January 2015 - Cement Style

Intelligentsia Design With Cement Tile

Chicago’s Logan Square is now home to one of Intelligentsia Coffee’s coffee bars. A low bar with stools sits in the middle of the shop surrounded by Villa Lagoon Tile’s “Nuevo Castillo” cement tile. It has sparse white, angular booths in front of the windows.

They did something very unusual with this tile installation !!

The traditional method of installation is to rotate each tile 90 degrees as it is set, this forms an interlocking pattern of a repeat design. In this instance, the designers chose to just have the tile laid randomly.

Standard versus Random Layout:

The effect is a fresh look at Nuevo Castillo cement tile.

The back wall is covered with a stylized map of the surrounding Chicago neighborhood. The mural’s graphics echo the gray-on-gray pattern of the randomly-laid Nuevo Castillo pattern cement tile. We love what designers and architects can do with their creativity and our patterns.

See photos of the traditional layout of this tile here.

White Bathrooms with Beautiful Floors

While we are lovers of vivid colored walls, not everyone is, especially in the USA. But a white bathroom need not be boring if the floor is singing a happy tune. The pattern above is one we call “Ambrose” and our client ordered it in a crisp blue and white.

Below is a custom tile called Italian Trellis “Azul” from our Coastal Collection. You can click for a larger image to see the details of the seashells and coral. The soft blues and white walls give the effect of shimmering water on a bright day.

One of our classic favorites above, Surf “Agua” with white subway tile walls in this bathroom. A great pattern with movement…jazzy and fun. Click to see the full size image.

A client with a home in the Bahamas chose 2 tiles for the bathrooms. (Note: construction photo) This one has a round shower area shown below. If you think there is a trend of blue cement tile bathroom floors, you are right. This pattern is called “Liz” and it is made with two shades of blue plus white.

Our delightful client, jewelry designer Trish Becker, used a 2 color Aqua and Blanc pattern tile of interlocking rings in one of her homes in the Bahamas. Trish is ‘hooked’ on cement tile and knows how much character it adds to any room it is installed in. She has a couple of vacation homes and she knows that when people rent a cottage for a beach vacation they appreciate decor which makes the stay really special.

Still a bit of blue in this delightful floral cement tile but also the warm golds above and below.

The owner added bright blue glass drawer knobs which was such a great idea.

In the above photo the cement tile bathroom floor appears a bit blue in this photo but it may have been a shade of gray with the white. On the upper right you can catch a glimpse of the rug effect repeated around the toilet in an alcove. Using cement tile to create rug or bordered carpet effect is an old tradition.

Yet another all white bathroom (above) , this time with a Cuban Heritage Tile floor, CH-260-2B.

This last photo is our popular LaEspanola cement tile in an otherwise white bathroom. Even though this is a photo taken during construction, the combination of a clawfoot tub and our cement tile with classic Spanish scroll-work looks like it could be a bathroom in Barcelona as easily as in Florida.

A lively cement tile floor to accent your all-white bathroom can “bring it up a notch” on the cool scale. Click here to see this tile in an all white kitchen.

Colors Dance at Gypsy Kitchen – Atlanta Buckhead

Villa Lagoon Tile takes the lead in the interplay of color at one of north Atlanta’s newest trendy eating establishments. The architects and designers used our custom encaustic cement tile in vibrant colors to create pretty entrance and a playful mood inside.

No one can miss the massive steel bull dashing through the field of the bar’s supplies.

The face of the Gypsy Kitchen bar is one of our custom Moroccan tiles. Morocco is just a stone’s throw from Spain and both countries have extensive Moorish architecture and tiles like this classic pattern.

Dishes like this octopus reflect Gypsy Kitchen’s Mediterranean theme.

One of the eight patterns used in Gypsy Kitchen is our popular Circulos pattern.

The area around the open kitchen has wall panels of an intricate polychrome tile in deep rich tones. This particular pattern can take on so many different looks depending on color placement. The freedom that one has with cement tiles is a huge part of the great appeal with architects and designers.

Stunning Cement Tile in Tone-on-Tone Gray

“Nuevo Castillo” encaustic cement tile lives up to its name turning homes into personal castles. It certainly adds elegance to living spaces throughout North America and UK. This tone-on-tone colorway is one of our best-selling and most-imitated products.

Last week we received photos of a new elegant bathroom from one of our happy clients in Atlanta. The soft two-tone gray cement tile adds depth, without overwhelming the beautifully simple white and wood decor.

This lovely bathroom with lots of natural light would be a delight every morning to help me face my day !

In the next Villa Lagoon Tile installation (below), one of our Hong Kong clients used Nuevo Castillo cement tile in her kitchen and was kind enough to send photos.

Peterssen / Keller Architecture – Minneapolis used our Nuevo Castillo stock cement tile in a sun-room (below) which proved to be a hit with everyone who saw it in the newspaper “Living” section and online.

A California client took the Nuevo Castillo one step further, adding depth with a custom cement tile production using 5 shades of gray !! This tile, with matching borders produced a striking foyer (below).