One of the design trends at Cersaie 2017 was timber-effect tiles in larger plank formats, while another on-going creative thread is texture as a key design element. These come together in Portinari‘s Woodstock. The idea of plain monotonal tiles with a visible wood grain does not, on the face of it, sound that exciting. But this range is well thought through and it works.
Woodtock is an unglazed technical porcelain range that available in a 600 by 1,200mm format in natural or lappato finishes. The colour choice is pure and simple: white, grey and black.
The inspiration for the design, and the large format used, came from huge millennial trees from forests around the world. Portinari has delivered a modern reinterpretation of these impressive natural forms. The Woodstock range includes a carbonized effect for the darkest of the three shades: imposing and homogeneous. To provide both contrast and compositional options, these black tiles are offered alongside grey and white shades that provide aesthetic openness and a subtle tactility.
As noted earlier, a tile that looks like a painted timber board with a visible grain pattern does not sound that exciting, but this is a very commercial design because it can work equally well alongside natural stone, embossed wallpaper, paint, gloss wall tiles or concrete-effect floor tiles. It looks like a winner.
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, October 2017.