I snapped this furtively, lest the subway police think I was a potential terrorist scoping out the joint! Just before the tilework was FINALLY completed. Now it’s all clean and pretty, but it was fun to see subway tileists in action, especially the low-tech taping-up-the-tiles-till-they-dry methodology…
Here’s an “after” shot so you can compare/contrast:
Normally I stay away from posting about DIY tiling tips since I myself am not a DIY tileist! (True, I also posted about Bondera’s TileMatSet last week…) But I couldn’t resist plugging this quick-set caulk that New York Magazine wrote about: G.E.’s Silicone II kitchen and bath caulk (at Home Depot), which sets in three hours! Time to re-caulk your grotty tub/ shower stall/backsplash etc…
For my final installment of White Bathroom Week (er, White Bathroom Fortnight?), I grilled architect/designer/blogger–and fervent tile enthusiast!–Dale Cohen, whose fab bathroom was featured in The Art of Tile. I knew she’d be a source of brilliant design advice:
Q. Any tips for keeping an all-white bath from looking too clinical?
A. In the wrong hands, white tile can look antiseptic. Be sure to choose the right white! Ideally one with a softness to it, like a handmade tile. If you are pairing white tile with thick stone countertops in Carrera or statuary marble, consider rounding the countertop edge, and then repeat the stone along the wall base as a molding. This could be as simple as 12-inch-square stone tiles cut in half and laid horizontally, which will bring the floor up to where the wall tile starts, thus creating a properly finished feel.
For the floor of my own New York bathroom, I chose a mosaic of hand-chopped stone—the technique used by the ancient Romans 2,000 years ago—and a wall base of handmade tile glazed a custom grey. These two handmade materials mesh gently with my stark white machine-made Italian tiles, softening the contemporary lines without being cloying. The feel is modern and chic.
Q. Tell us more about those Italian tiles. I remember you obsessed about finding one with a bright white bisque (i.e. the tile body)?
A. When designing a modern bathroom and using cool hues/tones, as so I often do, the color of the tile bisque is vital. It adds subtlety to the color of the glaze above. An off-white bisque makes the white glaze read warmer, while a white bisque gave a truer white. The Italian tiles I used in my bathroom—a modern, machine-made product—has a white bisque that works well with the cool, grey trim.
Q. Are you still digging the elongated format you chose for your wall tiles? Any subway-tile design advice?
I love the elongated tiles. And I think there are so many more ways to use subway tile than the standard running bond. Bring in pattern by adding some square tiles into the mix—alternating them to create a plaid, for example. I also like them installed vertically.
In addition to playing with pattern, using materials that are larger than you might feel comfortable with—not huge dimensions, just scaling up a bit—creates a greater sense of space. I’m not a fan of tiny, tiny anything; the little half-inch mosaics drive me wacky! When it comes to mosaics, tiles, and patterns in general, I find that people typically pick a smaller scale than is ideal. This is just a matter of inexperience with materials and their application (I may be shot for saying that, but oh well).
I remember working with my sister in Washington several years ago. I got a cry over the phone that could be heard the whole length of the Acela track: “Dale, I’m at the wallpaper store I am overwhelmed and have no idea what to do!” The next weekend I was in D.C. The three papers she’d chosen for her powder room were all tiny prints. I took her to her local paint/wallpaper store and chose three patterns that were larger in scale; when applied to the walls, they created a greater sense of space. Same with tile.
Q. Would love to hear your thoughts about when to splurge on handmade versus machine-made tiles, which I posted about earlier this week?
A. The reason to splurge on a handmade tile is for the look. They have a soft, old-world feeling and inject a sense of warmth that cannot be achieved with machine-made tiles. Don’t get me wrong, I love machine-made tiles—just in the right setting. When working on historic spaces like Gracie Mansion or a Victorian-era house in the West Village, I almost always use handmade tiles in subtle tones. They add a sense of patina and age and are historically appropriate; they’re still made similarly to how they were back in the day. If your floors are statuary marble and you live in a Brooklyn brownstone, for instance, I would use handmade tile because it makes a real difference.
Q. Do you ever source crazy-colored tiles in baths, or do you always favor a more neutral look?
A. The craziest I went was a mustard-yellow tile for the kitchen backsplash of an historic apartment on the Upper West Side—and that was only to complement the client’s mustardy granite.
The reason I choose neutrals for bathrooms is that they are very expensive rooms to design. If you’re going to live in your home for the next 10 or 20 years, you need to really love your material choices over that period time because the effort and expense to redo them is prohibitive.
Q. Any other advice about designing white-tiled loos??
A. White is just as complicated as any other color choice. Using white tile in a bathroom and making it feel warm and inviting takes work and an ever-so-subtle use of materials—everything screams “color!” against white. Small tonal changes will be noticed in a white bathroom. So choose tile with care and an eye for sophistication and your bathroom can go from everyday to spectacular!
Q. In your blog, A Bachelor’s Decorated Life, you discourse about about masculine style! Have you found bachelors to have specific taste in tile?
A. Bachelors generally like to play it safe and not add too much sparkle. I use warmer, earthier tones, sometimes deeper colors—although rarely in tile. The middle warm greys would be as dark as I might go, with the occasional subtle deep accent. I have found that men like a home that is inviting, laid back, and that can be easily maintained—nothing too fussy: i.e. clean lines, warm colors, and very little pattern. I like to think of it as their cool cave—leaving the caveman behind.
