A Vintage Wall Tile Collection LOOK BOOK

by Emmi Micallef September 21, 2017

To view the LOOK BOOK of our vintage wall tile collections, click here.

Our goal at Historic Decorative Materials is to stand true to our passion and niche in the tile and stone market place.  With our love of antique and aged French and Belgian building materials, it became apparent that if one wanted to continue within this aesthetic, what compliment material would equate with these historic materials?

Pairing a beautifully aged French limestone paver or an aged French oak wide-plank floor with a subway tile or a sleek marble water jet mosaic back splash perhaps has its place. It is true that eclectic décor, mixing different design materials, can create intriguing spaces. And it is also true how cloying an interior can become when focusing solely on one single aesthetic, like the outdated Tuscan style ambiance with heavy architectural wood moldings and heavy decorative tile motifs in a multitude of colors.

What was the middle ground?  Decorative tiles that exude beauty, history, elegance and subtlety to pair with historic materials seemed to be more of a yearning for us - not a reality.

Context.  As a former high school French teacher, I learned in graduate school that to teach anybody anything - one must place information in a student's own hierarchical knowledge context.  Direct translation aside, the subject pronoun "I" can be substituted with "je" and so forth.  This knowledge ran through my mind as I toyed with the idea of painting my own decorative wall tile collections for our company.  I needed to stay within a context of what many understood and of course, related to.

I knew from the multitude of design patterns on the marketplace today, designs are accepted and loved by many.  I also realized many of these designs don't have a context for those who purchase them - but they have an instinct to love them none-the-less.  My goal then was to take the love of pattern, fit it into an historic context for our French and Belgian building materials, and hopefully with the story behind the designs, the "why" in creating them - our vision would be completed and understood.

At this point, I have created four historical decorative tile collections, two more on the way, with deep roots in art history.  The colors I have chosen are subtle.  The decorative motifs are elegant and not overdone and they work incredibly well with antique materials without being cloying. Pairing these decorative wall tile collections with antique or aged wood and stone flooring made sense for us within our company.  We know the strength of classic, beautifully made materials that transcend time and trends.  We believe we did add something relevant into this tile world - and this to us, makes for a beautiful home.

For an overview of our decorative wall tile collections paired with some of our beautiful historic flooring, we have created a quick LOOK BOOK for you to enjoy by clicking here.

We hope you will be inspired.

Thank you for your time,

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