Super-glossy surfaces, bright colours and lively patterns are said to characterise the 15x15cm porcelain stoneware tiles, by Italian manufacturer Ragno.

Three plain tiles are offered in strong hues of white, blue and green – Bianco, Verde and Blu.
In addition, the collection includes three decorative tiles – Foglia, in white, has a light-reflecting three-dimensional raised leaf pattern; Trallicio features a blue trellis design against a creamy white backdrop; and Fulles offers a minimal repeat leaf design in natural greens.

The collection is inspired by the traditional ceramics of Vietri, a small town at the end of Amalfi’s famous coastal road, where artisans first began to produce bright majolica tiles in the Middle Ages.

According to Ceramique Internationale, the irregular surfaces, imperfections and iridescent surfaces of the original hand-made Vietri tiles have been faithfully recreated in the Folium tiles to add extra authenticity.

Peter Vann, director at Ceramique Internationale, said: “The Folium collection features extremely straight edges, creating a rectified effect on both on décor tiles and 3D structures, while slight variations in thickness add animation and enhanced focal interest.

“The intense colour, light and surface detail of these compact but eye-catching tiles are guaranteed to create a Mediterranean mood even in the darkest months of the year.”
www.ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk

Working on a project that honours the heritage of a building while transforming it into an attractive, commercial entity is always a privilege, says Ceramique. So the company was “delighted” to be part of the work that turned a former police station into a gastro pub in the town of Heswall, on the Wirral Peninsula.

Designed by former Chester County Architect, Harry Beswick, who was known for his 20th century Edwardian designs of police stations and educational buildings in the region, the police station had been empty for several years before being purchased by North West brewery and pub retailer Hydes.

Now after a multi-million pound transformation The Harry Beswick has opened and is reportedly receiving rave reviews from customers.

The project has preserved many of the original features of the historic building, Ceramique says, from the stone plaque above the main entrance which still bears the year of construction and the Ruabon brick façade and sandstone, to the mullion windows and gables. The tile supplier worked closely with DV8 Design and WHB Construction on the project to supply a range of tiles for various parts of the building.

Lee Birchall of DV8 Design, who specialises in the commercial, hospitality and residential sectors, explained the thinking behind the project: “Harry Beswick was renowned for his innovative architectural designs, which seamlessly blended timeless aesthetics with contemporary functionality. His works stand as a testament to his dedication to preserving the heritage of the past while embracing the opportunities of the future. At DV8 Designs, we like to push creative boundaries, and The Harry Beswick project allowed us to bring Harry’s vision to life by creating a place that beautifully marries historical significance with modern-day appeal.”

According to Ceramique, the objective of enhancing the architectural elegance of the building, while integrating modern design elements to create an inviting bar and restaurant, carried through all aspects of the transformation, including the tiles.

Danny Malone, specification sales manager at Ceramique Internationale, said: “Maintaining and enriching the Edwardian features of the original building was important so everything we supplied needed to deliver on that.

“We supplied realistic terracotta-look floor tiles called Roots by WOW Design for some of the main eating areas of the pub, with our stunning Art Brut brick wall tiles in Honey being used as highlights around seating areas. And to add extra character the very pretty and traditional Floriane Carole by Ape were applied to some table tops.

“For the bar apron and feature floor sections we supplied hardwearing unglazed black and white mosaics with a border detail designed by DV8, which created real standout. The same mosaics were used to create bespoke typography entrance features, both spelling out ‘The Harry Beswick’. In the face of long lead times due to European summer shut downs, which could have made it difficult to fulfil these features, we got out our stanley knives out in our warehouse to do some of the preparation that would normally have been done by the mosaic factory!”

The finished venue is reportedly already proving very popular in the local area and will continue to carry the name of the admired architect for years to come.

Centuries, from the Italian manufacturer Verde 1999 that brought the Blast collection to the UK market, consists of marble-effect tiles in two colours – Antique White and Stormy Black.

But, setting it apart from the plethora of black and white marble already on the market, Centuries has a worn matt finish – creating an authentic aged aesthetic and textured surface.

Both colours are available in 30x60cm and small brick shaped 7.5x30cm porcelain tiles. Using these different sizes and colours in a range of laying patterns enables the creation of “visually stunning” rooms, Ceramique says, including bathroom feature walls of contrasting colour and shape, or wetroom floors in the on-trend herringbone pattern, contrasting with larger formats without looking ostentatious.

Peter Vann, director at Ceramique Internationale, said: “The use of black and white together is an evergreen trend and polished marble is perennially popular in the UK, but we find many manufacturers offer larger marble tiles and very little in the way of smaller, metro-sized tiles, that can be used to create interesting features. This collection offers not only the size combination but the beautiful matt and textured finish, which really does look like aged marble from the ground – hence the name.

