A clever tiling idea from Elle Deco UK

Despite my embrace of cyberspace and online journalism, I remain a die-hard magazine devotee. So old school, I know. For certain kinds of coverage and information, magazines remain–for me at least–both indispensable–and also a million times more satisfying than blogs. (Honestly, I find reading blogs a huge drag if a necessary evil, so I truly appreciate your bothering to indulge me by perusing mine!)

Anyway, all that preamble to say: a love of magazines has its downside, especially when living with a husband who is similarly devoted to the print medium. Magazines tend to pile up and take over our not-so-large apartment. So every 6 months we have a collective hissy fit and spend like the entire weekend just weeding through them so we can have our lives (and our horizontal surfaces) back. This occurred last weekend.

Which is why I am so belatedly posting the above article form the March issue of Elle Deco UK! A really cute idea: rather than stick to one variety of tile, especially for the floor of a small room like a closet, loo, or even a foyer, choose a few different types and make an animated patchwork instead! Great idea if you are wont to troll vintage shops and tile sample sales–where you can often buy only a few square feet of any given design. Love!

As seen on: Fulton Street at South Oxford

Walking out of the Greenlight bookstore yesterday, I happened upon this patch of sidewalk, which someone had adulterated with a mosaic of ceramic fragments! Most whimsical. Next time I spy newly poured concrete, I am going to break a plate and do a little DIY public-art mosaicing of my own…

Anu Penttinen’s glass art tiles

Discovered in the Finnish Design offsite show in Chelsea market during ICFF: a cool installation by Nounou Design, the studio of glass artist Anu Penttinen. Called City Plan, it’s a wall relief made up of boldly colored handmade tiles (each fused from multiple sheets of glass) that affix to walls and vertical surfaces via magentic backing. Thus the piece can expand or be reconfigured as desired–or, presumably, as you have enough money to buy more pieces!

Anu originally launched the concept last fall at the Habitare Design Fair in Helsinki; this new design was inspired by–and references the urban energy of–NYC, baby!

Tile made from brushes (!!!!)

Winner of the award for wackiest but coolest tile medium ever: Braun Brush’s Brush tiles! Yes, I kid you not: tiles made from actual brushes…both horsehair (in a brownish hue, natch) and synthetic fibers (the colored ones, above). Unbelievable! Spied these at ICFF (thanks for the tip, Robin).

The line was conceived by a fourth-generation brushmaker who realized that the product had untapped decorative potential. Some clients choose to leave the fibers long and brushy, others have carved out the fibers into different patterns, a la the below:

And it’s not just decorative: The product recently received rating (certification?) for its acoustical properties.

Brush tiles as a ceiling treatment at Microsoft’s Cambridge, MA, headquarters:

Tooling around the company’s website, I discovered that Richard Artschwager–one of my favorite artists–has used Braun Brush in a few pieces: Yellow Exclamation and Question Mark! So the product has artsy cred, too.

Check out Robin Reigi’s website for more.

More ICFF: Sicis party in Soho tonight

Probably by invite only, but if you can sneak in (or just peak in) you’ll see some glittery, shimmery–and highly decorative–stuff.

Sparkle plenty: Bisazza + Swarovski @ ICFF

Next Monday, the Bisazza showroom in SoHo is having a big VIP bash to preview its new collaboration with Swarovksi, launched last month at Milan: crystal-studded mosaics in five patterns! More info on the Bisazza website (under “news”)….there’s a rad design featuring shiny seahorses and coral silhouetted against a solid background.  SPARKLY!

Tile as artistic muse: Los Carpinteros

Just came across this in cyberspace, which I had totally forgotten about! Cuban art duo Los Carpinteros’s tongue-in-cheek “Home-Pool”, a fiberglas and polyester resin likeness of an in-ground pool, cleverly morphed into a scale model of a house. The faux-tile detailing is brilliant!

More at the collective’s website or Sean Kelly Gallery.

As seen on: 10th Avenue NYC

Strange but satisfying ceramic mosaic facade of a sketchy pizza parlor near 27th Street. Has an offbeat 70s-Euro vibe, no? Two days later I was walking around Philly and saw another pizza parlor clad in the exact same colorway, but a horizontal subway tile format. Perhaps this is a late-20th-century Italian-American culinary stylistic trope I’m unaware of? The mind boggles.

Contain yourself!

I have a soft spot for Jason Miller‘s shipping-container tiles. No, they just look 3-D; large and small parallelogram tiles interlock to create the effect of stacked boxes popping off the wall. Will someone please just order a whole bunch and tile an entire bar or restaurant in them? Thanks.

Also, hop over to the New York Times to read about the designer’s new-ish apartment in Greenpoint, a louche paean to the 70s, complete with conversation pit…and a black-tiled backsplash (that might be rendered in colored gaffer’s tape)! Click here.

[photo by the talented Elizabeth Felicella:]

As seen in: Canal Street Station

Chinese artist Bing Lee’s 1998 “Empress Voyage,” an enigmatic ceramic-mosaic mural–based on a quirky pictorial-iconographic language he invented–always makes me smile when I’m dashing through the otherwise yuckers Canal Street station. 

Some info I dug up on the artist: bio here and show of more recent works at 2×13 Gallery here.