As Tile Addict has previously noted, both stone- and wood-effect tiles have become darker and more dramatic in the past couple of years. One stand at the recent Coverings exhibition in Orlando, USA, really caught the mood.
Serenissima, a Gruppo Romani brand, arrived in the USA with plenty of new ideas, further enlarging an already vast catalogue.
One was Tahoe; a concept for floors and walls dedicated to those who follow an active lifestyle. Clearly designed with painstaking attention to detail, as Tile Addict has already shown, Tahoe’s five colour options imbue living spaces with the casual elegance of well-worn, cherished wood flooring.
The dark dramatic look is turned up a notch or two in both Charwood and Gemme: two collections which interpret the warmth of wood and the elegance of marble, marrying the charm of the original materials with the latest in ceramic technology.
From the most eclectic marble surfaces to the most ancient Japanese techniques for conserving wood, Serenissima’s stylists have travelled the world to find the inspiration for these new collections: delivering contemporary solutions for intense, immersive interior design.
Gemme really explores the hidden colours, nuances and veining of marble to deliver something new and unexpected. With its wide range of sizes, from 50 by 50mm mosaic to the new 800 by 1,800 and 1,000 by 1,000mm panels, Gemme can be used in a wide range of interior settings.
In Charwood, Serenissima looks to the ancient Japanese Shou Sugi Ban wood treatment process. Blackened, burnt, charred wood yields a robust, unalterable material with a unique, fascinating look. The special effects created by this artistic technique, which gives a different finish with each individual wood, have been translated into a modern, versatile and highly attractive collection with three intense colour systems. The result is a tile design with elegant nuances, chiaroscuro and metallic shine that renders further decoration quite superfluous.
Further coverage of the design trends at Coverings 2017 can be found in Tile & Stone Journal May 2017, Pages 48-65, or online.
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, May 2017.