Reader question: How do I handle switch plate and outlet covers on glass tile?

Help! What are your thoughts for how to treat switch plates and electrical outlets in a back splash covered in glass tile?  I've been browsing galleries online, and I find that outlets always seem to be an eyesore unless the surface is white subway tile.  We are still shopping tile, and haven't landed on a specific shade, texture or size, but we are thinking translucent green in some brick shape.  Is there some way to let the outlets appear more like a part of the back splash and less interruptive?

Thanks for your question and it's a good one; something I run into all the time.

The answer of course is that there's no answer, everything depends on the tile you end up selecting and how you want the final project to appear. Probably the only constant I can think of on this topic is not to use white switch plates from a home center.

In June, I wrote a post about new light switch plates and outlet covers made by Forbes and Lomax. They are as close to invisible as any I've ever seen but I don't know enough about them to know how they behave over tile. They're sure pretty to look at though.

So that's the first idea, pretend they're not there.

The second plan of attack is to go in the opposite direction and draw attention to them. Find a decorative plate in metal, stone, glass, enamel, porcelain or anything else you can think of and use that.

The trick when taking that path is to tread a fine line between enhancing your tile and overwhelming it. That decision is best made after you've selected your tile. The switch plate covers above are from Switch Hits, a website that boasts that it has 160,000 plates in stock. After having looked over their website, I believe them. It's an exhaustive collection (with varying taste levels), but it's a terrific place to spend some time to get you thinking about the unexpected.

Any good houseware or cabinet hardware store will have a selection of decorative plates. A good glass cutter can make you any switch plates you'll need too.

So that's what I say at any rate. Anybody else out there have a suggestion for my reader here? Anybody handle this dilemma in a way they're particularly proud of? Anybody handle it poorly, learn a lesson, and care to share some hard-won wisdom? No judgement  I promise. If anybody's so motivated to lend a hand that he or she wants to send in some photos, e-mail them to me and I'll add them to this post.

And that, dear reader, is how I'd approach handling switch plate and outlet covers on a glass tile back splash.

However, be glad you're in Indianapolis and thinking about this. If you were in London, you'd have to try to minimize this.

Side note to to British readers, how on earth do you deal with these things?

Hey kids, let's produce a bathtub in the shape of a shoe and sell boatloads of tile in the process.

So it started last week. Nick Lovelady is one of my Twitter friends and he tweets under the alias @cupboards. He threw a link up on Twitter and challenged me to write something scathing about what he dubbed drag queen bathtubs. Here are a couple of images of the tubs in question.

Nick's drag queen bathtubs sprouted legs and before too long there were between five or six people batting snarky comments back and forth about them. Nick was insistent that I write something and I agreed that I would if he did. Then I upped the pressure a bit and demanded that everybody who was trading barbs about it last Thursday deal with these things in their blogs today. As the day goes on today, I'll post links to everybody else's take on these things at the bottom of this post. I have a feeling that everybody else will me laughing about them. I thought it through and I think the joke's on us.

At first I was appalled but then I read the accompanying article. It turns out that these are real tubs but the kicker is that they're produced by Sicis. Sicis is an Italian mosaic tile company, in my mind they are the Italian mosaic tile company. Sicis is the Ravenna-based producer of some of the finest (and most expensive) glass tile on the planet. Their primary product are small-scale tiles and they're available in a color palette that's so expansive it's difficult to describe adequately.

As amazing as the quality of the color is, where Sicis really shines is as an incubator of ideas. Sicis does everything it can to enable great designers to go nuts with Sicis tile. And go nuts they do. Here's some of what I mean.

I cannot imagine any other manufacturer pulling this off.

I don't doubt for a second that Sicis will sell you one these tubs. They will sell you one of these mannequins too. But something tells me that in the deepest bowels of that factory in Ravenna, no one's pinning their hopes on you or anybody else buying a mosaic bathtub in the shape of a shoe. What Sicis want from these tubs is for people to talk about them and to talk about Sicis at the same time. So in the case of this blog post, I played right into their hand. I'm glad to do it too. Sicis makes amazing stuff and how they sell it is usually as compelling as the stuff itself.

Sicis has a new showroom on the corner of Broome and Green Streets in New York. It is the St. Peter's Basilica of mosaic tile.




No trip to New York could be considered complete without a stop there. Their neighborhood in Soho is crammed with such notable neighbors as Waterworks, Kartell, Artemide, Luceplan and their primary competitors, Bisazza. Get thee to Soho!

