Cevisama 2012 - Top Trends from Spanish Tile and Bath Show

I was thrilled to be invited to Cevisama, Spain’s annual tile and bath trade show. ASCER, the Spanish tile trade council, represented in the U.S. as Tile of Spain, sponsored our press group and took us to visit their member booths at the show. This provided us with a fabulous overview of Europe’s latest tile innovations. Here are the top trends I spotted at the show that are likely headed across the pond this year. Last week, I blogged about the top trends for the Russian market, an entirely different animal!


Smart style

Tile has gotten smarter since its introduction thousands of years ago! I was incredibly impressed with the innovations I spotted at the show. Here are some of the highlights:

Ceracasa is releasing Eco, tile that stores energy and releases it for heating and cooling a room, by the end of the year.

Ceracasa already produces Emotile, an ink jet-produced mural that feature custom designs by clients submitted digitally. While mainly used in commercial projects, I can see these tiles cladding a shower or kitchen wall in an eclectic residence.

Thin was definitely in at the show, with skinny tiles that are easier to carry and cut, less costly to ship and installable over existing floors were prominent at Cevisama. One of the companies that pioneered this technology is Inalco. They also pioneered digital printing on tiles, creating ceramics that stunningly duplicate natural materials.

Designing in California and Florida has given me a passion for indoor-outdoor living spaces. Natucer’s Stone Klinker and Grespania’s weathered wood look Basilea were two top collections that come in low-maintenance indoor and slip-resistant outdoor versions – both smart and stylish!

Natucer also built rows of LED lights into tile with its clever Life Arc series.

But the smartest tiles at the show were undoubtedly Tau’s S3 system. S3 stands for Smart Surface Systems and smart is a serious understatement! I’ll cover these more in my next post on top products from the show but, like Ceracasa’s Eco tile, S3 impacts a room’s temperature. It also ties in entertainment, lighting and other home systems. Wow!

Ceracasa's Emotile uses ink-jet technology to render client images on wall tile

Go Green

Eco-friendly attributes were widespread throughout the show, too. As mentioned above, energy-storing tiles were among the offerings. So were tiles made from recycled materials. I liked Altto Glass’ mosaics made from residential windows. Plaza showed off Ecowood, tiles that look like wood, but are almost entirely made by cast-off materials from local tile factories. Scrap never looked so good!

Altto Glass recycles translucent house windows into colorful mosaics

Good Wood

Wood-look tiles are not new, but ink-jet technology keeps improving their style and versatility. Vives showed how great wood marquetry can look in tile. Peronda and Grespania showcased beautiful rustic, reclaimed looks. And, as noted above, Ecowood brought eco points to the trend.

Weathered wood look tile by Plaza goes both indoors and out

3D without Glasses

One of the most playful, fun trends at the show was tile that was anything but flat. Natucer’s various 3D series cast ceramics as room dividers, shower niches, furniture legs and create wall art.

Much of Apavisa’s booth featured dimensional tile with layers, curves and waves for some of the most contemporary, artistic looks at the show.

Tau showed how stylish 3D can be with tone-on-tone Mayfair series listellos that raise pattern and style.

Look what ceramics can do! Natucer's Separate Rooms take tile to another dimension.

Old Looks, New Life

In the everything old is new again category, updates of retro styles were Everywhere! New screen print and ink jet processes give tile makers the technology to produce historic looks with impressive accuracy and affordability. Some of the most notable include:

Tile as wallpaper was one of the dominant trends at the show. Floral, striped, India-inspired and wainscot looks were everywhere! Much of the more ornate product was intended for Russia and Eastern Europe, but we could be seeing some of the subtle stripes, mini florals and grass cloth looks heading for the U.S. this year.

Tiles that revive encaustic and concrete styles were among my favorites at Cevisama, particularly Natucer’s Cementi series.

Hexagons were popular, too, with updated colors and finishes, reviving a retro bathroom look with contemporary style. Plaza’s Genesis series did this especially well!

Love the encaustic trend, shown here by Vives

All That Glitters…

Works stylishly in metallic, textured, graphic-patterned metallic tile. In my recent Houzz Ideabooks on tile trends, I showcased graphic tile as a top trend. These tiles that repeat random, geometric-inspired patterns, typically in just two colors, add interest to a wall without shouting. I really like the metallic graphics I saw for myself at Cevisama that combine shape, texture and soft shine. They manage to be both elegant and contemporary.

At the other end of the taste spectrum were the many irridescent tiles on display. Much of it was cheesy and will probably never hit our shores. A few offerings with more tasteful tone-on-tone design could make their way past the fashion police.

Graphic textures in silver metallic by Plaza shine bright

Notes:

Links -- I did not provide links to the companies, as I usually do, as all can be found through the Tile of Spain web site and not all have easily-found English pages!

Photos -- I took all of these photos on my iPhone 4S.

Food for Thought #5 - Is Russia the New Wild, Wild East?

