Lundy P. Wilder, Author at Cement Style

Cambodia’s Antique Patterned Cement Tile Floors

The Khmer Rouge may have destroyed much of the population and vitality of Cambodia in the 1970’s but the lovely cement tile floors in the old districts lived through it all.

Siem Reap [siəm riəp] in northwest Cambodia is a town adjacent to the Angkor World Heritage Site, location of the world famous ancient Angkor Wat temple complex. The cafes and shops along the streets in the Siem Reap Old Market district reveal an assortment of colorful cement tile floors in age old patterns.

Cambodian Siem Reap market area — Old Siem Reap market area

Antique cement tile floors in a Cambodian cafe — A swirling hand drawn pattern like this is seldom seen in current cement tile production.

siem-reap-cambodia-hardware-store-VLT — Even hardware stores have classic cement tile flooring like this 3 color pattern.

Antique Cement tile in a cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia. — This cafe’s antique cement tile pattern with fleur-de-lis and berries is a popular pattern today.

siem-reap-encaustic-cement-tile-VLT-1 — The pattern in this cafe tile is reminiscent of medieval clay encaustic tile in pattern and colors.

Antique cubes cement tile in typical popular Cambodian colors

Our quest to explore antique cement tile leads to many surprises. Patterns that were popular a long time ago remain strong sellers today. We love discovering beautiful cement tile installations that are still loved and appreciated in unexpected parts of the world. It seems that while cement tiles were once made commercially in Cambodia, now only one workshop may remain. Known as Kay Vath’s tile factory in Phnom Penh. The factory and shop is on Russian Boulevard, near Teak Thla market but as the article says, his output is small. Now most new cement tiles are imported into Cambodia but the cheap printed ceramic tiles from China predominate due to the very low cost. Cambodia is in a state of recovery still and has a ways to go.

Our trip to Cambodia and neighboring Vietnam was wonderful and led to many excellent cement tile sightings. We’ll be posting photos of them in the next few weeks.

Patchwork Tile–The Perfect Mix for a Showhome

Designer Chris Grandmontagne used our Colorful Patchwork encaustic cement tile in her kitchen/family/breakfast great room renovation in the 2013 Topeka Designers’ Show House. Our cement tile went above the stove and to line the bookcases on either side of the fireplace to great effect. In the large kitchen area and family room the Patchwork does not overwhelm but adds just the right amount of cheerfulness without becoming the dominant element of the decor.

Patchwork cement tile backsplash — The niche above the stove has the Patchwork Cement Tile backsplash.

Cement tile backsplash in a niche above the stove — Spacious kitchen in the designer show house in Topeka, Kansas.

We love how Chris used our tile also in the family room area as a background to the built-in custom shelves on either side of the fireplace. Below is a construction photo followed by the completed project.

Encaustic cement tile in the back of custom shelves on either side of a brick fireplace. — Construction photo of the patchwork cement tile going into the back of the custom shelves.

After photo of the family room area — Photo of the family room area

Built in shelves with colorful patchwork tile as a back feature — Family room shelving with Villa Lagoon Tile Colorful Patchwork Tile

family breakfast area in designer show house — Family breakfast room in designer show house with gorgeous deep aqua Fiberglas chairs

Long dining table in a screen porch connected to the family room — Outdoor dining in enclosed screen porch which connects to the family room and kitchen

Topeka Kansas Designer Show Home 2013 — Topeka Kansas Designer Show House 2013

Thanks to designer Chris Grandmontagne …(Don’t you just love that name ??)
of Grandmontagne Designs and Warehouse 414 414 SE 2nd St., Topeka, Ks. 66607
and Stephen Smith Images, 931 Studios, 931 Kansas Ave., Topeka, KS.

