Get Inspired: From Morocco With Love

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Lisa

Few places are more synonymous with tile—all types of tiles—than Morocco. Your mind (at least our cement-tile-obsessed minds here at Granada Tile) immediately conjure up images of stately riads with their dreamy interior courtyards and surfaces covered with jewel-like tiles.

Over the years, Marcos and Melanie have made several trips to the country, traveling throughout for inspiration for our own collection of cement tiles. (You can take a look at some of their wonderful cement tile photos here.) The colors and patterns they’ve discovered have informed many concrete tile designs in our collection and the stunning cities have even lent their names to a few.

There’s Fez, of course, our Echo Collection‘s flagship cement tile design. It’s a simple pattern of small squares and diamonds that looks sensational just about anywhere. Installed in a kitchen tile backsplash it strikes just the right note of sophistication and fun. It also looks amazing placed just about anywhere else, from bathroom tiles to floor tiles lining an exterior entrance—when you want to make just the right statement.

With our Fez cement tile design, your next tile installation will brim with chic. Cement tile photo, Granada Tile.

Rabat is another wonderful cement tile design that takes its name and much of its inspiration from Morocco. The trellis pattern is low-key but elegant and fits just about any cement tile installation need you might have. Looking for some cement tile for your bathroom tile or for your kitchen tile? It’s a great choice and can be customized to match your preferred palette (as you know all of our cement tiles can).

A trellis pattern, such as our Rabat tile design, is always a great choice for your next concrete tile installation. Cement tile photo, Granada Tile.

Now, if you’re looking for something a little bolder that can capture the intensity of color and pattern that overflows in Morocco, look no further than Tangier. For this concrete tile design, dynamism is the name of the game. With its swooping, graceful curves, it’s a complex cement tile design worthy of center stage in your next tile installation.

You can get much more bold and animated than our Tangier concrete tile design. It’s a look that calls for a prime location in your next project. Cement tile photo, Granada Tile.

Our other concrete tile collections also bring some of the flavor of Morocco. Both our Minis collection, with its zellige-like small cement tile tiles, and our Mauresque collection have a feeling for Morocco. Explore them all as you plan your next cement tile installation.

For some further reading about Granada Tile and our wonderful concrete tile, be sure to check out this coverage of our Stripes collection in the Houston Chronicle. They’re big fans of the cement tile named after their city!

Installation Equation: Good Things Come in Small Packages

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Lisa

We’ve talked about Granada Tile‘s Echo Collection‘s 10-by-10-inch concrete tiles for large-scale tile installations and often show you examples of our 8-by-8 collection of cement tiles—a perfect, versatile size that works for floor tile installations as well as wall tile installations. Our four-by-four-inch tile designs are small but mighty (not to mention versatile and lovely) in their own right.

Of course, they are a great choice if you’re looking for a just a splash of something different in your overall tile design. When you combine them into a tile backsplash, though, they pack a great punch, especially when the space calls for something a little smaller in scale. One great option is our Maldon tile design. A simple pattern of triangles, you can play with color to match your space and play with the orientation to create a fun, mod wall tile backdrop in your kitchen or bathroom.

Alternating orientation of our Maldon cement tile design creates a lively, animated tile installation. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

For a complete 180, there’s always our Regal Clover tile design. This great cement tile pattern is the perfect choice when you’re looking for a small-scale tile design that has great visual flair and a traditional look. We can just imagine it as the kitchen tile backsplash behind a classic Aga stove.

A traditional tile design, Regal Clover is a great choice for a space with a classic feel. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

If you’re tastes run toward the more transitional as we sometimes like to day, Santiago is a good bet. The quatrefoil pattern harkens back to medieval designs, but it’s a pared-down interpretation set against a generous solid ground. There’s just enough going on for it to be visually compelling, yet it’s simple enough to fit in a more modern space.

Santiago, another four-by-four tile design, offers a perfect balance of the modern and the traditional. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Be sure to check out more of our four-by-four-inch tile designs from our Echo Collection and experiment with tile installation ideas. One other thing: Don’t forget to set your alarms (at least your DVRs) for Monday morning’s edition of Fox & Friends. Coastal Living’s editor will be talking tile—and including some cement tiles from Granada Tile. Don’t miss our national TV appearance!

Breaking News: Granada Tile in Better Homes & Gardens

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Lisa

Granada Tile appears in the summer issue of Kitchen + Bath Ideas from Better Homes & Gardens. It’s on sale all summer long.

