We check out tile trends for projects and builds in 2021
Granny, 27cm x 75cm, scale matched to decors, with a polygonal relief pattern in the same colours as the field, versatile.ie
With the hard stuff spread all over the house from the front hall to the shower-room, choosing tile can be a stress-juiced decision with (no exaggeration here) thousands of choices in scale, colour, material and installation patterns and schemes. 2021 shows the intensification of some familiar trends, the appearance of new, fascinating colourways and a slow turn back to the late 20th-century styling. Let’s set down our trowels and take a look around the virtual showroom.
Shadowed tile edges are something we haven’t seen much of since the 1980s, but this smoky honing is on the wall for 2021. There’s a larger format, additional elements of texture, iridescence and contemporary colour. It’s 40 years from an old-fashioned small, cream tile with a raised seashell. Granny is just one take on shadow edging – and don’t be put off by the title. With a 27cm x 75cm scale matched to décors with a polygonal relief pattern in the same colours as the field tile, it’s drop-dead gorgeous, and subtly blurs those irritating grout lines. €45.28 per m2, versatile.ie
My second choice in historic inspiration (and I’m in good company with a number of feted designers) is Zellica, a rubbed out parquet block, slowly fired for a deliberate colour variation informed by the fascination for clay, pottery wood and brick flooring this AW season. 18th-century Spanish majolica, with its chipped edges and distressed surface is celebrated in faded edges and a beautiful glow, particular in natural light. Colours include Ochre, Bronze and Licorice. Around €75 per m2, Topps Tiles (NI). For an American tin-style antique look in high relief, try Demelza Tin Oxide tiling from Mandarin Stone, €53 sq m, mandarinstone.com
Fashionistas will be drawn helplessly to the dark – going glossy black all the way with rubbed red brassware poised dramatically against rich inky walls and floors. Be highly aware of your lighting and the inclusion of pristine whiteware together with plenty of mirror flash to pull off the sophistication of the look (there’s no such thing as mine-chic people). Grout? Black to match that little black dress or use white to tease up white patterning. Wood effect tiling planks in porcelain – gentle the look with a little figuring.
Take a look at the star explosion form of Claesson Koivisto Runes collection in cement tiles produced by Marrakech Design (Dandelion), €162 m2, Tile Expert. If true black is too gothic and metropolitan for you – move to matt barely blacks, bruised greys or something more organic speaking of stone and petrified wood worn and by water. A poured screed concrete with aggregate inclusions, or similar rectified porcelain tiling choices can go dark without being depressing. Try Earth Night in a large format 60cm x 60cm floor and wall tile, €32 per m2, royalstones.ie
Metro tiling first appeared in public hospitals, train and subway stations in around 1904, and once we brought it indoors in the 1920s, it stayed firmly in place. It offers a timeless, calming rectangular favourite great for outlining furnishings, but you might want to bring a few home, and see what this oldie is really capable of. Tile styling doesn’t stop at the factory – shake them up. Try formatting smaller tile runs into larger tiles, setting it on end and even using metros as a diagonal (chevron) on the floor or wall. Added dynamism going left and right, can push back walls and ceilings.
Explore semi-opaque glass bricks, lacy faint prints, bevelled edges, matt meets glossy mix-ups, verdigris, and sensual texture. Vivid, shiny choices are highly architectural, and in a smaller bathroom will let light fly – amplifying space. Matching grout colour will send the tile ‘back’ while going wildly darker or lighter will bring up that grid in all but rectified (edge to edge) tiling. My choice for this season from CTD – Dyron - a long green oxidized metro in a metallic crackle, that best set upright, €50 per m2, ctdtiles.co.uk for suppliers in Eire. Bezel Olimpo has a Carrerra marble finish in a smart long kitchen wall tile – just €25 per square metre, rightpricetiles.ie (get a free cut sample).
Original tiles have made a stand for their tile of the year 2021 and in a soft sunny yellow, I think this spring is going to see many halls and kitchen floors blooming gold in modern colours applied to encaustic style winners like Hawthorn Yellow stunners, from the Victorian Floor Tile Collection. It comes in a variety of shapes and can be teamed with a number of colourways” – Original Tiles €0.57 cent per tile, originalstyle.com for suppliers in Eire. Take a look at soft sugar-almond pink for walls and floors in 2021 too – it’s just a tease on the familiar not pretty enough to give us a toothache.
The move towards painterly products, touching on a return to the mural, is somewhat niche. Where it does work, it’s utterly fantastic and ideal if you love hand-finished objects with natural imperfections. Cuban design is perking furnishings and vintage collecting, and these tiles take their lead from the humid tropical native flora and fauna seen by designer Angela Harris on her extensive travels. Made up a full picture or use them randomly in a shattered forest of shine and colour. Her aged, toned, red body ceramics appear in wall and floor tiles under the Dunmore and Inspira collections. From €126 a boxed set, tile.expert/en-ie.
Longing for pattern and gemstone colour – Moroccan cement tiling with its serene, intricate motifs (oddly familiar to the Celtic look-book) can cover flooring indoors and even slip under the threshold and upholster the patio under the correct sealant. Try it as a colourful slip splash-back, or set as a runner for a specified area. Porcelanosa offers a good choice and are available at many large tiling outlets. Nikea is an impressive porcelain cheat – eclectic in kitchens and even heading up the bed-head. Priced from €29 per m2, suppliers include Heat Wise and The Bath-Shack
Geometric tiles have a fascinating rhythm that you’ll either groove with or shrink from. If there’s one shape to rule them all for 2021 it’s the hexagonal. For a change, we’re seeing hexagonal patterns and shapes running directly into wood plank flooring (in real timber or parquet – hot, hot, hot for two years now). Hexagonals don’t include the visual shivers that make other geometrics slightly astigmatic when you’re swinging your feet on the loo. 3D mosaics make me queasy.
Taken small, they recall the "penny" flooring tiles hugely popular in public buildings in the USA. Look out for basket weaves styles and natural stone finishes – again gentler than a searing angular choice. Terrazzo is interpreted in tiling brilliantly in a speckled face but can also be indicated in a geometric-like Vives Brenta Multicolor Porcelain floor tile at a small scale of 20cm x 20cm, €33 per m2 deluxebathrooms.ie. Softer blurred geometric tiling choices include Artica from RAK, POA and suppliers in Eire: rakceramics.com
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