So I wrote a post about Art Nouveau tiles and forgot to mention the tile prices, so some of you wrote to express your surprise at the cost.
Custom decorative tiles are – in the most delicate way to say – an investment, much the same as a piece of artwork, and can run from $ 35.00 to to 75.00 per piece for the upper end tiles.
One of my readers summed it up best:
I love ceramic tile and have probably written some fifty or sixty blog (posts) on it over the last three years. I have always been blown away by the infinite variety of this medium, so I was much taken with this particular tile. When I checked out the prices just now, I was astounded to find that a 6” tile went for $48.
I have a kitchen that will definitely see tile of some sort when I remodel it. A quick look at it just now tells me that I would need approximately 33 square feet of tile to cover the entire walls under the cabinets and behind the stove and sink. At these prices that would come to $6600.
DuQuella Tile & Clayworks, Oregon.
Would you make that kind of choice? Or would you be more likely to use these tiles as an occasional accent? I also noted that you talked about a chair rail, which, again, at these prices is going to come to about $100 a running foot. Even a small room (8x10) is going to cost about the same as what I just figured for the kitchen.
I’m not in any way arguing with the choice because I think they are very slick tiles. And I also do not believe in doing things on the cheap. I am fortunate to be able to make my own cabinets when that time comes, but now that I know what goes into the making of a high-quality cabinet, the thought of replacing our admittedly dreadful cabinets with more cheap cabinets is just odious to me. So, in that sense, I am forever banging the drums for the best cabinets a body can possibly afford, on the grounds that you touch these cabinets every day of your life.
But if it were your kitchen and your budget, would you make a choice for tile as expensive as this? Joseph
Joseph, one of the comments after yours mentioned what I’m going to say now – these type of tiles are so definitive that there’d only be special circumstances where I’d use an entire backsplash of tile, such as a large-scale kitchen, or a fireplace or area that could match the impact they’d have. In the entire scheme of things, you've now cut the tile cost by at least 1/2 and more.
In many budget-conscious (and even the higher-end), I tend to use them as a feature instead of an entire wall. They actually weren’t used in multiple repeats back in their day, either.
This is an older Arts and Crafts kitchen some of you may recognize from my original blog – to save money, we also didn’t extend the field tile up the rest of the backsplash. Tile: Trikeenan Victorian Garden collection.
This is the design behind the sink area, installing the field tile up to the window. I used pieces of another collection to tie everything in- this is the same vertical decorative liner repeated from the range border. Tile: Trikeenan Victorian Garden and Arts and Crafts Craftsman Collection.
For another kitchen where the budget was more modest and the look more contemporary (but the clients still loved Arts and Crafts), we simply took 3 tiles and used them with some glass bullnose liners for the backsplash. The 3 center tiles weren’t from the same family as the rest of the field (wall) tiles, (and unfortunately not the same sizing either, so we don’t have perfect symmetry of the darker green field tiles, but it was a real challenge finding that exact shade of green which matches the decorative tile perfectly).
The 3 center tiles are the 4x4 Poppy tiles from Motawi at $ 38.00 each
For a fireplace, we spent all the money and then some with the following tile. The client wished to have a reminder of happy family days at the beach and wanted something a bit out of the ordinary for the design. You can't see it in the photo but there are some stylized waves and fish in the Japanese print block mode. (Funnily enough, all these are in the traditional green/gold tones. I really do work with other colors.)
Sometimes, when you're getting into custom tile, there are a lot of hours spent thinking on things most people aren't even aware of. How there are 15 different colors, or 5 finishes and how to know how exactly they'll turn out. Some of it is experience and knowledge, which doesn't sound hard on paper, until you start asking, "Will the goldenrod go darker with a crackle finish or flatten out with a matte finish? What happens to the glazing when I use this busier patterned piece? Will the glaze stay in the center or spread evenly? What do I discuss with the client to help with the expectations?"
Excuse the dark – this looks simple, but the logistics of so many different sized tile really kept me up until it was installed. You also can’t do design like this and then pay for the cheapest tile setter – it’s the equivalent of arranging for the best laser for your eye surgery and then getting the local barista to perform the operation. (It’s all fun and games until someone…sorry, couldn’t resist.) Tile: Encore Ceramics
Finally, to answer your question: “If it were my kitchen and my budget, would I make a choice for tile as expensive as this?”
For some people, it’s the range. For others, it’s the cabinets. For me, it’s the tile. I would in a heartbeat.
Any one else agree/disagree?
