Tile Trends 2013

There's more to share on my trip to Coverings, the tile design trade fair, showcasing tile trends, stone, artisans, processes and more.

Along with more insight on what I saw at Coverings is another collection of inspiring tile via the slide show I put together with images I took from the show floor. And there will be more, as the best is yet to come, but in the meantime, you'll love these tiles!

Often, when I am going home on the plane from a design event, rather than flip through a magazine (after all electronic devices need to be turned off) I take that time, from the gate up to 10,000 feet, to write in my Moleskine about what information stood out to me, for future reference. As I look at my little notebook, here's what I noted about trends (but first, take a look at some beautiful tile!)

Trends spotted:

• WOOD (tile), wood and more wood
• Wood tile that is super rustic and stunning!
• Wood tile that is incredibly realistic thanks to advanced technologies
• Wood in lighter tones as a peripheral trend
• Long planks of wood tile
• Wood, conrete and stone looks trending
• NEUTRALS BIGTIME!
• Very large format, even larger than I observed at last year's coverings show
• Large porcelain slabs by many manufacturers designed for paneled surfaces including kitchen countertops
• Very THIN tiles - definitely the new way to produce tile
• Fun patterns, geometrics, playing with shapes
• Microbial and recycled content
• Salvage, urban, metallics
• Vintage, inspired by nature
• Pop and subculture references
• Damask!

A few of these trends were noted in my previous post on tile trends, but there are quite a few more discoveries I have added here. 

Tile technology has been rapidly advancing and by that I mean tile is manufactured much lighter in weight which saves much energy especially for imported materials, in many cases the materials are much more green than ever before, and although there was an abundance of grays and wood design stories, there is also an enormous amount of real creativity and original design. Fresh vintage/retro is also still a story, but probably the biggest story is the microbial effect where the tile actually cleans the air! Learn more here from Crossville's latest introduction. 

I have more fabulous tile to show you - just wait - you'll be shocked at what's to come!