doing business all over the world with a consistent, in-your-face marketing message and the goods to back it up. Nobody does production mosaics in glass anywhere near what Sicis does and it was a great thrill to see them at Coverings this week in Las Vegas.

Sicis rolled out six new color stories at the show this week and were kind enough to provide me with clear photographs of each. Sicis works in very large formats. Here's one of my photos of their booth in Las Vegas. It's Easier to appreciate the work in isolation though.

There were six new color stories as I mentioned earlier and the vignette above is showing how they presented Tango.  Here are a couple of their official shots that show off the thinking behind Tango.

Next up was Gypsy.

Followed closely by neutral but still interesting Mink.

Here's one of my close ups from the Mink display.

The chiaroscuro in the Skyline color story lends itself to the old world as well as it does the new.

Savile has me rethinking everything I think I think about grey.

And if Sicis can't poke you in the eye with an image, they're do it with a name. This is Nude.

Great job Sicis. What do you guys think? Could you imagine using some of the room-sized installations these patterns and color stories are intended for?

Tile style from Spain

When The Spainish Tile Manufacturer's Association (ASCER) had me in Spain last month to see their products and meet their people in person, I had a awareness of a number of Spanish tile brands already. ASCER markets itself in North America as Tile of Spain and I've seen Tile of Spain at Coverings for as long as I've been going to that show. It was at Coverings that I first learned about Spanish tile and that awareness just fed into an interest in tile that I've had for as long as I can remember.

Two brands whose work I've always admired are Keraben and Peronda. One of the highlights of my time in Spain was the chance to tour Keraben's factory in Castellón. My friend Bob Borson was on the Spain trip too and he wrote what I say is the definitive post on that factory tour on his site, Life of an Architect. Bob's report from the factory floor is chock-full of pointers about what makes good tile good and is well worth the read. Tile expert Ryan Fasan provided the technical details in Bob's article and it's a definite keeper.

Keraben is breaking new ground when it comes to high-resolution printing on tile. Their products do such a good job of imitating natural stone and wood that I have a hard time telling the difference between tile and the real stuff. Here's an overview of their new releases for 2011.

Peronda tends to push the aesthetic envelope a bit more than Keraben does and it's great to see ceramic tile enjoying such a renaissance with their help.

If you're interested in finding any of these tile styles for yourself, you can find a lot of information about where to buy these products on Tile of Spain's website.

It's a Coverings Tweet Up. Officially.

Coverings, the great North American tile and stone show has always been at the forefront of new media. They're extremely blogger positive, they maintain a lively Facebook presence and more than any other trade show I know, they embrace Twitter.

Coverings is in Las Vegas' Sands Expo and Convention Center this year and the show's running from March 14 through the 17th. They've also asked me to host an official Coverings Tweet Up. If you've never heard that expression before, a Tweet Up is a real-life meeting of people who use Twitter.

So all you tile and stone Twitterers, we're meeting up at 4pm on Monday, March 14th. We'll meet next to the Installation Design Showcase, booth #178 A-C. That's also next to the bar. I'll have drink tickets to distribute so the first round's on Coverings.

Look for more Twitter and other social media platform-based promotions during the entire three days of the show. If you don't already, follow Coverings on Twitter, Like them on Facebook and Link to them on LinkedIn. Remember too to use the hashtag #Coverings2011 in your Coverings-related Tweets so we know you're out there. See you in Vegas!

A Houzz-ian round up

Here's a re-cap of the stuff I've been writing over at Houzz.com. If you're not already a Houzz fan, poke around on that site, there's a lot to explore.

Straight From Spain: Amazing New Trends in Tile

Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More»

Browse by Space and Style- For Example:

Modern Kitchen · Mediterranean Bathroom · Traditional Living Room · Mediterranean Bedroom · Eclectic Dining Room · Modern Homes · Modern Patio · Traditional Landscaping ·

Special Report: Bath Trends From Valencia

Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More»

Browse by Space and Style- For Example:

Mediterranean Kitchen · Traditional Bathroom · Modern Living Room · Modern Bedroom · Traditional Dining Room · Modern Homes · Contemporary Patio · Modern Landscaping ·

Alternatives to Granite Countertops, Part III

Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More»

Browse by Space and Style- For Example:

Mediterranean Kitchen · Tropical Bathroom · Modern Living Room · Tropical Bedroom · Eclectic Dining Room · Tropical Homes · Modern Patio · Eclectic Landscaping ·

Special Report: Design News from Toronto

Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More»

Find Home Improvement Professionals- For Example:

New York Architect · New York Interior Designer · San Francisco Contractor · Chicago Landscaping ·

Tile trends from Cevisama

The Spanish Tile Manufacturer's Association (ASCER) promotes Spanish ceramic tile in North America as Tile of Spain. I was the fortunate recipient of a trip to Spain last week to get to know the Spanish tile industry, Spanish culture and the Spanish people. My trip was built around my attending Cevisama, the Spanish tile, stone and bath trade show.

Cevisama was an enormous show, easily the largest tile trade show I've ever attended. The facility where it was held, the Feria Valencia, was an amazement.

As I walked the show floor and toured the booths I saw a number of overriding trends, many of which will end up on this side of the Atlantic eventually. Tile is the default material for much of the world though it's certainly not in North America and that's unfortunate. It's a great material and I learned more about it in Spain than I ever thought there was to know.

The big news from Spain is that the Spanish have mastered the art of digital printing on tile. The tile above isn't the banded calcite it appears to be. That is a pattern printed on a ceramic tile. The printing was so clear I could swear I saw the saw marks from a stone saw on that tile.

The Spanish use tile in innovative ways. The shelves above are made form walnut shelves with porcelain tile dividers.

All over Europe, builders are using large-format, thin porcelain tiles for sheathing the exteriors of buildings. When used in this manner, the tile isn't held into place with mastic and grout. Rather, it's hung on an aluminum rack with a layer of insulation behind it. This makes for a highly energy efficient structure that never needs to be maintained.

Moving back inside, the long horizontal wall tiles we see here were all over the place. For the last couple of years, designers in North America have been obsessed with hiding grout joints and it was kind of interesting to see the grout in this bathroom be an integral part of this design.

Almost every tile I saw had a lot of texture. This one was interesting because it's a 12" tile with with a textured mosaic printed on it. This would make installation a snap and I apologize to my friends in the mosaic world for coming close to liking this tile.

This is another 12" tile with textured mosaic printed on it. When done this way, this faux mosaic takes on a character that's utterly different from a mosaic.

I saw a lot of bright colors and very few of them were on flat tiles.

In keeping with the digital printing mastery, what appears to be a wallpapered bathroom is actually, completely tiled.

I saw a lot of tile being used in rooms other than the kitchen and bath uses we're so accustomed to in North America.

Here's another ceramic tile that appears to be wood paneling and wallpaper.

I saw a large number of combinations of natural stone, glazed ceramic and metallic ceramic. That hexagonal shape was pretty popular too. This is not something I'd ever think to do on my own but I think it looks pretty terrific.

I took thousands of photographs while I was there so consider this to be the first in a series on tile trends. What do you think of all of this? Would you ever use any of these styles in your own home?

Thank you once again to Tile of Spain for this once-in-a-lifetime trip to Spain. If you'd like to learn more about what the Spanish tile industry is up to, you can find all the information you could ask for on Tile of Spain's website.