On September 2017, the Cersae exhibition took place, which is one of the largest annual events in the ceramics industry. While leading global trend-setters show their new collections, designers from all over the world follow the news from the exhibition to learn about the hottest trends for the next year. Based on their reports, let’s find out what floor tile patterns will be in fashion in 2018.
A SINGLE PIECE OF STONE
What do we get when the vogue of stone tiles is added to modern technologies, which allow manufacturing large-format tiles? It turns out that we get a nice opportunity to tile our premises with awesome pieces, imitating monolithic block of natural stone throughout the space.
These large tile sizes coupled with amazingly realistic textures make a beautiful floor pattern with veins, seamlessly flowing across interiors rather than divided into blocks. As a result, we can enjoy one-piece stone surface, making the space look rich, elegant and unique.
Sure, marble tile is the best for this layout because of its distinctive vein exposure, but you can also find inspiration in granite and other popular natural stones. The basic rule you should follow – use large-scale options and choose graphic textures to achieve this stunning one-piece effect.
DO YOU LIKE CHIPS?
No, we are not insane, and we are not talking about potato chips (at least for now). Actually, we mean terrazzo tile made of concrete mixed with aggregates, which are marble, granite and other natural stone chips. Its speckled surface can create various visual effects, while its manufacturing method ensures strength and durability. So, it is no wonder that terrazzo tile is back on the stage this year with VERY large grain patterns.
The large grains add both color and texture to spaces and the pattern is just perfect for creating crisp modern interiors with a unique touch. When adopting this design for your project, make sure to choose tiles with contrasting color inserts to get an eye-catching effect.
However, a terrazzo fine grain pattern is also on trend when coupled with the above-mentioned large-scale style. Just like the natural stone option, it serves to deliver an integrity feeling, further expanding the borders of spacious premises.
PLAYFUL WOOD
Do you think that timber is associated with anything, but playfulness? But you are wrong! Modern designers do believe that wooden grain can be fun, at least when combined with ceramic tile. That’s why they offer many out of the ordinary designs where timber textures compose intricate geometric patterns.
This looks really fresh and allows delivering unique projects, while timber grains continue to bring a touch of elegance and luxury in any interior space, even when presented in such an eccentric way.
Nevertheless, our favorite timber layouts – herringbone and chevron tile floor patterns – are also hot this year. The more so that stunning colors and textures mimicking natural materials are presented in such a high quality that it is impossible to distinguish real wood from tiles neither judging from the appearance, nor to the touch. Many new tile collections have designs imitating aged timber, cracked textures under old paint or even wood look tile with "real" traces of sawing on the surface.
Though aging and natural effects are trends borrowed from previous years, in 2018 we are offered to lay wood look tile in herringbone or chevron patterns with an added feature – strip tiles.
The strips make the floor tile layout patterns more graphical and crisp, while giving a nice chance to perform visual zoning by marking certain areas.
By the way, note that along with natural hues both patterns can easily incorporate some fancy color scheme. Here is a great example of a trendy pastel palette blended into a woody tile design – it catches the eye with unusual hues of blue, mint, lemon and chocolate.
BOLD PATTERNS
Welcome back to the 70's! The design of the past is still one of the main sources of inspiration for ceramics designers and manufacturers. Cersaie 2017 showed that when creating the new collections of tiles for 2018, many brands were inspired by the golden era of design – innovative and daring sixties and seventies. Look at these bold patterns and bright colors, bringing joy and dynamics into interior spaces – aren’t they lovely?
Since the style pops due to its crisp design, the retro tiles usually come in simple shapes and regular sizes, as well as they don’t require intricate floor tile layout patterns. However, the design is quite demanding – you need to carefully choose other décor elements to match the retro style in order to avoid vulgarity. If you are not sure you can cope with this, get inspired by these photos and article.
CEMENT EFFECTS
While aged wood and 70's style add vintage feel to modern interiors, cement look tile is perfect for creating modern industrial designs. Yes, we saw tiles imitating the rough unprocessed surfaces of cement and tile in the past few years, but the trend is still on the rise, as we have already mentioned, manufacturers continue to impress us with the improved vividness of the imitations. That’s why we take cement look tile on board, but add running bond or modular tile floor patterns to avoid dullness typical for this tile style. Indeed, cement tile can’t boast bright colors or bold prints or pronounced textures, and so it may look too monotonous, while these active patterns make interiors crisper, introducing a little variety.
You can bring even more dynamics when using tiles of different sizes within a running bond pattern, as well as mixing various shapes, as shown in the photo below.
As for modular pattern, it implies using three or more different scales that can be laid in many intricate ways.
If you are not sure in what is what in floor tile patterns, check this illustrated explanation from professional designers.