And They’re Off! Villa Lagoon Tile at Hong Kong Jockey Club

The historical Hong Kong Jockey Club chose Villa Lagoon Tile for the recently opened Hay Market Restaurant. Both tables and floors in several parts of this large open-plan restaurant have our custom encaustic cement tiles.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club founded in 1884 provides dining, social, sport and recreation facilities to its approximately 23,000 members. The HKJC conducts hundreds of horse races per year which can be viewed from the Hay Market Restaurant’s double-height floor to ceiling glass façade giving a view of the Sha Tin racecourse.

Designed by Joyce Wang, Hay Market Restaurant fuses English style with tasteful modernism to create an all-inclusive, open-minded venue that bustles with the dashing vibes of a lively English establishment. The large restaurant brings a taste of rustic England to Hong Kong’s Sha Tin Racecourse.

Wang made the fun choice to tile the tabletops at the Hay Market. We shipped the table tiles to the furniture manufacturer and the floor tiles went directly to the job-site in Hong Kong. Most of the tiles have neutral colors and the sharp black and white patterns in the tabletops add an edge of modernism.

Let Villa Lagoon Tile make custom tile for your next restaurant project !!

Hidden Treasures — Old Cement Tile Floors

Our correspondent and fellow lover of cement tile, Russell Mikler in Greece, has been sending us great photos of the tiles he has salvaged from old-old abandoned homes. Some of these old homes have been abandoned for over 35 years.

These red and white cement tiles came from a home built in the late 1920’s that had been abandoned with a collapsed roof. Some of the tiles had even been covered with linoleum in the past. Russell was not able to save all of them due to the roof debris and damage. He salvaged all he could quickly, as the house is now scheduled for demolition. Russell makes table tops with small amounts of reclaimed cement tile.

Click these thumbnails to see the full size images.

The photos show how the tiles look before and after cleaning decades of grime off of the encaustic cement tiles.

Sure there are a few stains, but really they clean up beautifully… these tiles are almost a century old! Bravo to Russell for saving these lovely tiles from being discarded with the building rubble. Wouldn’t the original craftsmen of these tiles be proud to know that Russell cares enough to save their tile and that the cement tile will live on long after the original structures are gone.

Russell now has a small workshop and makes new tiles in limited quantities. If you live in Greece and are interested in buying reclaimed old cement tiles let us know.

Cement Tile Borders Pull it All Together

One of the classic ways to lay cement tiles is to create a rug-like effect with a border tile surrounding a field tile. Either of these can be solid color tiles or pattern tiles.

The cement tile rug effect is a popular look and can be placed in a floor of solid color cement tiles or surrounded by another material.

Cement tile rug pattern on a porch, using Villa Lagoon Tile's Caribbean Collection patterns "Sousa" and — Patterns depicted: Caribbean Collection “Sousa” field tiles and “Malaga” border.

A single row of border tiles adds a finishing touch to the multicolored cement tile insert on this porch above.

Often an encaustic cement tile border tile can be laid in one orientation on one side of the arrangement and flipped 180° on the other side of the border. This produces a very finished look.

Cuban Heritage CH-110 in a hotel foyer. — Patterns Depicted: Cuban Heritage pattern CH-110 field and border.

Cement tile borders add drama !

cement tile borders around the edge of a room — Patterns Depicted: Caribbean Collection “Alcala” border, “Toledo” border, and single-color field tiles.

Note how in the yellow tile room they included a third tile between the border ‘sandwich’ .

A very deep encaustic cement tile border at the corner of a room using Caribbean Collection and Cuban Heritage Collection border patterns. — Patterns Depicted: Caribbean Collection “Puerto Plata” border, “Santiago” border, and single-color field tiles, and Cuban Heritage Collection pattern CH-120.

If the room is large enough, a double, triple or more border can look fantastic. The border above is actually a row of five tiles, all of them 20 cm (8″). This is the same size tiles as the field tile in the room.

A beautiful border on an encaustic cement tile floor takes a little more planning but the effect is well worth it.

Villa Lagoon Tile on NPR ! Internet sales tax / small business

We were so happy to have been interviewed by NPR’s David Greene of Morning Edition.
This brief nationally broadcast radio piece brought us thousands of new visitors to the website.
WE WELCOME ALL OUR NEW VISITORS !

