For All Your Tiling Needs

Every season specialists within a handful of industries announce and predict fashion color trends. Those that we are most likely to follow come from within the clothing industry, the paint manufacturing industry and from interior designers, manufacturers of fabrics and soft furnishings, and to a lesser extent, makers of tiles.

So if you are planning to do a new tile remodeling project, be inspired by the color trends that have become popular this fall.

Inspire your home with fall colored tile

Fall Colors 2011

If the colors recently seen on the world’s fashion ramps are anything to go by, the fall 2011 range varies from deep sultry blue to vibrant red, with some typical fall-colors of nature in between. There are also indications that bright fuchsia pink (which has also showed up in new hair dye colors) has taken the place of the less electric pink honeysuckle that was popular during the last season.

In addition, last season’s dark oxblood trend has made for a clean, clear and post-box or fire-engine red. Bright lemon yellow, along with a more pastel yellow hue and a more orangey-marigold (ranging from marigold yellow to rust, as seen in nature) are also going great guns. Other popular colors include safe champagne and shades of beige, a range of heather-grays (both dark and light) along with bottle greens and green-grays, and some subdued blue-plum and purple hues.

Leading paint manufacturer, Benjamin Moore is ahead of their game, announcing color trends for 2012 in fall of 2011. In good marketing spirit they have selected four groups that offer a really wide choice, all in keeping with Mother Nature’s own colors:

• Earth & Sky – which fits the fall fashion colors perfectly. Look out for Sharkskin-gray, Fresh Olive, neutral ivory Battenberg, Storm Cloud Gray, and pretty Wythe Blue.
• Eclectic Elegance – also incorporating many of the hues favored by the fashion world for fall 2011, particularly dark stone Stardust, off-white White Dove, Nimbus Gray and clay-colored Farm Fresh. The fifth color in this group is Gypsy Love, a muted shade of maroon; nothing as bright and bold as the fashion houses’ reds and pinks.
• Sense & Sensibility – also fitting the fall fashion colors, with Ballet White, a tan-shade called Massada, Dunmore Cream, gray-hued Pastmina and a teal-type blue Montpelier.
• Spiced Life – with neutral pewter, pink persimmon, rich purple and blue-gray all adding their charm.

Grab tile inspiration from paint manufacturer's new color trend lines

Using Fall Colors for Your Next Tile Remodeling Project

If you are retiling your bathroom and your bath and sanitary ware are white or champagne, then you can opt for any tile you like. There are some gorgeous new sculptural relief tiles on the market that mirror the new fall colors. If you aren’t planning to tile walls to the ceiling, then incorporate a narrow trim at picture rail height and pick out your favorite hue from the tile and paint between tiles and the ceiling cornice.

If you are retiling your kitchen backsplash, you may choose to take the same approach, although the type and color kitchen cabinets – as well as flooring – must be taken into account.

If you are planning to tile a living room or even just a section of the room, around a fireplace for example, before you rush out and buy tiles just because they fit the fall color theme, you need to assess the décor of your room as a whole. Make sure that soft furnishings and paint colors all blend or contrast with the tiles you choose to use.

There is a so much variety in good tile shops you are sure to find something in the current fall color range that takes your fancy.

There are various ways to build outdoor stairs, including with bricks or blocks and mortar, or with concrete cast in formwork.

There are also a variety of ways to finish outdoor stairs. If you use facebrick, you can leave the brick surface as is for both treads and risers. If you choose to use concrete or a mortar unit that needs additional finishing, a popular option is to tile the treads and plaster and paint the risers. Another option is to tile both risers and treads, depending on the effect you want to create.

Decorative outdoor ceramic tile stairs

If you are building a new outdoor flight of stairs – or even just a few steps from the garden to your front door – you can choose the materials to use. If you already have stairs, you might like the idea of updating the look with decorative ceramic tiles laid on the risers to introduce both color and pattern to this outdoor space.

Design Ideas for Tiles on Risers

Spanish-style decorative tiles combine beautifully with terracotta tiles, particularly on stairs where the terracotta tiles are used on the level treads, and the decorative tiles are used to finish the vertical risers.

Of course you are not limited to Spanish tiles; any decorative or even simply colored field tiles can be used; or you could use hand-painted tiles that you have either decorated yourself or bought.

Monumental stairs make a great place for tiles

Different design approaches include:

• Laying the same tiles along each riser. This creates a classic Mediterranean look and works beautifully when all the risers are exactly the same height, and this dimension matches the size of the tiles.
• Using a selection of different tile patterns and alternating them, or repeating patterns every three or four rows. While this works well for equal sized risers, the approach can also be used as a creative solution where some risers are higher than others. In this instance you will need to choose tiles that fit the height, or grout between the top of the tile and the tread.
• Mixing designs on each riser, in which case the look of all tiles should be similar and colors the same.
• Mixing designs with plain colors, and/or laying the tiles “on point” to change the symmetry. This can be incredibly effective, but it takes a lot of tile cutting, which often leads to wastage.

Whichever route you chose, you can be sure that tiling the risers of your outdoor stairs will definitely update them.