Can Cement Tile Give You Wings?

A logo of a stylized iguana with wings, representing the Flying Iguana Taqueria & Tequila Bar of Neptune Beach, FLThere’s a new restaurant in the Jacksonville, Florida area receiving a lot of attention. Flying Iguana Taqueria & Tequila Bar of Neptune Beach has opened to rave reviews. Chef Joshua Agan and his staff serve a fun and inspired menu that is Latin American fusion with hints of the local Southeast.  Along with traditional Latin American flavors, you can also find items like the “Dirty South” taco, with fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese, or the “Southern Comfort” taco with fried chicken, slaw, and pickled okra.

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The designers of the Flying Iguana developed a stunning, eye-catching facade using our exclusive Tradewinds pattern, from the Caribbean Collection.  Together with the interesting wood trellis holding the signage, this is a restaurant that cannot be missed. Decorative cement tile for external walls have long been popular south of the border, but we’ve seen more and more installations in the United States recently. This may be in large part due to the advances in sealant technology, which can preserve the vibrant patterns from the elements.

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In the dining room, the designers chose to use a large area of patchwork cement tile on the floor, and as a backdrop for the bandstand. They used a combination of our pre-selected patchwork tile at the time, and supplemented with other in-stock patterns to custom-tailor the blend of colors they were seeking. Not only is decorative cement tile a strong enough visual draw to use as an accent wall, it is durable enough for busy restaurant floors. Modern sealants help preserve the the appearance over time, and provide better anti-slip characteristics than original wax techniques.

Miss Jacksonville USA 2015, Sarah Rogers, in a photo-shoot against a wall of patchwork tile from Villa Lagoon Tile.
Miss Jacksonville USA 2015, Sarah Rogers

Our tile is featured in the April 2014 issue of The Void, a monthly magazine exploring the lifestyle of coastal North Florida. The Flying Iguana was the location for a photo-shoot with Miss Jacksonville USA 2015, Sarah Rogers, a hopeful for Miss Florida USA. We noticed they couldn’t help but choose some of the vertical Villa Lagoon Tile installations as backdrops.

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Our decorative cement tiles can also be seen in large installations in the restrooms. The designers chose our Torino cement tile for the ladies’ room, and Fiore cement tile for the men’s room. Note that the Fiore image is a construction photo, taken before the application of grout and final sealant.

If you find yourself near Jacksonville, Florida, everyone is saying that the Flying Iguana is a worthwhile stop, both for the amazing food, and the inviting atmosphere.

Cement Tile is a Recipe for the Ultimate Kitchen

 

Cover of "Country Living" Magazine, May 2014.
May 2014

Villa Lagoon Tile made the cover of the Hearst publication, “Country Living Magazine”. The feature article, “A Recipe for the Ultimate Kitchen” covered a beautiful kitchen remodel with cement tile in Rockland County, New York.

Homeowner Aliyyah Baylor knows her kitchens.  She and her family own a successful Harlem bakery business. Make My Cake has been featured in the New York Times as one of the best places to get Red Velvet Cake, and they won on the Food Network show “Throwdown With Bobby Flay” with their German Chocolate Cake.

 

"This floor is the highlight of my day," she says. (From a photo of Country Living Magazine, May 2014).

Baylor was a joy to work with. She selected the cement tile floors first, and let them dictate the rest of the decor. She also used one of our favorite designers, Rebekah Zaveloff. You may recall Zaveloff of Chicago-based KitchenLabs from a previous post. Her design used our cement tile in an episode of Kitchen Crashers on the DIY Network.

This floor features a historic Cuban cement tile pattern we once marketed as “CH-120-2B” of the Cuban Heritage Collection. A tile so pretty deserves a name, so we call it “Carmen”, available from our South Beach Collection.  Customize with your choice of colors in our Tile Design Tool.

Composite of the Country Living cover and article.

The full article can be found in the May 2014 edition of Country Living, or read their web version here: Aliyyah Baylor Kitchen Decorating.

Villa Lagoon Tile Awarded “Best of 2014”

Best of Houzz 2014, Customer SatisfactionVilla Lagoon Tile has been awarded “Best of 2014” by Houzz for Customer Satisfaction. Houzz is a large social website focused on residential architecture and interior design, with more than 16 million monthly visitors. “Best of Houzz” is awarded based on the quality and quantity of positive client reviews.

I love this tile!” says designer Taylor Borsari, owner of Taylor Borsari, Inc.,  “They have been a “go-to” for me for years!

In another 5-star review, Los Angeles designer Megan Taylor writes, “Hub of the House LOVES Villa Lagoon Tile! Not only are we obsessed with their huge array of fully custom cement tiles, their perfect customer service gives us every confidence in the world.

To read more of our 5-star reviews on Houzz, or to write about your own experiences, visit our profile here. You can also download the PDF press release here.

Update January 1, 2017:

We continue to gain accolades from the users of Houzz year after year.