Granada Tile‘s Rabat tile design, from our flagship Echo Collection, is a perennial favorite. Our clients love its elegant treillage pattern punctuated by small stars. There’s enough going on in the tile design that you can play with lots of different color combinations—allowing you to go bold or stick with something more muted depending on your taste and the project at hand.

We’re pleased to share that the editors at Better Homes & Gardens thought so too. Our Rabat tile design is featured in their special Kitchen & Bath Ideas issue (on sale now and throughout the summer). The magazine is full of tips on how to liven up tired spaces and infuse them with color and character. Rabat was chosen to illustrate Granada Tile’s offerings, which were selected because of our wide of range of stunning tile designs and wonderful palette.

To experiment with Rabat (or some of our other cement tile designs) for your next concrete tile installation, be sure to visit any of our online collection catalogues, including our interactive Echo Collection, where you can choose from dozens of tile designs and colors. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of Kitchen + Bath Ideas too, so you can begin plotting your next home design project. We promise you that the issue if full of great ideas that will fit just about every design need.

We’ve got some more exciting news too: Granada Tiles are scheduled to be a part of a special feature on next Monday’s edition of Fox & Friends, presented by the editor of Coastal Living magazine. Mark your calendars and set your DVRs to record. We’re so excited; we can hardly wait!

Installation Equation: Cluny Cement Tiles for a Sunny Kitchen

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Lisa

Nothing gets our tile-loving hearts racing faster than getting an email with photos from a new tile installation featuring cement tile from Granada Tile. You can imagine how thrilled we were then when some new tile photos appeared in our inbox recently. For this particular kitchen tile installation, our clients chose our Cluny tile design in chocolate and cream. The space itself is a chic mix of modern and traditional—we just love the midcentury-modern-perfect rounded countertop with the open shelves below (we also love the dog, but that’s another story). Against the sunny yellow of the cabinets, the earthy hues of the cement tiles really stand out.

Our Cluny tile design adds a lovely, traditional element to the more modern components of a small kitchen. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Our clients carried the concrete tiles through the kitchen into a small dining nook. Here, the palette changes, switching to gray and white with a burst of yellow. The look of the built-ins and furnishings retains a very modern vibe that’s perfectly complemented by the graceful pattern of the Cluny cement floor tiles.

Our Cluny tile design looks great in a small dining nook adjacent to the kitchen. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

By the way, we love how these clients chose a custom color combination rendering the ground in color and the design in cream. It’s a great reverse of the usual interpretations we see—and makes the tile design that much more personal.

Are you finishing up a tile installation project or have completed a tile backsplash or bathroom tile installation using our cement tiles? If so, we would absolutely love to see some photos and have the chance to share them here and on our tile installation pages. It’s so exciting to see what magic our creative clients make when they use our cement tiles.

Toolbox: Thinking Big

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Lisa

Rooms come in all shapes and sizes. So do cement tiles from Granada Tile. Since we’ve got a lot to choose from, shape- and size-wise, today we thought it would be nice to highlight some of our larger-scale tile designs—namely our 10-by-10 concrete tiles from our Echo Collection. They’re the perfect choice when you’re looking for something to make the maximum impact in your next tile installation project.

Our bigger tile designs offer something for every project—from minimal geometric looks to elaborate floral and strapwork patterns. Tile designs such as Alarcon and Asturias rely on a simple patterns of squares for their visual impact. They’re lovely to look at but don’t overtake a space. To make them pop or have them be a bit more muted, you can experiment with color.

Simple, yet effective, our Alarcon tile design is a perfect choice when you want a large-scale tile design with a minimalist feel. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Our 10-by-10 options also include some great diamond patterns (Cadiz and Borga spring to mind). We think these are fantastic to cover a large area such as an entrance hall or living room floor. You can also play with the layout to create a square effect or even diagonal stripes for a bit of fun.

With our Cadiz tile design, your next tile installation could have a chic diamond pattern. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Now, if you really want to make a splash, the best way to do it is to choose a 10-by-10 cement tile design in one of our really dramatic patterns. Malaga and La Rochelle are great, traditional strapwork-and-star tile designs that can be played up or down depending on the palette you select—and can add a level of stunning formality to a space.

Combining boldness and tradition, Malaga is a wonderful choice when you want your tile design to make a statement. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

See something you like? You can experiment with and refine your tile installation ideas using our interactive catalogue and layout tool. And be sure to explore all of our 10-by-10 inch cement tile options for your next tile installation project.

Get Inspired: What’s Happening on Share Designs This Month

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Lisa

May has been an exciting month for us: We got to introduce you to some of our newest cement tile designs, and we got to see some of them on the page of one of our favorite design magazines. Our Share Designs page has been bouncing too, with tile-philes coming up with all sorts of interesting takes on our cement tile designs. Today, as we do most months, we’ve picked some looks that particularly caught our fancy to share with you.

