Monday, April 7, 2008

it's everywhere you look...

i recently had an appointment to do a kitchen backsplash for a house i am working on. i was talking w/ the tile rep and i asked him if he was seeing any new trends in tile? he said what i knew already, "subway, brick pattern tile is still what people are using". it's everywhere you look. i spent a couple of hours looking thru my magazine collection for new ideas for a backsplash and seriously, every kitchen had the white, 3 x 6 subway tile. or if they didn't, they had an extension of the material they used on their countertop: like calcutta marble would be the countertop and the backsplash behind the stove.
i like the classic subway tile. you always know it will pair well with other tiles; it gives a clean look to a space, but at times it can be a little monotonous. companies know that this classic tile is what people are using so they are trying to put a little spin on it...you can find the tile smaller or larger in size, crackled, glass, metal. you can also find different takes on the pattern which i like:
you can flip it and create a bamboo pattern (done by kwid in many bathroom applications), you can line it up in rows to create a linear look, or you can find it in a basket weave kind of pattern.
whatever you do, one thing is for sure...it looks like this tile is going to be around for a while longer. and you know, that's okay with me b/c i do think it makes for a great, simple backsplash.

4 comments:

suzannemarques said...

i visited the most fantastic restaurant where they used off-white subway tile like wainscoting and used little octoganal tiles on the floor. The walls on the upper half were painted. It was so classic I fell in love.
So much is trendy, it seemed like it could've been around for 50 years. Just change the paint color on the wall...

of course I type this & I have the most outrageously trendy bent... so I understand trends... I love em!

chelswat said...

I use these all the time in the beveled version. The ones from Waterworks look like an old classic. But Ann Sacks carries a cheaper version.

girl meets glamour said...

This is so classic, I put it in both my bathrooms and I'm going to put it as my Kitchen backsplash soon!!

~Kate

Things That Inspire said...

Thank you for posting on this! I have been resisting doing subway tile on my daughters' bathroom redo, but cannot find anything else I like as much. I was afraid to put it in, then have it be over and dated within a year of the effort.