So after all that, we're back to the tubs. How clever is it that a company in Ravenna can encourage a designer to develop an absurd bathtub and in reaction to it, a bunch of other designers would start talking about it on Twitter. Less then a week later, all of those designers would talk about those tubs on their blogs. I think that's what we call viral marketing. Sicis spent a couple thousand euros on an absurd tub and as a result of that, they're going to sell a boatload of tile.

Since this post is part of a popular uprising on Twitter, here ae the rest of the fine folks who are weighing in on this weighty issue today. Check 'em out.

Always game Becky Shankle: Eco-Modernism is her blog,  @ecomod is her Twitter handle
Innocent bystander Alexandra Williams: Fun and Fit is her blog, @Alexandrafunfit is her Twitter handle
Chief instigator Nick Lovelady: Cupboards is his blog, @cupboards is his Twitter handle
Guilty bystander Bill Buyok: AventeTile Talk is his blog,  @AventeTile is his Twitter handle
Puppet master Rufus Dogg, AKC, PhD, DS: Dog Walk Blog is his blog, @dogwalkblog is his Twitter handle
The divine Madame Sunday: Modern Sauce is her blog, @ModernSauce is her Twitter handle

Life's too short for cheap hardware

Schaub and Company, the Michigan-based purveyor of amazing hardware, just released some new collections and one of them features a new material for them, art glass. The collection is called Ice and here it is.

Its companion collection, Fire, follows here.

I wax rhapsodic about Schaub's offerings from time to time and it's a pleasure to be one of their resellers. Schaub and Company has a long history of producing unusually beautiful hardware. So much so that they are alone at the top of their field when it comes to knobs and handles designed and produced with such care.

What drew me to them originally was this series, Branches, that uses Swarovki crystals and black pearls. Any company who can produce this can produce anything so far as I'm concerned.

From Branches, Schaub and Company have moved on to revive the dying art of semi-precious inlays. Check out the pen shell in these crabs from the Neptune Designs collection.

People refer to decorative hardware as House Jewelry and Schaub's taken that to heart with their Heirloom Treasures collection.

 

They're not kidding.

So when Schaub and Company releases something like this Northport collection, I pay attention.

Good hardware should last a lifetime and its use isn't limited to your kitchen cabinets. I can see those Heirloom Treasures on an armoire or a buffet and my dresser is screaming for that Northport square knob in Polished Nickel.

So remember two things when it's time to think about this stuff. Remember to spend some time with Schaub and Company but above all, remember that life's too short for cheap hardware.

Ann Sacks discovers wood

The great Ann Sacks has been experimenting with some new materials and the result is as stunning as everything else they touch.

The first thing up is a collection of carved teak wall tile that goes by the name Indah. Indah means beautiful in Indonesian. There's a clear Indonesian influence at work here, and it's not just the material that's driving it. This collection is Indonesia through western eyes and the effect is stunning. To these western eyes at any rate.

12" x 12"

circles

12" x 12"

thumbprint

12" x 12"

weave

12" x 12"

acanthus leaf

12" x 12"

banana leaf

12" x 12"

horizontal lines

12" x 12"

horizontal waves

Not to rest on their laurels, Ann Sacks has another, smaller collection in wood too. The second collection is called Bosque. Bosque uses FSC-certified Eastern Walnut, Brazilia Cherry Jatoba or Caribbean Teak Chichipate and everything's finished in low-VOC sealers. Here are some examples from the Bosque collection.

2" x 8" low, medium and high fields in eastern black walnut

4" x 4" low, medium and high fields in caribbean teak chichipate

4" x 4" pillow field in caribbean teak chichipate

Beautiful stuff all of it.

As a side note, Ann Sacks' landing page is featuring their Beau Monde collection right now.

Beau Monde is conceived and manufactured by Sara Baldwin, a great friend of this blog. Brava Sara! So go feast your eyes on some Beau Monde after you're finished checking out Ann Sacks' other great discovery --wood.

I still love you Sherwin-Williams

Despite the mixed reception this latest round of color forecasts received, Sherwin-Williams remains my go-to paint brand when it comes to specifying room colors. Their paints are of exceptional quality and the specifying tools they provide me make finding the colors I need a snap. They have been on a real roll on the advertising front lately too. Check out their new TV spot, Bees.




It's the follow up to this gem, Paint Chips Animated.




And just to get a feel for their roots, here's a great one from 1966.




I like the new spot, Bees, even more than I did the original paint chips spot. I think it's the song that makes this one so enjoyable. Anybody know anything about who wrote it and who's performing it?

If you missed this past week's Sherwin-Williams color forecast roundup, I encourage you to go back and give them a look-see. Feel free to weigh in in the comments that follow. And remember, despite how that went, I still love you Sherwin-Williams.