A Matter of sTILE

From January 18th through 22nd, I spent the most fabulous week as part of BlogtourVegas presented by Modenus.com. If you're unfamiliar with Modenus, let me explain. Modenus is a digital resource for design professionals and design enthusiasts. Producing Blogtour is one aspect of Modenus.com's mission to connect design bloggers and professionals with each other and with suppliers to create a global design community.

BlogtourVegas coincided with the 2015 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS). Together with 18 other designers and bloggers, I met with 11 brands, had the first glimpse of new product introductions and toured the 2015 New American Home, presented by the National Association of Home Builders.

I'll be featuring the brands and the 2015 New American Home here on the blog over the next few weeks. But today's post is all about sTILE. Seriously, new tile styles for kitchen and bath were abundant at KBIS and featured such a wide variety of colors, shapes and textures to please anyone contemplating a kitchen or bath remodel.

Walker Zanger debuted several new collections at KBIS, each offering a variety of applications. For the traditional home, the Duquesa collection of handpainted ceramic and terracotta tiles presents beautiful opportunities for backsplash and feature wall applications. Although made in the US, the collection draws upon global design influences like Italian textiles, Portuguese ceramics, Moroccan mosaics and Chinese decorative screens.

                                                  

                                            

Top: Lisbon Decorative Tile in Color Ambra; Bottom: Fatima Decorative Field Tile in Color Mezzanotte

Inspired by menswear fabrics but made of porcelain and marble, the Sterling Row collection presents classic and contemporary patterns that mimic the texture of wood. Decidedly neutral in tones of warm gray, black and white, the collection would be equally suited for contemporary and traditional decor and could be used in any interior application.

       

Patterns left to right: Argyle, Derby, Wingtip

      

Patterns left to right: Link, Buckle, Chesterfield

In its Tangent collection, Walker Zanger explores geometric motifs in water-jet cut natural stone. As part of Blogtour, I had the chance to see the chevron pattern of the Tangent collection installed in the bath of a penthouse residence at the Las Vegas Mandarin Oriental. You can see the pattern on both the floor of the shower and to the right of the shower shield.

                              

Walker Zanger's Tilt collection explores geometry in three-dimensional relief and playful colors. Patterns range from a David Hicks-inspired hexagon to rectangles inspired by the Battlestar Galactica science-fiction series.

     

Left photo, top: David Hexagon Mosaic; Left photo, bottom: Galactica Mosaic; Right photo, left: Alexander Oval Mosaic; Right Photo, right: Ottoman Mosaic

First introduced at the 2014 International Contemporary Furniture Fair, the Robert A.M. Stern collection of ceramic tiles -- a collaboration between the Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Walker Zanger -- was also featured in Walker Zanger's KBIS booth. The collection re-interprets classic architectural forms in tile. Included in the collection are a classical ionic capital paired with large-scale subway tile; various tiles with subtle relief; and tiles with shingle-style Victorian architectural motifs.

                       

                 

A treat of Blogtour was seeing many of Walker Zanger's products installed in the 2015 New American Home. I'll feature the home in a later post, but I have to include my favorite bathroom in the home here. It showcased Walker Zanger's new Globetrotter pattern from its Jet Set collection. This collection features intricate marble mosaics reminiscent of midcentury Hollywood glamour. The home's designer used Globetrotter to create a stunning feature wall and focal point in this shower. By extending the bathroom vanity mirror into the shower, the designer exponentially magnified the impact of this pattern. Ironically, the designer's intent was purely practical: he extended the mirror into the shower to facilitate men's shaving. But what a stroke of design genius!

                                                                        Photo by Chasen West Photography

Disclaimer: Walker Zanger was a sponsor of BlogtourVegas and, together with other sponsors, paid for my Blogtour experience.