The beginning of a journey

I first fell in love with tile while painting a mural for a Mediterranean restaurant in the late 90's when I was about 24 years old. Here's a picture of that mural...

As I was researching the decorative elements, I looked in a book of tiles from around the world. I saw not only the Moroccan tile designs I was after, but also Portuguese tile!!

The variety of application and overall mural-like design amazed me.

 Not only was I impressed and inspired, I said to myself... "I can do that!"

So, I finished the mural and dedicated the next several years to learning how to paint with ceramic glazes.

(a 4x4 inch tile I painted with glazes and fired in the kiln)

Design ideas

When imagining the possibilities of tile installation, I get excited in ways to add to the modern aesthetic by the uniquely combining minimal with traditional representational images.
(these images are photo edits that I created by cutting and pasting together)

Design inspiration can come from anywhere.

I love Oscar de la Renta, so I edited this fireplace concept from a fun dress pattern.

With the popularity of scenic wallpaper, I whipped up an example of how to incorporate that same look in a more traditional kitchen.

Lastly, a super minimal kitchen mixed with a busy and beautiful floral design that gives the room an indivdual accessibility that is lacking in so many of the modern kitchen concepts.

Backsplash installation

This custom tile backsplash is one of a kind in every sense of the phrase. The client requested an Italian landscape with two particular buildings featured. (She chose the theme and the buildings because they were her favorite places that she and her husband visited on their honeymoon to Italy.) The installation was for two walls... we decided to celebrate the two distinct styles of landscape design indigenous to each building as well.

The left wall features Villa Capra in the Northern parts of Italy. Its surrounded by the campagna, the rustic and naturalistic countryside.

 The longer wall features the formal, manicured gardens that are signature to the Villa Borghese.

It goes without saying, the client was impressed and felt that she received more than just a decorative piece, but a true artwork that would stand as a feature to her entire home.

Line Structure

One of the key features of our custom process is in the hand-formed line structure. Basic tile options generally only offer a grid-like rhythm to the surface. Not unlike poetry, our tile installations offer a lyrical quality that follows the shapes of the design.

Not broken but hand-formed, our production techniques open up the potential of tile design.

Theme of tile mural

When deciding on a design for our custom tile, we look beyond the square and develop a use of the whole space as it is applied. We believe in the experience of living with Art and how it can possess the values and virtues that continue to feed and tether the Self --as an opportunity to be nurtured in our private lives or promote our ideals in more public spaces.

Here a few examples of how representational design can add such values as Beauty in Nature and Integrity of Work into a room's "psychology".

Application

The variety of application can be exciting when looking at the context. Tile can be applied almost anywhere!
-Indoor and outdoor
-Bathrooms

-Fireplaces

Each place offers an opportunity to enhance the psychology of space in its use of pictorial metaphor and allegory.

Tile as a design feature for the whole house

I get excited about the possibilities of tile!

I look at amazing interior designs by the best of the industry and I see an opportunity to be the instrument to an even greater amount of freedom in ways that are seldom offered. It's the opportunity to elevate a pedestrian surface covering like tile, to being a featured element... and not just for one room, but a feature of the whole house.

adding a coastal scene to this stove top backsplash brings this already beautiful kitchen up to a refreshing level of style and comfort.