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30 | Kitchen & Bath Design News July 2014 Trend Spotting By Jamie Gold, CKD, CAPS I f you didn't get to Spain for Cevisama in February, or to Italy for Cersaie last September, hopefully you made it to Las Vegas in April for Cov- erings 2014, North America's top tile and stone show. Among the 35 nations represented were many of t he leading Spa nish a nd Italian brands, as well as a strong North American pres- ence, showcasing the world's top products and trends. The U.S. market is but a small slice of the global tile market, as much of our usage is kitchen, bath and pool area. Other regions of the world use this versatile material much more extensively in their building projects. Even within the kitch- en sphere, so many other materials (such as wood, natural stone and laminate, for instance) compete heav- ily for fooring dollars. Tile's tremendous advances in aes- thetics and technology make it a choice worth expanding. In the master suite, for in- stance, increasingly realistic wood-look tile can go into wet areas that pecan plank or its Pergo likeness cannot. That means visual continuity can be created with fooring fnishes that extend from the bedroom and closet right into the shower stall. You also beneft from the more stringent anti-slip standards that a wet wood or laminate foor doesn't necessarily ofer. Many of the tiles on display at Coverings this year met that higher DCOF AcuTest lev- el, ideal for Universal Design and aging in place installs. WOOD TRENDING Wood-look tiles continue to be a dominant style trend, w it h ever-more rea list ic looks. Some looked so much like the real thing, in fact, that they had to be touched to ensure that they weren't. Mexican brand San Lorenzo, with its rustic Antique and Highland styles, and Italian Cerdisa, with its Home Teak, were stand-outs. Not only were there tra- ditional reclaimed-look wide planks in grays and browns on the show f loor, there was a wide choice in looks and finishes from around the world. Blends were espe- cially attractive. Wood blended with me- tallics and fabric snippets for a 'scrap-wood' look from several Italian providers, including Fondovalle and Impronta. Wood also went high gloss, like a polished hotel foor, from others, in- cluding Impronta's Maxiwood and Sant'Agostino's Jungle Lux. There were parquet and herringbone options, as well, scattered throughout the show foor. Like stainless steel, wood- look tile appears likely to remain a timeless design staple. PATTERNS GET PLAYFUL Patterns got bolder and more colorful at Coverings. For the last several years, encaustic and hydraulic looks have got- ten popular. In Las Vegas, appropri- ately enough, they were still a strong trend, with even more exaggerated size and pattern. The efect was a traditional style turned on its eclectic head, or a tongue-in-cheek way to add Old World charm to a modern space. O t her pat ter n s ma k- ing an updated appearance around the show foor were Dutch delfts, plaids, hexa- gons, leaves and arabesques, even camoufage from Italy's Ornamenta for the G.I. Joe client's man cave. Patterns also came from varying shapes and thick- nesses, rather than colors or graphics. There were numerous oferings around the show foor that showed of three-dimensional tiles or diferent thicknesses in one series, allowing for shape play on wall design. BLENDS STAND OUT While many of the blends had wood as a style element, there were numerous other choices, as well. Florida Tile showed of a mixed media se- ries with rustic stone-looks blended with glass or me- tallic tiles. American Olean combined glass mosaics with stone and concrete looks. Me x ic a n c on g lom er- ate Lamosa, among others, took the material blend in a monochromatic direction, as did Spanish tile maker Natucer. The combination of interesting mixed materi- als and mixed thicknesses, rather than color play, cre- ated a strong look and was defnitely a Coverings 2014 trend, as it has been in Europe at recent shows. Italian mosaic masters Sicis added some color varia- t ion to it s m i xed media Structura series, but with more elegantly understated aest het ics t ha n ma ny of the bold blends for which they're famous. OXIDIZED LOOKS DOMINATE One of the strongest style trends at the show was the oxidized look. Tiles went dark, distressed and well- worn for industrial drama. Some took on a stone look, A wide variety of tile looks and materials were on display at Coverings 2014, ofering kitchen and bath professionals a vast array of new design choices. Photo: San Lorenzo ① Old hydraulic and hexagon looks get a modern update. ② Blends mix materials into stylish tile. ③ Subtle material blends are evident in mosaic tile. ⑥ Wood-look tiles get ever more realistic. ④ The wood-look trend extends into teak. Photo: Natucer Photo: Sicis Photo: Natucer Photo: Ceramiche Cerdisa Photo: Aparici ❶ ❷ ❸ ❹ ❻ KBD_30-31_TrendSpotting.indd 30 6/16/14 1:51 PM