KBIS Ideas: Rethinking Subway Tile
Subway tile gets a whole new look from Ann Sacks...
Yes, I am a fan of restoration and staying true to the original spirit of a house. AND when I say "spirit", I mean intention or design principles or themes. Which also lets me express my individuality while staying true to a house's style.
Although I'm not a purist's worst nightmare, I would probably give Mr. Purist an anxiety attack or, at the very least, a severe case of the jitters. I believe in central air conditioning as long as it doesn't change the look of the house. I believe in dishwashers, insulation, the Zip Loc bag and the fuel combustion engine. And I'm unashamed of that. I believe with my whole heart that my great-grandmother would have loved all of these things had they been available to her.
So, if my great-grandmother had choices for the type and size of field tiles that she could have used in her bathroom, I think she would have been quite pleased. As it was, she had 3 x 6 white field tiles and that was it for her. But I think the lovely horizontal tile look of original subway tile themes can be retained with the different types of field tiles you see today. And we saw a handful of lovely options at K/BIS.
Ann Sacks for Kohler Interiors not only "riffed" on subway tiles, she took on the hex tile as well. I have to say that stainless steel is an, ahem, interesting choice for a bathroom when you know you're going to be the one cleaning it. I think I'll still stick with ceramic there.
And these wooden field tiles are from Architectural Stone and Tile, not Ann Sacks, but I'm having problems finding contact information for them.
Some other notable lovely designs...for mosaic work (Ann Sacks):
And for mid-century modern tastes (Ann Sacks):
Not exactly my great-grandmother's tiles. And I don't think that's so bad, really. However, before Mr. Purist runs me through with his sword, I shall try to divert his attention with this link to Ann Sack's Batchelder line....
Now, would great grandma have been able to afford Ms. Sacks' tiles? Welllll, maybe if she had used them as accent pieces...
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Comments
indeed, accent pieces. I have about 3sqft of the ann sacks basketweave by oh i forget his name, he does a line of plumbing for kohler's high end bathroom stuff kallista. that was all i could afford. it is inset into my kt backsplash which is made up for the remainder of dal-tile! hee hee. i think more was spent on the gas to drive down to the one showroom in south florida and the cost of the 3sqft than on the rest of the tile for the backsplash. ahhhh, budget sumdget and reality.
aimee
Posted by: ams | April 27, 2006 10:19 AM
I love paragraphs 2 & 3 of this post!
Amen!
Posted by: Bill | April 27, 2006 11:24 AM