“It offers authenticity without the traditional in-your-face statement of polished marble, and presents so many options in terms of laying patterns in a beautiful, softer finish.”
www.ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk

It wouldn’t be Cersaie without some travel issues, but when we learned, before departing for Bologna, that the planned strike by our chosen airline had been averted at the last minute, our hopes were naively raised. And, so it came to pass, after two full days of traipsing the 140,000sqm of tile-filled halls, the same airline cancelled our return flight for Friday.

Cue a mad scramble on Wednesday evening to discover a new route home – which resulted in leaving the show a day earlier than planned, with the carrier we all love to hate and at a ridiculous price!

We can only imagine the level of carnage at Bologna Airport on the Friday – perhaps organisers need to move the dates so that Wednesday becomes the new Thursday in order to avoid the last-to-leave-on-Friday problem that seems to happen almost every year!

But on to the show itself. Having learned our lesson last year, when the evening post-show trip to Sassuolo to see the big players who no longer take part in the main exhibition had left us more than a little exhausted, this year we did the hour-long journey in the morning, pre-show, which made it far more bearable. And it didn’t disappoint, with Marazzi and Ragno’s showrooms and development labs just as busy as the exhibition, and full to the brim with trends.

Following last year’s Terracotta re-emergence, Marazzi Group widened the trend showing warm earthy tones, available in the evergreen 60x240mm metro shape and also 200x200mm, plus a wide selection of 3D and patterned options. The same colour palette was offered in 1000x1000mm floor tiles too.

The castellated wood panels that are peppering the UK interior design sector at the moment were also expertly recreated and displayed without using a grout joint. They were the best we’ve seen yet, but you need a grout joint – don’t you?

We were also introduced to the latest glaze technology that all the main players in Italy and Spain adopted for the show. It uses reactive and 3D glaze printing to highlight details on the surface of tiles.

Marazzi has grouped their offering as “Touch-Technology”, including leaf pattern feature tiles, brought to life with realistic stems and fronds that protrude slightly. And the protrusions were iridescent, to highlight visibility.

Casalgrande Padana’s “Vein-Touch” uses the same technology to stunning effect on a new honed-surface marble series, highlighting coloured veining as indented striations.

The specialist Spanish producers of small format wall tiles have also grabbed this new glaze tech, with the likes of Fabresa, Equipe, Wow, Estudio and Mainzu all bringing surface textures to life, adding both visual impact and value.

These producers have also all latched onto what will become even more popular in 2024. So have a break…have a kit-kat. These pre-grooved three-dimensional “kit-kat” style wall tiles were seen in a myriad of colours, textures and effects, including a realistic Bamboo by Mainzu and a Long-Stick option by Amadis.

Last year Casalgrande, amongst others, featured items of fabricated furniture, to demonstrate how third-party fabricators could use 6mm slabs of porcelain to create kitchen worktops or dining table surfaces. It was window dressing then, but this year Casalgrande took the bull by the horns and exhibited pre-made counter-top wash basins and shower bases for the luxury bathroom sector, which they are marketing themselves. All available in a veritable cornucopia of colours and effects and with hefty price tags.

An excellent new range of soft-stone effect, warm neutral tones called Era, drawn from the highly successful Metropolis series from Casalgrande, also looks set to be a winner for the UK domestic market.

Marca Corona featured large format mild metallic colours coupled with very heavily embossed steel décor features.

And Wow showcased the unusual use of gently coloured wall tiles that vertically colour-degrade from the floor upwards to a very pale middle and then regenerate back to colour at ceiling height – a style hitherto unseen. The jury is out on the colour-fade effect but the innovation is an interesting idea!

We find it hard to believe there are still types of marble being discovered, however the worldwide search appears never-ending with still more variants presented in tile form this year. Interestingly, very little was displayed in 300x600mm – the UK’s most loved but widely overproduced size.

And then we get to the star of the show. Are you ready? Yes, it’s back and it’s official – beige is the new grey…
Every man and his dog seemed to have prepared an abundance of beige, a barrage of brown – and all manifesting itself as a torrent of Travertine. We must have seen ten offerings on the first ten exhibition stands.

Classic dark beige, quiet light beige, vein-cut Travertine, cross-cut Travertine, chipped-edge Travertine, polished Travertine, honed Travertine, anti-slip Travertine, mixed-size Travertine opuses, three-dimensional Travertine feature wall tiles… We were Travertined-out. They say every cloud has a lining, and so, many producers included Silver Travertine – in all the shapes, sizes and finishes.

They all looked impressive in larger sizes but, in all honesty, the popular 300x600mm format look a bit cheap-and-cheerful alongside.