Stylish single gents (and you ladies who want to snag ‘em) take note!
Thanks, Dale!
[Photos 1, 3, and 4: Ben Ritter. Photos 2, 5: courtesy of Dale Cohen]
White tile doesn’t have to equal ceramic! Check out this spalike Key Biscayne penthouse, designed by Rene Gonzalez, smoothed over in creamy Carrera marble. Looks like it was carved out of a solid block!
Posted in Stone
Tagged Carrera marble bathrooms, Rene Gonzalez architect, white marble tile
Mastic phobic?? Mortified of mortar? Want to self-tile but don’t have the self confidence? Well then! Try this out: a cool new DIY product, Bondera TileMatSet, that Stephen Treffinger just road tested for the New York Times! Check it in today’s paper here. (And keep an eye out for Treff’s super-informative and funny column, which appears once or twice a month in the House & Home section.)
Welcome to White Bathroom Week, part trois:
While at Studium last fall for the launch of Ashley Hicks‘s book on his decorating dad, David Hicks, this beautiful white marble floral mosaic (above) caught my eye. Be still my beating heart! One day, in my dream life, I will tile MY white bathroom with this crystalline confection!
Similarly neutral in coloration yet even more luxurious: mother of pearl. Yes, I know, it’s not white white…more, um, pearly. But still. Check out the glamorous iridescent penny tile below, also Studium. Would look gorgeous on its own or accenting a field of white ceramic or stone…love…
Ah, streetfront mosaic signage. Just can’t get enough!
Posted in Art, As seen in, Exterior, Mosaic
So, white bathroom week is actually inspired by my friend Tom, who sent me the following query:
Q. “Hi! I’m about to redo my small-ish Brooklyn bathroom in white subway tile to match the existing floors, which are statuary marble. Wondering if it’s worth it to splurge for pricier handmade tiles versus machine made ones? My wife and I like the look of handmade subway tile better, but are weighing pros and cons of both options. And, yes, budget is somewhat of a concern. Do you have any advice? Thanks!”
Just after receiving this question, I bumped into my friend, fellow design writer, and sometimes stylist Craig Kellogg at Maialino. Craig always has spot-on decorating advice, so I threw this question at him to see if he had clever thoughts….which of course he did:
A. “Tom, brick-shaped subway tiles have been fashionable for a while now so you might want to rethink using the shape altogether. Instead, why not consider styles that have a bit more life left in them? In a decade you may thank me.
That said, there ARE several ways to make any machine-made tiles look more artisanal. Have your tile-setter do a very sloppy job leveling the tiles, and the finished installation will seem to benefit from the thick-and-thin irregularity of a handmade tile surface. Depending on the tile you choose you can also consider using various offsets (from one row to the next) to change the look
Here’s how: 1st option involves lining up the vertical joints from one row to the next. That will create a grid. Or, you may want to offset rows by random amounts (avoiding any lined-up seams from one row to the next). The informality will be appealing. In a final option, try turning brick-shaped tiles on end. For a single row it will create decorative banding just beneath a wainscoting or at the baseboard. If you use all of your tiles on end, the result is a subtly appealing verticality that references 1980′s glam.”
And for all you New Yorkers out there, Craig also swears by white subway tile from Bella Tile at 178 First Avenue (11th Street) in Manhattan.
[Top: creamy whiteness from Waterworks' Campus collection]
Posted in Ceramic
Tagged handmade tile, Waterworks, white bathrooms, white subway tile
This just in from the Interior Design magazine news wire: How you can help Haiti…
“Architecture for Humanity is busy mobilizing an architecture army for reconstruction efforts in Haiti following Tuesday’s horrific earthquake…has issued a call to architects, interior designers, engineers, environmental scientists, agronomists, and landscape architects across the globe to donate their time and talent to aid in the long road ahead. Encouraging donation to the firm, California-based artisans Heath Ceramics has vowed to contribute 25 percent of all online and in-store sales to Architecture for Humanity between Friday, January 15 and Monday, January 17. Shop their wares at heathceramics.com….”
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Architecture for Humanity, Haiti relief efforts, Heath ceramics
[photos: Ben Ritter]
So, at least 80 percent of the questions that I field about tile concern bathrooms. And 99.9 percent of the “how should I tile my bathroom?” questions are followed by this caveat: “Oh, and I want to use white subway tile.”
Fair enough. White subway tile is gorgeous and very classic. It opens up a small room and can be accessorized in any number of ways. Although I typically encourage people to embrace color in their tile choices and not play it overly safe, white subway tile appeals to so many people that I cannot say a bad word about it behind its back!
This week’s posts will be dedicated to groovy alternatives to straightforward 3-by-6-inch white ceramic subway tile, which is typically set in a horizontal running-bond pattern. Fasten your seatbelts, folks!
Exhibit A:
The bathrooms at the Lucida (more pix on website) on New York’s Upper East Side, designed by S. Russell Groves and Co. The images here are from the secondary bath (i.e. not the master bath). Instead of using ceramic, Russell and his design team chose an amazing milky glass that incorporates recycled content. This gives the same look as the expected glazed ceramic, but pulls in a bit more light–and gives walls a sense of depth that ceramic lacks. Brilliant for a small-ish space. Also clever: he executed the running-bond installation vertically, rather than horizontally, to draw the eye upward and make the ceiling look taller! The slightly elongated format (2 x 8 inches, I believe) enhances the effect:
