Cement Style - Page 4 of 11 - by Villa Lagoon Tile

Cement Tile Blows ’em out of the Water, Design by Philippe Starck

One of our most fun projects was making the many patterns of tile that Philippe Stark called for in his design for the SLS Vegas hotel pool area. The project consisted of 2 large ‘rug like’ areas of a patchwork of pattern with a solid color Black tile border around each. This was not our first Phillipe Stark project but it was the largest. We also made cement tile for YOO Panama.

The pool bar at the Las Vegas SLS Hotel is called FOXTAILS.

Quite a bit of organization was required by us, our tile workshop and the installers. The contractor was Ferraro Marble of Las Vegas and they were great to work with.

While many of the patterns were traditional designs for which we already had the molds, there were some that we had to make from scratch. The project required many pre-order samples going back and forth as most large commercial jobs do. Once they saw the quality of our tiles and that we were able to tackle this complicated order, everyone was ‘on board’ and the fun began.

Our factory used color coded sticky tape on the tile boxes to assist Ferraro Marble in identifying which tile was in which box. Even with that help, we know it was a real challenge to follow the designer’s layout exactly.

We also provided the black and white tile used in a chevron pattern on the DANCE FLOOR in the nightclub in the hotel. So many delightful patterns can be created with solid color tiles. We think this is an option seldom explored by many designers. The potential for plaids and large scale repeating or non-repeating patterns is limitless.

In keeping with the B&W theme throughout the SLS Vegas, the Sundries shop has our black and white cement tile.

One thing is for sure, Villa Lagoon Tile’s Custom Patchwork at the SLS Vegas is the perfect setting for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models !!

AD Features Creme Design’s L’Amico NYC

Villa Lagoon Tile’s angular patterns “Tugboat” & “Man Overboard” (Named after the Nautical flags they represent) create a lively floor in the new L’Amico NYC, a new restaurant from well known chef Laurent Tourondel in the Eventi Hotel. He is serving an Italian-influenced menu in a chic semi-rustic setting. We spotted a photo and a tantalizing description of the good eats in Architectural Digest.

CRÈME Design of Brooklyn used a random setting of four Villa Lagoon Tiles.

The AD description, above, makes the food sound divine and we love how the many windows flood the room with light.
Let Villa Lagoon Tile make custom encaustic cement tile for your next project.

Update, April 11, 2016:

Along with and following the segment of the November 2015 print edition, Architectural Digest published several online articles revolving around l’Amico and CREME. Here are some additional links:

Architectural Digest: Chef Laurent Tourondel Opens A Rustic Italian Restaurant in New York City

Architectural Digest: The 14 Best New Restaurants in NYC 2015 (December 10, 2016)

Architectural Digest: 4 Brooklyn Restaurant Designers to Know (March 3, 2016)

Turnberry Resort Chooses Villa Lagoon Tile’s Hexagonal “Halo” Cement Tile

When renovations were done at Turnberry Isle Resort Club our hexagonal cement tiles were chosen for the lively inside-outside CORSAIR Restaurant / Bar over seen by noted chef Scott Contan.

Corsair offers a seasonal and rustic menu of American and Mediterranean dishes. The menu changes based on what can be gotten locally.

The décor, featuring Villa Lagoon Tile’s hand crafted “Halo” hexagonal encaustic cement tile, and menu offerings are united through a sense of understated sophistication.

The restaurant has a scenic outdoor terrace which provides an ideal place for guests to enjoy picturesque views, the splash of the cooling waterfall and the diverse tropical vegetation and, of course, the resort’s acclaimed golf course.

“Find Scott Conant’s hearty, farmhouse-style cooking in a polished, handsome setting.” The Miami Herald

“With CORSAIR, Conant again shows why he’s among the city’s best pasta makers.” Miami New Times

“One of the 10 Hottest New Restaurants in Miami.” Zagat Miami

Turnberry Resort is in the Aventura Miami area and is a luxury Miami hotel, golf course, and club with a private beach.

Bold Cement Tile in the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel

When Boston’s Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel did a huge renovation of the 100 year old Oak Room, we were happy to have our custom cement tile be a part of the new decor by Powerstrip. Using an historic pattern and brilliant colors, the designers used a Villa Lagoon Tile cement tile in a well known Cuban pattern which coordinates beautifully with the richly paneled room decor.

The Oak Room dining room has been open and serving for over 100 years. Decades of renovations had slowly stripped any actual oak wood from the restaurant and bar space. Further major changes had removed a Merry-Go-Round Bar that was installed during Prohibition and remained until the 1970’s.

Powerstrip’s redesign seamlessly merges the original Beaux-Arts love of bold wall paneling with a contemporary architectural language and finish. The copper bar (the longest in North America) is emblazoned, “We serve the Nation.” Now a sophisticated spot in the Fairmont for farm-to-table American eats, craft drinks & hobnobbing.

Interestingly the designers chose to lay this tile in a different way than the usual of each tile rotated 90 degrees. Here they rotated every other tile 90 degrees and laid them in rows which creates a zig-zag chevron effect.

The wine cellar with Villa Lagoon Tile cement tile in custom colors.

VIDEO: Watch the transformation in action below…the VLT tile goes in at about 38 seconds marker. Note how they protected the freshly laid tile from the other trades once it was laid. This is one key to a good outcome.

Let us provide custom encaustic cement tile for your next renovation or new build and help elevate your design into the WOW! category.

Relax with Cement Tile in Santa Barbara

The Hotel Goleta, now a Kimpton Hotel in California, has been transformed into a chic flip-flop zone for relaxing surf style called The Goodland Hotel. The newly refurbished Santa Barbara, Calif. hotel features 158 guestrooms and suites designed in beach-chic SoCal style for a postcard perfect Santa Barbara stay.

The designers utilized our cement tile in several patterns to achieve this new stylish decor.

Villa Lagoon Tile’s “Mixed Gray Hexagonal” tile covers the lobby and reception area in Santa Barbara’s The Goodland Hotel.
Our Mixed Gray Hex tile comes in a balanced mix of 4 shades of gray. At the Goodland they threw in a handful of additional hex tiles also.

Our “Lisbon” pattern tile covers shower walls.

Handcrafted cement tile lends an artisanal aspect to hospitality projects like the Goodland Hotel.
See more at: http://www.thegoodland.com

Herringbone Cement Tile at Chicago’s Franklin Room

The Franklin Room continues the trend of bringing back Chicago’s history of neighborhood taverns, but with a classy, upscale, decor which includes a entire floor of Villa Lagoon Tile.

This lively lunch and dinner spot sports expensive bourbons in cages and an emphasis on great “pub grub” and serving liquor neat.

Ladies and Gentlemen are welcome…so says the sign at Chicago’s new pub/ tavern/bar/restaurant The Franklin Room. The Franklin Room is a proper city tavern and urban speakeasy located in the popular River North neighborhood. Described by Google as “Creative, wide-ranging American menu & brown booze, sake & tons of beers in a subterranean space” and we would add “sporting a handsome hand crafted herringbone tile floor from Villa Lagoon Tile”.
In areas around the entrance and the bar a coordinating checkerboard pattern is made from two shades of VLT’s solid color cement tiles.

With such a wide expanse of richly colored and patterned cement tiles it is easy to see how custom cement tiles can really contribute to creating a special atmosphere in a restaurant or bar.

Puerto Rican Cement Tile

Cement tile has a rich and deep history in Puerto Rico. We have supplied our colorful cement tiles for residences and restaurants in Puerto Rico. We can also recreate antique Puerto Rican cement tile patterns and deliver to the door in PR. Just send us a photo or browse our existing tile patterns and request a quote.

Traditional floor designs made of cement tiles, “Losa criolla” (creole tile) or “losa isleño” (island tile), as they are called in Puerto Rico, are frequently laid out like a carpet or rug with a coordinating border just as a “Oriental” rug might.

The technique for making decorative cement tiles was perfected in Europe about 50 years prior and quickly spread to Spanish colonies in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

A mold, cement, color pigments and water are used to produce tiles by compression in a hydraulic press. As we are always telling our callers, the tiles are not fired or glazed like ceramic tile. They are water and air cured.

Many of the cement tiles now used in Puerto Rico come from Villa Lagoon Tile. We can arrange shipment of stock tile using several freight lines who have regular service in Puerto Rico. For larger orders, we can deliver a container directly from factory to the island’s ports.

In Isabel II, Vieques take a look at the antique tile floors at the restaurant Conuco.

Villa Lagoon Tile can recreate antique Puerto Rican cement tiles and deliver to your door. Just send us a photo or browse our existing tile patterns and request a quote. We have supplied our colorful cement tiles for residences and restaurants in Puerto Rica.

Designer Sophie Aurelie loves Villa Lagoon Tile’s encaustic cement tile (mosaicos hidraulicos) and uses them frequently in her restaurant plans.

Click & Buy this book for the pleasure of seeing hundreds of cement tile patterns from Puerto Rico.

