Coming this Fall: The Old World Collection

With the Old World collection, we at Inglenook Tile have reached back into history, uncovering designs used by ancient European cultures where tile making was considered an art form. As we leafed through historic resources, we found an abundance of inspiration for the modern home: the clean lines and quality craftsmanship of Nordic ceramics, the lacey patterns of Celtic motifs, the fanciful designs of antique German chocolate and butter molds, and the tile patterns used in ancient European courtyards and banquet halls.

The Old World collection brings your home the best of Northern European design, rooted in history, yet timeless in essence.

Old World Plain Mosaics
The first designs in our Old World collection were tiles historically known as “plain mosaics,” repeating patterns of tiles that fit together to form broad patterns across your floor. These flooring tiles, not to be confused with Roman mosaics which are composed of tiny cubes, were popular in many parts of the world in ancient times for their simplicity and beauty. Plain mosaics also experienced a revival during the Arts and Crafts movement, 1880-1910, and found a place in this period’s bungalow-style homes.

To achieve an authentic aged appearance, we have painted our “plain mosaic” designs with thin clay slip or sprinkled them with oxides and clay powders, techniques similar to those used to achieve color variation in ancient times. Through the firing process, random color flashing produces beautiful variety of natural earth tones on the flooring.

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Old World Preview

The first of our plain mosaic designs came out of the kiln yesterday morning. We were excited to see how they turned out and are now excited to share a couple of them with you! To start, we have pictured the “Ell” plain mosaic and “Diamond point” plain mosaic in this post.

The Ell Plain Mosaic
The Ell plain mosaic creates several historic flooring patterns. The first pattern, known as “herringbone” after the symmetrical angles of fish bones, creates long, elegant rows across the floor.

The second pattern using the Ell plain mosaic is an interlocking rectangle

The Ell plain mosaic also pairs with 4×4” squares to create another historic flooring pattern. We stamped the pictured 4×4” tiles with woodland animals, but you can also use them in this pattern unadorned, relying on the natural color variation to create interest on your floor.

The close-up image pictures a mouse stamp on the 4×4″ tile.

The Diamond Point Plain Mosaic
The Diamond point mosaic tile also has a variety of potential installation options for your floors.

See two of these patterns, Diamond Point pinwheel mosaic (top) and elongated hexagons mosaic (bottom), pictured below:

Finally, the Diamond point plain mosaic can also install as a hexagonal border around a square tile. Shown here with a darker firing.

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Old World tiles will be available for sale starting this fall. Call to preorder samples and to receive more information.

Watch for more Old World collection tiles, coming out of product development soon! Tomorrow, we introduce the Provence collection, our line featuring the tiles and motifs of historic Southern Europe.