Why don’t you try: a tiled headboard wall?

Above: stacked limestone. [photo: Ben Ritter].

Below: groovy mosaic! Both: Trend USA tiles.

Mod mosaic facade: chic or eek?

This building on Houston Street has always intrigued me. I used to think it was kind of naff, but now I’m cottoning to its neo-geo 60s-esque tiled charm and applaud the use of glass mosaics for an exterior application–something I see all the time in Miami but not so often in NYC.

Great idea: Extending wall tiles to the floor

While tooling around on the Appiani website the other day, I spied the above, a brilliant twist on a wallpaper-mosaic feature wall: bring the pattern down to the floor! I could see doing this in a bathroom, too, and finishing the rest of the floor in a solid-patterned mosaic. Yum.

Meanwhile, why don’t more people use tile in the bedroom? Such a great way to bring color and pattern into your home, and tres hypoallergenic for those who are sensitive to dust etc. I’m just saying…

More awesome NYC subway art

Dekalb stop on the Q! Crazy palimsest-y mosaic…

Tile graffiti-ist Invader strikes in Billyburg

Sttrrrrrrrike! Across the street from Brooklyn Bowl a few weeks ago, spied a HUGE Invader tile graffiti installation on the NW corner of 11th and Wythe! The thrill almost made up for all my gutter balls…

You like? Check out more Invader here and here.

As seen in: Coffee Shop, Union Square NYC

  a wall mosaiced in porcelain cup shards! clever!

Some sparkly prettiness for a gloomy Friday

Outside, a Nor’Easter raging. But but curled up inside with my toasty (read: constantly overheating) laptop, I have Lea’s new Paillettes to keep my spirits up: 30 x 32 cm ceramic tile (rectified, I believe) glazed to look like penny rounds. Purty!

Get your tile on! Minnesota Tile Festival

If you’re a tile lover and happen to be in Minneapolis area on September 19, get thee to the Minnesota Tile Festival, at the American Swedish Institute! Some 40 exhibitors will showcase their wares, including Mercury Mosaics (above), whose tiles I saw and loved at Coverings this spring, and Earth, Wood, and Fire, which makes some really lovely relief tiles (below).

   

 

Writing’s on the wall: a mosaic with literary cred

Forgot that I had tucked this one away in my files awhile back: playwright/ screenwriter John Patrick Shanley’s colorful Gramercy Park apartment, featured in the New York Times earlier this summer. Check this out: his mosaic-tiled shower features a medallion that spells out “poetry”! Witty!

People often ask about how to choose tiles that add enough panache to a kitchen or bathroom–but that are neutral enough for the purposes of resale. This shower is proof that you should just follow your heart, your home’s next owner’s be damned!

More pix here.

[photo: Fred R. Conrad for the NYT]

A go-to resource for artisan tile

Just discovered the Handmade Tile Association…a must-see for anyone on the hunt for gorgeous handmade products by small studios, under-the-radar artists, and upstart shops. Request a copy of the free directory, or search the website for local talent in your area (you could kill many hours…)

Fell in love with these, from Sligo Creek in Maryland: T-bone and bacon tiles! (That’s also  Sligo’s “Quiet City,” above.)