Up first is a riff on Jaen by Teri Zenger. We love the inset square pattern it features and think that it lends itself to lots of tile installation applications—bathroom wall tiles or kitchen backsplash tiles. It also is a perfect choice in just about any color combination you can think of. Doing it range of similar hues looks fantastic, of course, but we really loved Teri’s idea that incorporates red, white and blue. The contrast is stunning and would make it the perfect choice anywhere you want to stand out.

Teri Zenger chose contrasting shades to make our Jaen tile design really pop. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Even though Hokkaido takes its inspiration from traditional Japanese designs, it’s impossible to look at it and not think midcentury Modern design. There’s something about the simple geometry of its shapes that makes it seem like it would be right at home on the tile backsplash in a mod kitchen. In Nan Oshin’s green-and-white interpretation, there’s a bright freshness that feels timeless.

The bright greens Nan Oshin chose make for a fresh take on our Hokkaido tile design. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Typically, our clients opt for our Serengeti tile design in just two colors—often black and white. It’s a pattern that just seems to lend itself to a limited palette. But we were intrigued by D Welch’s idea, which incorporates a touch more color into the cement tiles. To play up the color angle even more, you can layout the cement tiles so the contrast is even more pronounced.

Using multiple colors and toying with the layout, our Seregenti tile design becomes a lovely diamond pattern. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

These are honestly just the tip of the tile-design iceberg from Share Designs this month. Be sure to visit the page and check out more of what folks are working on. It almost goes without saying too that you should definitely experiment with your own ideas!

Installation Equation: Exploring Tile Installation Ideas for Our Stripes Range

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Melanie

Are you in love with Granada Tile‘s Stripes range yet? We sure are—as thrilled as thrilled can be with the these new additions to our flagship Echo Collection. And, as we showed you last week, plenty of other folks are falling hard for these wonderful cement tiles. If you’re ready to include these stunning cement tiles in your next tile installation project (but not sure exactly how to do it), fear not, we’ve got some ideas. For as simple as the concrete tile design is, it’s amazingly versatile installation-wise. You can really let your imagination go wild with this deceptively simple tile collection.

For starters, you can always opt for a minimal, yet elegant, approach. Using the Boston tile design, a great combination of parallel stripes of equal, not-very-wide width, try installing the tiles next to each other to create a lovely horizontal look. It’s a smashing take that would be sensational when installed as a tile backsplash.

Install rows of our new Boston cement tile design for a stunning look. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Of course, you can also install our Boston cement tile design in rows with the stripes oriented vertically. But how about mixing things up just a bit more? With Boston, you can create some truly remarkable tile installations. For example, by adjusting every other tile design for an alternating horizontal/vertical pattern, you can devise a really chic tile installation with a woven ook. This would make a lovely kitchen tile installation on a floor—giving the illusion of a flat-weave carpet.

To create a basket weave tile design, play with the angles of the cement tiles. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Another fun idea would be to alternate rows of horizontal and vertical concrete tiles. The result is a tile installation that just pops with a three-dimensional effect. It’s eye-catching an unusual for when you want to make your tile design stand out. Try it in a bathroom for the wall tiles for a really bold feel.

For a 3D effect, alternate rows of horizontal and vertical tiles. It’s chic—and adds depth to your tile installation. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Keep checking back here. We’ll play with some other great tile designs from the Stripes range to keep you inspired. In the meantime, experiment yourself with our interactive Echo Collection catalogue, which will allow you to change up color combinations. And, try out the layout tool to see how make the Stripes range work for your next tile installation project.

Breaking News: Granada Tile in Print and New Additions to the Stripes Range of Cement Tiles

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Lisa

Three new tile designs from Granada Tile appear in the June 2013 issue of House Beautiful

Our big year here at Granada Tile continues! We’ve been thrilled to receive lots of press coverage for our stunning cement tile designs. In just the past few months alone, we’ve been featured in Architectural Digest, Dwell‘s special renovation issue and Angeleno. Today we’re so excited to report that our wonderful concrete tiles have been covered in yet another outstanding design publication: House Beautiful.

Yep. That’s right. A few of the newest sensational additions to our Echo Collection, from our Stripes range, have hit the magazine’s pages. If you’ve checked out the Echo Collection catalogue, you might have caught a glimpse of these guys, but in general we’ve been keeping them under wraps for a bit, until the big reveal. Now the cat’s out of the bag.

