You’ll Want These Watercolor-Like Tiles For Your Next Reno
They say the third time’s the charm, but designer Julia Buckingham only needed one try to get it right when it came to creating a capsule collection of glazed ceramic tiles for Country Floors.
Buckingham, who divides her time between Chicago and Scottsdale, drew inspiration from what she calls the “tenacity of florals and blooms in such an acrid, desert climate.” The resulting collection, “Desert Wildflowers,” consists of five tile patterns whose saturated hues pay homage to both desert flora and Buckingham’s passion for abstract art.
When installed, the 6-inch tiles create patterns that look like watercolor paintings, whether that’s the blushing Kiss Me Quick, the soothing Mist Flower or Paint Brush (shown above), whose moss and rose tones evoke a blooming prickly pear cactus.
But this artistic, painterly collection is also enticingly durable. Designed for vertical installations, the tiles work as well in entryways as they do in bathrooms, kitchens and, as Buckingham recently discovered, a pool house. “It has this almost undulating pattern,” Buckingham observes of the finished installation. “It looks like somebody did a pen-and-ink drawing all over the walls.”