Fresh off the back of our trip to Italy’s annual tile fair, Cersaie, and with a seemingly-unending rotation of new products to consider from tile brands all over the world, we’ve started to notice some trends in 2023 that we can expect to trickle down into 2024 and beyond.
The tiles on show at Cersaie are, undisputedly, the most revolutionary in style and the most cutting edge in technology, worldwide. Whatever is seen at Cersaie (and around Cersaie at tile brands’ private showings), is the marker for what’s to come.
The oft impressive, occasionally imposing style can take a while to filter through to Australia; a country that typically embraces a less is more, understated approach to interiors (especially where permanent fixtures and fittings like tiles are concerned).
This year at Cersaie reinforced ongoing trends (spoilers: your warm palette and natural stone look tiles ain’t going anywhere) and brought us a few new delightful ones that we wanted to share.
Vein Cut Travertine
Aptly dubbed “Gods’ favourite”, travertine, is the hottest natural stone look of the moment. Warm, soft and timeless, it’s little wonder - and with technology ever-evolving, the production quality and print just keeps getting more lifelike every year. More than the cloudy cross cut travertines we’ve seen in years’ past, the striking, vein cut travertine absolutely dominated. We were particularly taken by Italganiti’s showing, Travertino, complete with a striking textured geometric matching feature tile.
Loud and Louder Stone
Loud stone just turned the volume up to 11. Stone in every conceivable colour, in exaggerated, graphic patterning and in lesser-seen iterations (think granite, onyx, agate) are an unstoppable force in the world of tile. With printing technology on its side, and a market that’s constantly looking for something new, it’s a natural evolution (no pun intended). The stand at Sodai had a particularly striking offering with its rainbow hued Grand Antique marble slabs, as did Sant’Agostino with an intergalactic rendition of onyx in their Star Collection.
Graphic Prints
Prints and patterned tiles aren’t going anywhere. If anything, they’re getting more detailed, more realistic and more accessibly priced. From the encaustic, bold geometric style at Fioranese, to the intricate Roman mosaic inspired, powder blue floors at 41zero42 (I mean come ON, please excuse the beauty), every year at Cersaie delivers a greater number of printed tiles than before as the printing technology evolves and the clients get braver.
Terracotta
Terracotta was present in every phase - in the dark, burnished iterations; in the playful, pink red-tones, in the sun bleached apricots.Tile companies aren’t letting go of terracotta any time soon, and neither are we. The handmade look terracotta subway tiles and 200x200s at Sugaroni caught our attention, as did the subways and french flagstone style terracotta at Cir Ceramiche.
