Jayne Michaels’s gorgeous backsplash (and more)

Jayne Michaels, one half of the charming and talented design duo 2Michaels, was recently featured on Strange Closets, a design blog that is, strangely, not so strange–but is rather delightful. Chicago-based trend reporter/blogger Tate Gunnerson toured Jayne’s chic 57th Street pad and took beautiful photos of every room, including her Le Corbusier-inspired kitchen and her penny-tiled bath. Her backsplash (also featured in The Art of Tile!) is a run of glazed Heath ceramics that extends above the upper cabinets–a look I love. Check out the post here!

I love Jayne's penny-tiled bath...the colors are like candy...

Jayne's copy of "The Art of Tile" on her bedside table (left)!

[photos: Tate Gunnerson via Strange Closets]

Nuts for coconuts! Ekobe mosaics at Nemo

At a party this week to kick off ICFF, one of my fave showrooms–Nemo Tile–was kind enough to highlight my book alongside their intriguing new product intros. This was quite a thrill for me, as Nemo was the first showroom I photographed for the book; many of the 1,500 tiles featured within are theirs. Even after the shoot wrapped, VP/technical whizz Matt Karlin and A&D sales rep extraordinaire Raymond Moore were nice enough to field my near-constant calls for advice and information about all things tile-related. (Thanks, guys!)

The last few times I’ve visited Nemo’s website, this product flashed up. My response: !!!!!!!! A quick email confirmed that this is a new coconut mosaic product, Membira, from Brazilian company Ekobe. Loooooooove.

Heading to ICFF tomorrow to check out Nemo’s all-white (!) booth–dying to see.

The Tileist on The Curated Object!

As if The Curated Object was not already one of our favorite art/design sites, then it up and interviews us about tile! Aw, shucks! We are supremely flattered over here at the Tilest HQ. If you want the real skinny on the trials and tribulations of putting together an immense tome on tiles (harrowing deadlines, exploding packing materials, grey hairs, guerilla-style photography at European trade shows, Photoshopping 2,000 tiles), then have a read. And then cleanse your palette by reading about bugs (ew!) at the Newark Museum (below)!

* Top: Custom silver-leafed glass tiles from Mixed-Up Mosaics, available at Artistic Tile. (This is the same pattern featured on the cover of U.K. edition of The Art of Tile.)

“The Art of Tile”: Out Today!

Whether you are a tile fanatic up-to-speed on the latest products or a tile-phobe daunted by the enormity of the marketplace (but in desperate need of a new backsplash, pronto!) “The Art of Tile” is here for you! I infiltrated luxurious private residences and upscale showrooms across the globe, from Morocco to Italy, to bring you 2,000 tiles, 30-plus spaces–and oodles of ideas, inspiration, and insider’s secrets. Buy it here!

Behold: my 10-cent tour…complete with bad blogospheric-DIY  photography…

1) One of my favorite aspects of Wayne Wolf’s genius graphic design: the book cover…very Mondrian!

2) A spread on glass, with Trend USA’s stripes on the right and Mixed-Up Mosaics’s crescent-shaped slivers on the left (when I showed this tile at a presentation recently, the entire crowd gasped audibly at its beauty–I kid you not!)

3) The second half of the book is a sort of catalogue raisonné of tile, divided into sections according to color, material, pattern, etc. This spread highlights metal tiles, ranging from large-scale aluminum squares to little carved- bronze inserts.

4) The back cover: the Clarkson Potter copy folks can sum it up  much better than I can!: