Designer Reveals Secrets to Picking Bathroom Tile You’ll Love Forever

Picking tile should be the easiest thing in the world, but you wouldn’t be the only one to feel slightly overwhelmed after stepping into a showroom.

There is so much to choose from and you can easily get derailed when faced with a huge selection of great tile and innovative vignettes. Designer Amy Slaughter at Slaughter Design Studio gave us a few hints at how to best narrow down the choices.

Stone look tile on the floorHaut Monde in Nobility White on the floor

Pretty Tile

“First and foremost when picking tile,” says Slaughter, “you have to like it. It has to be pretty.” Luckily there’s plenty of that at Daltile. Consider wood look tile or stone look tile for the bathroom. There’s a high demand for durability in the bathroom and a faux look offers “the look of the real McCoy without the maintenance of the real McCoy,” says Slaughter. “You can get creative with faux types of materials in a way you can’t with the materials they represent. It offers a solution for rooms like the bathroom.”

Slaughter recently finished work on a luxury residence in Fredricksburg, Texas in the Boot Ranch development. Her favorite tile in the house? The master bathroom. It’s covered in large-format stone look tile, Haut Monde in 24 x 48 inch size. “They look like they could be excavated stone, yet it’s porcelain—perfect for the bathroom,” says Slaughter.

marble mosaic on bathroom wallPanaro Blend brick joint marble mosaic on the wall

Coordination

“Secondly, your tile has to complement the things that you’ve already selected for the home,” says Slaughter. Every design has to have some continuity. If you’re crazy about that cherry red penny round tile, but the rest of the house is a traditional look in beige, you may want to rethink your bathroom tile choice.

Go neutral with elements that are more permanent and add bold and bright in the details. For instance, Slaughter used an eye-catching marble mosaic, Panaro Blend brick-joint 1 x 5/8 inch, in the powder bath at the Boot Ranch home. It stays true to the general color scheme and feel of the house but adds a touch of luxury and pop of interest in a small space. It acts as a stand-out feature of the home but doesn’t stand alone.

quartzite on the bathroom countertopMont Lucia quartzite on the bathroom vanity

Durability

“Thirdly, tile has to be durable, stain resistant, and it has to be long-lasting. You want materials that are timeless, will be around for a while, and won’t run the risk of being unappreciated in a few years,” says Slaughter.

In the Boot Ranch home, Slaughter chose quartzite in Mont Lucia for the countertops in one of the bathrooms. This natural stone is everything it needs to be for the bathroom vanity—durable, resistant, and gorgeous. It will never look dated and keeps its luxurious look for a long time when cared for correctly. And because it’s a smaller bathroom and has limited countertops, you can afford the splurge on natural stone.

Stay on target for bathroom tile you’ll love with these three simple tips from a pro. Visit a Daltile showroom near you to experience our selection of bathroom tile for yourself.

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Design Scholarship Call for Entries

We’re pleased to announce the sixth annual Daltile Interior Design Scholarship presented by the ASID Foundation.

Each year, Daltile teams up with the American Society of Interior Designers to present undergraduate interior design students with the opportunity to earn scholarships. The themes and challenges revolove around creative designs that meet the needs of real life situations.

This year’s theme is Imagine What’s Possible: Design for Innovation. We’ve partnered with Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center to provide students with a real space to create for.

The challenge for students in 2017 is to reimagine the Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center and  incorporate Fitwel components to create a stimulating and comfortable space for employees.

Fitwel is a future-looking building certification, similar to LEED, focused on occupant and community health and well-being. Using the existing Innovation Center footprint, students should look at the entire space and identify areas of opportunity throughout the floor plan that can be redesigned to increase occupant health and comfort, on budget.

The grand prize winner will take home $10,000 and runners up will take $2,500. Additionally, a $10,000 grant is up for grabs for the school that has the most student entrants.

Entries will be accepted August 15 to September 29, 2017. An awards ceremony will be held in November at ASID’s Career Exchange Program at NeoCon East held in Philadelphia.

Learn More

Join with us in developing a passion for interior design in the rising generation! Spread the word to your colleagues and acquaintances at colleges and universities around the nation.

Cement Look Porcelain for Upscale Urban Industrial Design

Love the industrial loft look? It’s a sophisticated choice for offices, restaurants, boutique hotels, and even a unique home or apartment. Real-deal cement floors, exposed brick, metal walls, wood pillars, and the like can be a bear to take care of and keep looking pristine. While a bit of patina finishes the industrial look, you wouldn’t want to go overboard.

That’s why cement-look porcelain tile is the right choice to get easy care plus keep the urban look you want.

Benefits of Porcelain

  • Low porosity, especially compared to cement. This means that you won’t have to deal with the moisture issues the come with cement.
  • Colors! Cement look porcelain comes in many great neutral colors that don’t change over time. No dyes, no sealers, no mess.
  • Graphic technologies at Daltile offer you the rusty, brushed, cracked, or discolored sensation of aged cement without actually having any of the problems that come with those signature looks.
  • Easy cleanability that comes with porcelain makes it a must for commercial spaces that need constant and thorough cleaning.

Cement Look Porcelain You’ll Love

Daltile knows the demand for cement look porcelain tile and comes out with more and better options all the time. May we humbly suggest a few of our favorites?

 


Reminscent™ is a smooth, updated approach to the cement look. It has an unpolished finish that brings out the cement-like qualities of the tile. This contemporary industrial loft highlights the color variation of aged cement that hints at natural stone. Shown in Aged Beige on the floor and Memento White on the wall.


Classic cement look porcelain tile

This simple kitchen features Ironcraft™, a rough finished cement look with a slight metallic sheen. The unpolished finish brings out the texture of the brushed look making it feel a bit more industrial. The solid surface quartz backsplash in ONE Quartz Surfaces Mercer Grey, rounds out the industrial feel.


Industrial style open floor plan

This open floor plan takes the raw elements of industrial style and mixes it with the grandeur of classical design. The living room floor features Ironcraft in Casper Grey.

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