Without further ado, we’re delighted to introduce you to three additional members of the Stripes family—Miami, Chicago and Boulder. The concrete tiles join Boston, Nashville, Philadelphia and Seattle, which we shared with you a couple of months back. All of the tiles in the the range are a geometric homage to the spirit of some of America’s great cities. They rhythmic patterns distill the rich, diverse culture found in them. Both Boulder and Miami have wide rows of stripes (Boulder’s are a bit thicker). Chicago boasts thinner stripes in two shades.

Boulder, Chicago, and Miami are three new tile designs from the Stripes range. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

As with all of our Echo Collection cement tiles, these tiles are as durable and versatile as they are beautiful. You can’t go wrong when you opt for cement tiles from our Stripes range for your kitchen tile, bathroom tile or wall tile. Visit our interactive Echo Collection and see for yourself how you can personalize them for your next tile installation.

Get the Look: Inspired by Egypt

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Lisa

Over the last few months, we’ve introduced you to some of Granada Tile‘s new cement tile designs, shared a host of concrete tile installation ideas and taken you on tours of new cement tile installations in residences and restaurants. There’s been so much going on, in fact, that we haven’t had a moment to follow up on a post from a while back. We’re remedying that today and giving you some suggestions on how to get the look of some of Egypt’s cement tile in your own tile installation project.

One of the most interesting ideas we found was the use of patterned rectangular tiles to create a courses of design. We’ve got plenty of border options to choose from, including our Girasol border, which, with its acanthus-like motif, effortlessly suggests ancient Egypt. Try installing parallel rows of the cement tile or get a little crazy and alternate the orientation of the concrete tiles to make an intriguing tile installation.

Parallel rows of our Girasol border tile design make for a novel tile installation. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

It wasn’t just floral motifs that caught our attention. We loved the design of squares we spotted too. For a similar vibe, try incorporating our Lorca tile design. It has a great pattern of inset squares that looks great just about anywhere. As with our other Echo Collection tile designs, you can play with the tiles to come up with complex and surprising looks.

The inset squares of our Lorca tile design make for a fascinating tile installation. tile photo, Granada Tile.

We’ve been inspired by Egyptian design ourselves. Both our Khufu tile design and our Luxor tile design take their names and design roots from Egypt. We’ve shown you before just how versatile Khufu can be. Luxor is just as versatile and offers a simple, strong pattern for just about any tile installation—whether it’s for a tile backsplash or kitchen tile, bathroom tile or wall tiles.

Luxor features a simple, effective arrangement of triangles and can me manipulated in many different ways to create compelling tile installations. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Inspired? Or are you looking for more tile inspiration from across the globe? Be sure to check out our historic tile installations pages. The world is truly your cement tile oyster!

Installation Equation: Flipping out with Cement Tile

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Lisa

Let’s say you’ve found a Granada Tile design from our Echo Collection.You’ve fallen in love with it. Now you’re ready to think about doing your concrete tile installation. Before you start, though, take a moment and think about the tile design you’ve chosen. By simply changing the orientation of the tiles, you can create much more complex tile installations that add rhythm and visual interest to all sorts of spaces.

To get you started, we’ve come up with some tile pictures that will give you a few ideas—jumping off points for your own concrete tile adventure. For example, Serengeti is a wonderful, geometric cement tile design that’s great for smaller spaces such as kitchen tile backsplashes or larger wall tile installations. Arranged one way, it has a simple diamond pattern. Adjusting the angle of every other tile, though, creates an entirely different look and really allows the pattern of the individual cement tile to shine.

Try rotating Granada Tile’s Serengeti tile design 45 degrees to create a bold pattern. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Badajoz is another one of our cement tile designs that can be tweaked to make a fun, unexpected tile installation. The cement tiles can be arranged to create a repeating x-pattern or a sophisticated diamond shape—both with a nod to medieval French design. To amp up the pattern, try alternating the x- and diamond patterns to get a tic-tac-toe effect for, perhaps, a sophisticated wall tile installation.

Our Badajoz tile design can be used to make a regal tic-tac-toe tile installation. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

When we started digging into the Echo Collection catalogue, we immediately gravitated toward the wave-like shapes of Esfahan. The softly undulating pattern, reminiscent of the ocean, would work well in a bathroom tile installation. Even better, it too can be adjusted and reorganized to make a visually complex look.

Adjusting the orientation of our Esfehan tile design results in a mesmerizing tile installation with a watery vibe perfect for a bathroom tile installation. Tile photo, Granada Tile.

Be sure to experiment with our layout tool. It lets you mix and match tile designs—and manipulate them. See how just a 45-degree turn can completely change the look of your tile installation.