Last week at the International Surface Event in Las Vegas, flooring, wall, and counter manufacturers displayed their latest product innovations in tile, wood, and stone. Houzz contributor Julie Sheer says geometric designs, increasingly refined faux-hardwood porcelain tile, and luxury vinyl tile floor options were prevalent at the show. See some of Sheer’s trend observations below.
1. Patterned Tile Still Dominates Encaustic, geometric, and arabesque decorative tiles have been hugely popular in recent years, and this year’s Surfaces show displayed new takes on the trend. Pictured is the arabesque mosaic Divine Chronos from Emser Tile.
2. Faux Wood Is Not Going Away Wood-look tile has been trending for the past few years — treasured for its easy maintenance and (usually) lower cost compared with real hardwood. The wood look showed up everywhere at the Surfaces show, in materials including porcelain, laminate, and vinyl. Pictured here is a selection of faux-wood porcelain tiles from Bedrosians Tile and Stone.
3. Colors From Nature Prevail Gray still tends to dominate much of today’s tile and faux-wood flooring, but the tones are getting warmer and blue is big. “Rich blues, grays and dark color palettes offset with lighter accessories to make a bold statement,” says Crista Tekstra of Emser Tile. The company’s Nova glazed porcelain tile line, paired here with glass mosaic tile, is designed to look like natural stone with soft veining and tonal variation.
4. Large Format Everything Whether it’s tile size or wood-plank width and length, bigger is becoming better, especially for flooring. “Twenty-four by 24 [inches] is now almost too small” for tiles, says Kyle Torosian of Bedrosians Tile and Stone. For wood flooring, plank width is growing, with 7½ inches being the sweet spot, according to an Eagle Creek Floors representative.
5. Quartzite Is on the Rise Among natural stone surfaces, quartzite is gaining in popularity. It’s good for countertops, says Amy Oakley of the National Stone Institute. “The great thing about quartzite is it comes in so many colors, so a lot of it looks like marble, but it’s much stronger.” Silverwater quartzite was used for the island countertop in this room designed by The Kitchen Studio of Glen Ellyn.
6. Mixed Materials Add Interest Tiles made of porcelain, wood, stone and metal provide visual interest for entire walls, accent areas and backsplashes, and the variety is growing. Those on display at the show were particularly eye-catching. This luxe-looking example from Pera Tile, dubbed Fifth Street from its Atelier Pera line, features marble-like porcelain inlaid with brass and other metals.