Best of Houzz service award badges for 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

“Best of 2013” Design Award, a Cement Tile Win.

Interior Design magazine has chosen the “Best of the Year” for 2013, and we’d like to congratulate our client, Meyer Davis Studio for winning “Best of the Year 2013: Fine Dining“. Their project “Harlow” remodeled a historic space once the private entertainment venue of William Randolph Hurst. Perhaps as much a restoration as a renovation, the Harlow project brought the best of the 1930’s grandeur forward to the modern day.

The award-winning design features some of Villa Lagoon Tile’s most popular designs in several places.  “Lantern Trellis” and “Cubes” can be found in the elegant restrooms, as well as a larger version of Cubes in a conservatory dining annex, that gained a mention in Interior Design’s original project article, “Blond Ambition“.  This installation in particular shows cement tile’s versatility, using solid and two-color tile to provide a larger scale of Cubes design.

Salamanca cement tile in Ladies room of Harlow, NYC.
Lantern Trellis Cement Tile Installation
Cubes cement tile in Men's room of Harlow, NYC.
Cubes Cement Tile Installation
Large-Scale Cubes in Dining Area
Large-Scale Cubes in Dining Area

Large-Scale Cubes cement tile in Harlow, NYC.

While our ever-popular “Cubes” cement tile was used in the stately-men’s room, a different feel was desired for this dining area.  A larger patterned is achieved by the creative arrangement of the simplest tiles in our toolkit: solids, and the two-color diagonal. This layout also shows how easily a designer could use cement tile to create grand, custom chevron patterns.

A 9x6 layout of cement tile, resembling an enlarged Cubes pattern tile.
Large-Scale cubes using Monterey Collection “Diagonal” and single-color tiles.

The writers of Interior Design are not the only ones taking a notice to the renewed luster of this Midtown Manhattan jewel…  Harlow is quickly being recognized as a great experience, and has already been the venue for parties hosted by Madonna, Woody Allen, and others in the New York social scene.


Update April 27, 2016: Unfortunately Harlow has closed. Their original site can still be found in the Internet Archive.

The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long. –Laozi

Cement Tile Circling the Globe: India

Cover of June 2013 issue of Surfaces Reporter Magazine.We already know that cement tile has recently seen huge surges in popularity in the US and Canada, the United Kingdom, and throughout Europe. Now India has caught the fever! India’s Surfaces Reporter Magazine devoted a portion of their June 2013 issue to the growing popularity of decorative cement tile in India over the last decade.

The article, “Are Decorative Cement Floor Tiles Making a Comeback?” is a great basic primer, tracing the history of cement tile and its revival, as well as discussing practical issues such as installation and purchasing tips. The author spoke with several experts in researching this article, and even featured an interview with our very own Lundy Wilder!


You can find the original article at Surfaces Reporter, however some have had trouble with loading the Flash application, so you can also find the article alone here, as a PDF.

Oh, and to answer the question posed by the article’s title: EMPHATICALLY YES!

villa-lagoon-venetian-sunset-installing
An installer laying 10-inch “Venetian” in the “Sunset” colorway, a Lundy P. Wilder original design. Now also available in a more economical 8-inch, with an in-stock option: “Italian Trellis”.

Villa Lagoon Tile featured on HomeCentrl

Villa Lagoon Tile has been featured on HomeCentrl, “Your place for everything home” which features the latest trends in construction, design, and decor. Lundy Wilder was interviewed by the author Todd Vendituoli, veteran builder, designer and blogger for his July 9th post.

Todd and Lundy covered the basics of encaustic cement tile manufacturing, and some of design and project considerations that go into purchasing custom tile flooring. Todd also mentions the durability and lasting beauty of the local “Nassau Tile”, the Bahamian term for cement tile. Cement tile has long been popular throughout the Caribbean, and the islands provide some of the better tour-grounds in the world for seekers of antique and modern cement tile installations. We show some of these installations on our Caribbean installations page.

Todd’s post can be found here, on HomeCentrl: “Villa Lagoon Tile – Encaustic Cement Tile”.

If you’ve been inspired, browse our In-Stock tile for what’s currently popular and available, or try out our tile design tool for custom colors.

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

NPR-headphonesWe 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!!

Heavenly Tile in Hell’s Bottom

The Beltway is buzzing with THE new place for men’s grooming on the east coast: The Barber of Hell’s Bottom.

Main floor of The Barber of Hell's Bottom, featuring Roseton tile from Villa Lagoon Tile

A veteran stylist of New York runway and print models, Kelly Gorsuch took Washington, D.C. by storm with his Logan Circle salon, Immortal Beloved. In a few short years it has become a hub of the metro area’s chic and elite, with Immortal Beloved stylists even being tapped for First Family duty. Not only has Immortal Beloved become known for its styling, but for its unique decor. All of the furniture was designed and built by Kelly himself, along with his close friend and business partner Caleb Woodard (of Caleb Woodard Furniture).