I had the splendid pleasure of visiting Spain last week as a guest of that country’s tile manufacturers’ trade representatives, Tile of Spain or ASCER. They took our press group to Cevisama, a major trade show in Valencia featuring tile and bath fixtures. I’ll be sharing top trends and products from the show, and a Molten Gold or two, in the coming weeks.

Today, I’d like to muse on a particular trend I spotted there, one I hadn’t given any thought to before. Yes, I’m fascinated by kitchens and baths from other countries. Last summer, I was treated to a guest post by the Kitchen Mogul on the top UK favorites of that British blogger. I recently requested a guest post on Japanese kitchens and baths from an interior designer’s US publicist.

With this post, I openly invite a Russian blogger to share his or her thoughts and images on Russian kitchens and baths. I can only imagine their style from the tiles I saw at Cevisama that were slated for export there in the coming months.

Every time I asked a booth rep whether an over-the-top tile style was heading to the U.S. market, I got the same reply: No, Russian. That got me to thinking about that grand nation, the country of my grandmother’s birth and emigration more than a century ago.

The patterns I saw were as large as Siberia, and as fanciful as a fabled Faberge egg. The trend was formal and highly stylized – palatial even. It all reminded me of the grandiosity of an historic Texan oil baron’s mansion, or a saloon or bordello in an old movie western set.




I realized that the comparison is not terribly off. Nor is it meant to offend. Both cultures exemplify the triumph of energy, masculinity, exploration and discovery. Like the Wild West of American legend, Russia today is a land tapping into its vast natural resources, and enjoying great wealth as a result. Just as our tycoons did a century ago. He who finds the most treasure wins fame and fortune. Showing it off in your home is a relative benefit, and a recent one for many Russians. It must also be a refreshing change from the drab days of communist scarcity.

One of these years, I’d like to visit Russia myself. In the meantime, I’ll savor the glimpse this trade show afforded me. Let me know what you think, too!












Photo Notes:

> I took all of the Tile of Spain booth display shots with my iPhone 4S at Cevisama.
> Faberge Egg photo is from Wikipedia.

2012 Trends Post: Tiles (Guest Post by Paul Anater of Kitchen and Residential Design)

When I decided that no 2012 trends series would be complete without a tile post, my go-to guy was Paul Anater, editor and publisher of the incomparable Kitchen and Residential Design blog, also a friend and Blogger 19 "godfather."

I knew that Paul had his finger on the pulse of this dynamic specialty, and that he was working with the top trade show for that industry, Coverings, to keep us designers and design writers informed.

I attended Coverings a few years ago and found it to be well worth the time. If I can squeeze it into my schedule this April, you'll see me there again. (The fact that my stepdaughter attends college in Orlando makes it even more appealing!)

There are so many incredible new innovations in tile, beyond just the great-looking designs. It's truly an ancient medium that is ideal for our new era, too. But please let Paul inform you in his own words and share some great images with you, too!

***

The last few years have brought with them something close to a revolution when it comes to what’s available in the world of tile. The ability of tile manufacturers to print more and more different patterns has led to a great variety of products. These can lend any room a distinctive and long-lasting feel that will be in style for years to come.

Stone looks

The first big trend to come out of Europe and be picked up by manufacturers in North America is tile that looks like stone.

Whether it’s the look of slate, granite, onyx or the grey-green marble shown here from Aparici, the same look can be had in tile. In tile however, you’ll get the maintenance-free characteristics of ceramic tile without the hassles of natural stone.

Wood looks

One of the other big trends is the idea of tile standing in for wood planks. Stand ins for true planks still abound, but tile designers are starting to theme the wood they’re imitating.




This series from Peronda invokes repurposed shipping crates and pallets. The result is an interesting and edgy take on green design.

Format changes

Recent years have seen a move to tiles that are larger, thinner and less likely to be square. Using these large formats brings with it a completely different appearance as this room from Grespania shows. It would be a different room all together if there were 12-inch squares on the walls and floors.




In keeping with that different format approach, some manufacturers are introducing wall tile that dispenses with right angles like this series from Apavisa.



The same manufacturer, Apavisa, has been experimenting with the idea of dispensing with wall tiles that are flat. The effect is spectacular and is about the last thing anybody would expect a tile wall to look like.

Artisinal tile

And through all this modernity, at the same time there’s been an explosion in artisanal tile, such as these hand-cut mosaics from New Ravenna.




And how about these Art Nouveau beauties from DuQuella Tile?




Still more

The world of tile is exploding. Tile’s showing up not just on floors but on building facades, interior walls and structural elements.

Though North America tends to lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to innovations in ceramics, that’s beginning to change as more international brands come into the markets on this side of the Atlantic. North American manufacturers, too, are climbing onboard when it comes to the innovations we’re seeing coming out of Europe.

Get there!

One of the best places to see what’s new in the world of North American tile is the trade show Coverings [JG: Industry professionals only; free admission] Coverings is an international showcase of North American tile and stone and this year it’s being held in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. The show runs from April 17th through the 21st.