Hernan Moran, author of Puerto Rico Tile Designs, states that cement or hydraulic tiles were first introduced to Puerto Rico around 1900. They were imported by ship from Barcelona, Spain. The Puerto Ricans found the beautiful and practical cement tiles to be cooler and cleaner than the old colonial floors made of stone, coral, bricks or wood. In Puerto Rica large numbers of homes and businesses built in the early part of the 20th century used cement tiles, not only for their durability but also for their cheerful designs and colors.

In the early 1060’s the popularity of hydraulic tiles in Puerto Rico started to drop as new flooring materials were introduced and poured terrazzo became vogue. In those days some of the cement tile manufacturers in Puerto Rico switched to producing “losetas del pais” (terrazzo tiles) and concrete blocks.Many of the tiles in the public and historic buildings are native Puerto Rican designs.

By the 1920’s, there were at least five local companies that were manufacturing these native cement tiles in PR. We read that Parador Villa Parguera in La Parguera, Lajas, on the southwest coast was a school before it was a small hotel. The school received donations of leftover tiles from the tile makers, so there is an assortment of over 50 designs in their floors. See here, here, here and here

Today the antique tiles have come to be appreciated again and there is a resurgence of interest.

An example of new cement tile are the floors through out the new El Blok hotel in Esperanza.

Boka Restaurant Chicago–Revamped with Cement Tile

Recently renovated BOKA Restaurant has reopened to an avalanche of praise, including “Restaurant of the Year“, and “Chef of the Year” for new partner and executive chef Lee Wolen. While we read that the food is divine, critics also rave about the new decor, which features fabulous Ikat pattern cement tiles from Villa Lagoon Tile.

Boka closed for months to undergo a stunning remodel and menu revamp under new partner and executive chef Lee Wolen. Under Wolen’s expert care, Boka managed to maintain its Michelin star rating. This new remodel features dark woods, black leather, a living wall, and antique artwork and of course our Ikat pattern cement tiles in all four patterns.

In 10 years, Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, of Boka Restaurant Group, have gone from being fledgling restaurateurs to being the Chicago restaurateurs everyone wants to work for. The Boka name is derived from the first letters of the restaurateurs’ last names.

The entrance area (below) is covered in our Ikat “D” .

The far wall that looks a bit like bricks is really covered in old door hardware. Look closely.

The whole space has a “cool” vibe befitting its “be-seen” crowd

–Zagat

They … transformed Boka’s forgettable decor into a dark and bustling adult playground

–Chicago Magazine

The new look exudes class with a bit of romance and occasional quirk

–Michelin Guide

“Restaurant of the Year” from Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence (2014)

“Chef of the Year” from Eater (2014), the Jean Banchet Awards (2014), and the Chicago Tribune (2015).

Big Joy in Tiny Tiles

Villa Lagoon Tile’s patterns adorn some of the most charming miniature rooms. Sylvia de Groot, a highly skilled Dutch artist of charming scale model rooms and chateaux uses our Villa Lagoon Tiles Coastal Collection in many of her projects..

Her Chambre de Séraphine has a balcony and bathroom floor of our Trapani “Midnight”. This tile is a Villa Lagoon Tile exclusive and was originally designed by Lundy Wilder for a master bedroom floor.

The potting bench on the balcony has a bit of spilled dirt but this bathroom does look like it needs a good scrubbing !

Another room has tiny tiles of our exclusive Italian Trellis pattern in Taupe and a border tile of Shell Trellis

Another project, a little Greek house has our Trapani tile in the “Azul Frost”.

Back in 2011 ago Kathi Laugherty let us know that she was using our tile in one of her scale model projects.

She cut each VLT exclusive Savona “Beach” tile individually and wrote about it on her blog post.

Her mini beach house kitchen looks wonderfully cozy and whimsical.

We are delighted that miniaturists like our tile for their projects. If you know of others, please drop us an email.

Florentine Shaped Cement Tile

The romance of Italy is captured in our new shaped tile.
The color options are unlimited and cement tile has never looked better !

Villa Lagoon Tile’s “Florentine” shaped tile comes in two parts. The larger piece is about 11 inches at the widest point and the smaller piece is 8 inches across. This tile can come in any thickness. The usual for interiors is 16mm (5/8″) but when thinner or thicker is needed, we can do it.

Our Florentine shaped tile has a slight Fleur-de-Lis relief pattern on each tile which improves traction.

We are stocking it in Black and Featherstone Gray but imagine the possibilities of color combinations.

Our Stock Tile is ready to ship. We started with a Black & Gray combination because it fits so many needs. This would be a stunning wine cellar floor or the foyer in a Hollywood Hills Spanish revival home.

Just imagine a courtyard or restaurant paved in this stunning tile.

Call today to tell us what creative color combinations you want to order as samples using
our South Beach cement tile colors.