Visit Italy, and you’ll find yourself admiring cathedrals and cafés alike showcasing decorative tiled floors, or tiled walls beautiful enough to act as art installations.
To get a closer look at what’s been happening in the world of ceramic tile, we turned to the Ceramics of Italy, the trade association representing makers of Italian ceramic tile and sanitaryware, for the top tile trends the industry is tracking this year.
Ceramica Sant’Agostino Lakewood tiles are meant to emulate the look of oiled wood planks.
Neu Surfaces
that conjures oiled wood planks with a hand planed surface and Vallelunga Cava whose marble design and satin finish looks like an ancient European church floor
Systems
Atlas Concorde‘s Atlas Plan produces oversized ceramic slabs that look like marble, but have all the benefits of porcelain tile.
For years, Italian tile manufacturers have been expanding the definition of a product, offering specifiers a whole suite of surfacing tools around a single idea or design.
Marca Corona’s Bold series of 40-by-80-centimeter wall tiles come in four retro-inspired colorways with an innovative three-dimensional circle pattern.
Tile Play
From three-dimensional tiles that look like giant Lego bricks (Marca Corona Bold) to popular cartoons illustrated on ceramic (Del Conca Felix the Cat), when projects call for playfulness, Italian tile answers in full.
Lunar Marble
The Vanity collection from Cotto d’Este emulates elegant, minimalist marble with subtle patterns and light veining.
Moving beyond common varieties of stone like Carrara, Statuario, and Travertine, Italian tile producers are scouting quarries throughout the world to find obscure marble full of color and character or digitally manipulating the look of natural stone to create something completely new.
Ceramica Colli di Sassuolo’s Fes collection (shown here in the color Blu) draws on the decorative style of Moroccan tile.
The Blues
Vallelunga & Co.’s three-dimensional Sospiri collection is shown on the bottom half of the wall.
Big Patterns
Italians are known for their rich artistic heritage, which is now rendered on big porcelain slabs with minimal grout lines to create the alluring effect of wallpaper with the technical benefits of ceramic.
Tradition