Washington DC's hot new barber shop, with cement tile from  Villa Lagoon Tile

Can Kelly catch lightning in a bottle again? It sure seems so. Washington is abuzz again over The Barber of Hell’s Bottom. Once again featuring Kelly’s unique vision, and master craftsmanship from Caleb Woodard Furniture, this new barber shop features raw, white-washed brick walls, and beautiful cement tile from Villa Lagoon Tile. Our Roseton tile in custom colors was used to add a hint of flourish to Kelly and Caleb’s remarkable work. This shop has a sophisticated, but raw masculinity, that is sure to make any patron comfortable, while his locks float down to our flooring.

Villa Lagoon Tile, soon to hold hair of the Beltway's elite.

Part of the buzz over Gorush’s new venture has to do with the name. While Shaw may have a median home price north of half-a-million dollars today, it was once “Hell’s Bottom”, one of the District’s most violent neighborhoods. That cool bit of trivia doesn’t stop everyone from noticing the tile, though… nor the barber’s chair from the New York area’s Vernon Hills Country Club, famed to have held several members of the Rat Pack, in its day (not at the same time, of course).

Hell's Bottom... DC's trendy new barbershop, with cement tile from Villa Lagoon Tile

The Barber of Hell’s Bottom has been featured now in the style section of UrbanDaddy.com, given a favorable first look by UrbanTurf.com, and has even been named one of the six “things to do” for last weekend (April 5, 2013), by Men’s Journal ! Way to go Kelly ! We hope you the best success, and a long happiness with our tile.

The place to get a trim before visiting the White House, also a place to see Villa Lagoon Tile.

Roseton with matching border tiles.
Roseton with matching border tiles.

 

April 8, 2013.

 

Villa Lagoon Tile Garners a Mention in Ultra-Luxury Magazine

 

The kitchen of The Reserves Estate, a +$25 million dollar Holmby Hills (Los Angeles) mansion with Villa Lagoon Tile "Cubes" on the floor.
The Reserves Estate Kitchen

 

The RobbReport, a magazine dedicated to the products of the ultra-luxury lifestyle has a new article on the $25 million dollar Holmby Hills estate, The Reserve. You may recall The Reserve from our earlier post about the tile installations by our clients. Obviously the amazing work that designer Kristoffer Winters put into the Reserve deserves the attention, which happens to land Villa Lagoon Tile smack dab between the latest Lamborghini and a $24,000 bottle of wine (a 1945 Chateau Latour Pauillac). We’re happy that cement tile is becoming a growing trend in ultra-luxury estates. We’re even happier that we can offer our tile to more modest budgets as well. Look for the mention here, or on page 37 of the March/April issue of Robb Report Home & Style.

"Cubes" pattern cement tile, from Villa Lagoon Tile.
“Cubes” pattern cement tile, from Villa Lagoon Tile.

Seductive Cement Setting brings Success!

We’d like to give kudos to our friends at Maneli Wilson Interiors for rave reviews of their recent work, featuring our cement tile pattern, Cubes. Sotto 13 opened in November as a runaway hit in New York’s West Village. This new darling destination of the local critics features Italian tapas, brick-oven pizzas, and cocktails by acclaimed mixologist Frankie Oley, but few can help but comment on the amazing decor.

"Cubes" cement tile as a wall covering in the dining room of Sotto 13, in New York.

Our Cubes pattern was used on the wall surrounding the kitchen’s window… a focal point for the flow of food through the restaurant. We also couldn’t help but spot an ingenious use for some of the left-over tiles: they are framed within the side of the hostess stand. On your next project you may consider ordering a little extra… finishing touches like these can really help tie a theme together.

 

Cement Tile brilliantly built into furniture; framed in the sidewall of the Hostess Stand

 

In-Stock "Cubes" Tile
In-Stock “Cubes” Tile



Among the mountains of praise, Jones Magazine proclaims that Sotto 13 “offers rustic decor with a modern twist and perfect ambiance.” CBS New York touts Sotto 13 as “perfect for a West Village date night,” and NewForkCity says “it’s the decor that brings you in”, but the food that brings you back. What more can a restaurateur want from their decor than to provide the perfect, inviting setting to showcase their craft? Perhaps a mention by one of the largest travel magazines in the country?

Not only has Sotto 13 earned a mention by Travel + Leisure Magazine, their grand entrance to the scene has placed them among “America’s Most Romantic Restaurants”. Writing for www.travelandleisure.com, Brendan Spiegel cites Sotto 13’s “alluring space” among the attributes that landed it so high on the list.

No matter what your project, we’re sure our Villa Lagoon Tile, hand-made cement tile can provide a warmth and sophistication that can perfectly accent any vision.

Take a look at just a few other restaurant installations:

Cement Tile in Restaurants

February 12, 2013.