Fashion in tiles has never been more production-led, and a Cersaie trend has never been more pronounced than this one. And, well, when you’ve seen one Travertine, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Have you had a queue of clients asking where your travertine tiles are? We certainly haven’t yet, but by 2024 it seems set to be on the consumer hit-list.

As we all know, producers are reporting a sales downturn of up to 25% across all their markets (outside of the oil producing nations) – so any new ideas for 2024 needed to be a safe bet, and we are pretty sure that explains the Travertine revival.

While the massive passion for this stone passed away 15 years ago in the UK, it is warm in colour, well understood and therefore an easy sell, so perhaps with all the advances in porcelain production, coupled with today’s glaze upgrades, it is time for a Travertine re-boot. Whether you want one or not!

The actress and singer – famous for her roles in the film Love, Actually, TV soap Eastenders and stage musical My Fair Lady – took to Instagram to show off her checkerboard tiled hallway to her 594,000 followers.

It instantly catapulted the classic black and white monochrome trend into the limelight, the tile distributor says. But suppliers and retailers have long been aware of the enduring popularity of the checkerboard look.

Monochromatic tiles, laid in a checkerboard design, have been on trend since the Victorian era, when they gained a reputation as an eye-catching but more affordable and practical alternative to the highly decorated and colourful designs seen in upper-class and architectural settings.

Director of Ceramique Internationale, Peter Vann, says: “Their ability to transform narrow spaces and accentuate space has made the checkerboard laying pattern a fashionable choice for floors and walls, paths and patios, ever since.”

Ceramique Internationale’s Clarice collection of 150x150mm glazed porcelain tiles, in crisp white and jet black, are a classic example of the style.

“They are capable of complementing any design theme, from Victorian tradition, to 1950s diner, to modern minimalist,” says Vann.

Adding an extra dimension to the look, the Clarice collection also includes two 150x150mm geometric pattern tiles, in complementary black Navette and white Cliffe, suitable for borders or a feature area.
https://ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk/product/clarice-black/
www.ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk

The collection of 250x216mm hexagonal wall and floor tiles by Italian manufacturer Marca Corona includes two colours – Warm Beige and Cool Grey.

Offered in a marble-effect matt finish, the porcelain tiles are designed to emulate the expertly crafted work of 16th century artisans, who used multi-coloured marble chips set into clay to create the tiles which are featured prominently in the palaces of historic Venice.

However, advanced printing technology means the tiles deliver the durability and easy maintenance of modern porcelain, Ceramique Internationale says.

Director of Ceramique Internationale, Peter Vann, said: “The opulence of Venetian Terrazzo, in visually striking repeat hexagonal patterns, creates a truly palatial ambience in any space. By grouping together these five-sided Italian glazed porcelain tiles you can create the on-trend and distinctive honeycomb effect.

“We now have a large range of hexagonal collections by Marca Corona and these latest additions will create a stunning backdrop on walls and floors in a bathroom, kitchen, conservatory or hallway.”
https://ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk/product/venetian-terrazzo-warm/
www.ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk

The Quarry and Lines porcelain tiles, offered in an “imposing” 600x1200mm format, are designed to add an air of grandeur to walls and floors that is the signature of natural Italian marble.

The grey/golden veining of the glossy white Quarry tiles is aimed to replicate the understated appearance of traditional Statuario marble, while the off-white Lines tiles are shot through with a minimal warm golden veining, giving each one a “unique” character, according to the company.

Peter Vann, managing director of Ceramique Internationale, said: “Glossy white marble is the epitome of Italian luxury, creating sumptuous bathrooms and stunning floor spaces. However, real marble is also notoriously high maintenance and extremely expensive. Our Quarry and Lines porcelain tiles deliver all the individuality and sophistication of natural marble, while also being super hard-wearing and highly affordable.”
www.ceramiqueinternationale.co.uk

The Art Brut Crackle range displays the irregular edges and non-uniform surfaces that are a signature of traditional Moroccan handcrafted Zellige tiles.

Offered in an elongated 38x235mm format, with a high gloss finish for bathrooms and kitchens, the tiles are available in six colours – Indigo, Emerald, Mustard, Honey, Agatha Grey and Coralito.

While the Coralito and Agatha Grey tiles both crackle evenly, the other colours have reactive enamels which means their crackle is wider and more uneven – a feature which becomes more pronounced as time goes by.

Peter Vann, managing director of Ceramique Internationale, said: “Art Brut Crackle tiles deliver a depth of perspective that makes them an ideal choice for vintage, industrial and rustic style environments, in both residential or commercial settings.

“Each tile is unique in tone and texture, and reflects the light in different ways. It is the very ‘imperfection’ of their irregular crackle glaze and uneven edges which makes them the perfect choice when wishing to create an exceptional space.”