And while we do not object to the concept of sales tax for Internet sales, we just hope some simple method of payment will be devised, something like Europe’s VAT. We have 3077 individual counties in the USA, all with individual sales tax rates. Whew!!

Wonderful Short Video, “Unswept Floor”

WATCH–you won’t be sorry ! This magical video is all about a section of floor, through the ages. This award winning short film uses mosaics to tell the story. Tiles are included so we thought our readers would appreciate it. For those at work,…note, it has a light musical soundtrack.

Created by Welsh mosaic artist Maureen O’Kane and her co-director, Jane Hubbard in 2003.

Unswept floor from maureen o’kane on Vimeo.

Our Cuban Tile Finds a Home in FL’s Oldest Restaurant

Columbia Restaurant, …Founded in 1905 by Cuban immigrant Casimiro Hernandez, Sr., the Columbia Restaurant is Florida’s oldest restaurant, and the largest Spanish restaurant in the world. They began in Tampa’s Ybor City, (pronounced EE-bore) as a small 60-seat corner café known for its Cuban coffee and authentic Cuban sandwiches, frequented by the local cigar workers. Now the family has locations in 8 locations and they are hugely popular with both locals and tourists. Villa Lagoon Tile is happy they picked us to provide the Cuban Tile for the St. Augustine location.

Notice how the large room’s floor is divided into sections w/ our single color Deep Henna tiles. This adds additional character and is also an economical move. Single color Cuban tiles cost less than pattern tiles.

So pleeeeesed is the Columbia Restaurant with our tile that they have just ordered the same pattern Cuban tile for the Celebration , FL location.

Los Angeles Cement Tile Project – The Reserve, Hombly Hills

Elegance on a grand scale ! We were thrilled to have our tile in this Los Angeles 10,000+ square foot personal paradise. We were approached early on by the developer / designer to be a part of a major home renovation and I can truthfully say they were a pleasure to work with and everything went smoothly on this unusually large residential tile delivery.

Photo of solid color checkerboard cement tiles at the entrance to The Reserve — Grey and White single color cement tiles at the entrance to The Reserve / Hombly Hills

On the expansive patios the Gray and White check tile continues.

gray and white check tile in Los Angeles cement tile — A side porch on this Los Angeles cement tile project

Designer Kristoffer Winters used our Cubes tile in the kitchen and adjacent living area in this uber swank mansion. He told me that they added a dash of raw umber tint to the sealant to give the tile an aged look. They were thrilled with the result and he said most people assume that the porch cement tiles are an original part of the home. We are looking forward to Kristoffer’s appearance on Bravo TV’s “Million Dollar Decorators” show. Maybe he will mention our tile !!

Cement tile cubes in a kitchen floor — Cubes cement tile floor in front of a La Cornue range, cabinets and vent hood.

Updates:

A photo of The Reserve interior was used in a MyDomaine article on the resurgence of cement tile, February 18, 2014

The Los Angeles Times Business Section featured the sale of The Reserve, August 24, 2013.

Winters and The Reserve were featured in a Bloomberg article, August 16, 2013.

The Reserve was highlighted in the popular design blog, COCOCOZY, July 8, 2013.

Kristopher Winters appeared in a feature about The Reserve on an E! program, “A-List Listings”, May 20, 2013.

A feature on The Reserve appeared in Variety, March 26, 2013.

Blog post on a mention of The Reserve in the Robb Report, March 22, 2013.

Blog post on Curve Improvement about The Reserve, March 12, 2013.

The Reserve is listed as a notable residence on the Holmby Hills page of Wikipedia.

Fine Homebuilding Introduces our Tile to its Readers

Fine Homebuilding Magazine has long been a reference tool for craftsmen of the highest order. In fact, all of the Taunton Press magazines are exquisitely produced. We are glad they want to introduce our tile to their many readers.