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.

What is legacy? A Blog Off Post

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "What is legacy?"

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These two women were my grandmothers.

That's Marjorie Belle Pfahl-Anater on the left and Guellma Gevene Flowers-Smith-Stewart on the right. I knew them as Gram A and Gram S, although we usually called Gram S by her middle name, Gevene. When I was young I loved Gram A for her intellect and musical talent. I loved Gevene for her scrappy common sense and good humor.

Both of my grandmothers were widowed before I came along and I never knew my grandfathers.

But I knew these two and the older I get the more of them I see in me. My love of classical music is pure Marjorie and my inability to suffer fools is pure Gevene. That's legacy. A legacy of a sort.

For me, the legacy a person leaves is the story of their lives. My grandmothers led lives of high highs and low lows, just like everybody else does. Both of these women dealt with adversity, survived the deaths of children and husbands, and witnessed the enormous, tumultuous changes that defined the 20th Century.

I grew up hearing a lot of their stories and to me, those stories are their greatest legacy. Those women weren't just static characters in a photo album, they were real people. I look at that photo above and I can hear Gevene's laugh and Marjorie's "Good glory!"

I think that people live on when their descendants tell their stories and pass along their legacy. My nieces and nephews, who number in the dozens, never knew those women as the forces of nature they were. But I did. I knew them and I feel like it's my job, my obligation, to those two great women to tell their stories to their great-grandchildren.

In telling those stories, in passing along those legacies, I keep my grandmothers alive for just a little while longer. And not only that, I reinforce (at least I hope I do) that my nieces and nephews belong. In the act of telling, I get to remind myself the same thing.

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As the day goes on, the rest of the participants in today's Blog Off will appear miraculously at the end of this post. Keep checking back and check out everybody's postss. You can follow along in Twitter as well, just look for the hashtag #LetsBlogOff. If you'd like more information about about the Blog Off or if you'd like to see the results of previous Blog Offs, you can find the main website here.

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec rethink the bathroom for Axor

While I was in Germany last month I saw this vanity. Notice how the shelf over the sink is also the faucet.

Pretty cool idea and I love all of the tiered surfaces surrounding that sink. I learned while I was there that this sink and shelf are part of a new collection from Axor, the leading edge of the Hansgrohe brand. Brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec designed a collection of some 70 components that are intended to be mixed and matched to make a fully custom bath design.

A big part of that is that the sinks and tubs aren't pre-dilled. All you need is a carbide-tipped bore and you can have your faucets be anywhere you want them. That is a great idea. Here are some glamor shots of the collection.

My pals at Hansgrohe tell me that the Axor Bouroullec is already available in Europe and will be coming to North America this summer. You can see all of the components from the Axor Bouroullec on Axor's international website.

Homeier debuts a new idea in ventilation

Check this out.

Those three things are functioning as a ventilation hood. It's a really neat idea. Each of those three towers, for lack of a better term,  is 560mm tall and 180mm wide, is attached to the counter, rotates 270 degrees, and uses a remote blower to do the actual ventilating.

What I'm showing you here is the Alia from Homeier and it represents something really new in ventilation. The Alia towers can be combined  in groups of two, three, four or five, depending on the need. Kitchen pros, here's the spec sheet.

I can see using these on an island as an alternative to dropping a hood from the ceiling. Their height would make them more effective than a pop up extractor and that the individual units rotate just adds to that effectiveness. Great idea Homeier. What do you guys think?

Can a sofa cause cavities?

In looking over the Mon Amour collection from Italian manufacturer Desart, I would say the answer is yes.

I know, I know, there's room for everybody. But really?

A lot of effort went into these pieces, and they're very well made. But still.

They're fully customizable too.

Is it me or does this combination of stain and upholstery look like the queen bee alien from Alien?

Argh. What do you think?