“Dew” it aww-natural per modwalls.

Our ModRocks™ Recycled Glass Pebbles are an extremely unique, 100% post-consumer recycled glass tile.

These cloudy clear dew-drop-sized pebbles reflect light and  surrounding colors beautifully.  To create this tile, recycled glass is tumbled with low heat until smooth glass pebbles are the result.  The pebbles are then mesh-mounted for easy installation and sold by the square foot for $25.95.  Here’s an amazingly gorgeous installation on our houzz page.

We’re going back to our archives for this “poolside post”.  Enjoy!

How good does this pool with one of our Brio® Custom Tile blends look?!

Unbelievably good, especially on this day.

In doing so we realized we’d love to share a little bit about the people of modwalls® on our blog as well.

Here’s a quick intro to the cool folks that make modwalls® tick:

Rebecca Lonergan and David Bousfield are our business owners and fearless leaders.

This business was born out of necessity; David and Rebecca were ready to remodel their own home and they had a tough time finding cool and unique tiles that didn’t cost as much as their automobile.

Becky will tell you, “I’ve always thought of tile as candy for walls and I was frustrated by the lack of colorful, fun and modern tile. My husband and I founded modwalls to fill that void. I now get to play in our tile ‘candy store’ every day!”

Jessica Lee is our Customer Experience Manager and a down right amazing person.

She’s unbelievably friendly, helpful and kind, and she’ll go to great lengths to guarantee our customer’s happiness.

She loves what she sells, and if you talk to her, you’ll know we’re not just blowin smoke.

Katelyn Bowman is modwalls’ Trade Sales + Interior Design Specialist and she joined us in August 2011.

The newest member of our team, she fit in quickly with her expertise and amazingly sweet personality.

Katelyn is a great source for any design questions you may have, and she’s even started blogging for us. Check out her super helpful blog on tips for tile selection.

Luis Nunez is our Shipping Manager and he’s exceptionally good at what he does.

We CONSTANTLY get feedback from our customers about their tile being “incredibly well packaged” and that it “arrived without a scratch,” and this guy deserves 100% of the credit.

He’s made shipping tile an art, and that’s no exaggeration.

Sarah Graves has worked at modwalls® since 2007 and is now starting a new venture consulting with the company.

She’s felt privileged to dabble in Customer Service, Trade Sales, with our graphics and photos, our Facebook and Twitter pages, our website design and layout and she’s been the primary contributor to our blog for just about a year now.

Working with extraordinary people is what allows this small business to do BIG THINGS.

Have questions? Please feel free to contact us anytime… we’d love to hear from you!

Our Brio® “Tango” 3/4″ mosaic tile is a passionate blend of vibrant red, orange and yellow glass mosaic tiles. This glass tile blend is well suited for any application including kitchen backsplash tile, bathroom tile, floor tile, fireplace tile and pool tile.

Perfect for any excitingly provocative interior and exterior application.

This sultry blend is $15.95 per 1.15 square feet.  You can find this and over 20 other Brio® Blends right here.

Joy, joy, joy, joy!

These beautiful babies are a perfect choice for floor tile, kitchen backsplash tile, bathroom tile, shower tile, pool tile, or any other tile application you can dream of.

Check them out on our website here, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Woot!

We rolled out our revamped website this weekend (yay!), and we have a whole page dedicated to our USA made tile. These collections include our Rex Ray Studio Lush® 4×12 TYPE glass subway tiles and our Clayhaus for modwalls® super fresh ceramic subway tiles and ceramic mosaic “Plus” tiles.

We plan to add many new additions to the American Made Tile collection in the next couple of years, cause we know USA tile is where it’s at!

Check out our American Made Tile page here, and please let us know what you think of our revamped website design!

It’s kind of our “thing,” and for years we’ve been stocking rockin’ tile blends in our Brio® vitreous glass tile line, our Lush® glass tile line, our ModDotz™ porcelain penny round tile collection, and we’ve been offering custom tile blends with our Brio® tile so our fabulous customers can create the tile blend of their dreams.

We recently launched our first ceramic tile collection and we’ve been so thrilled that the majority of our customers have choose to create blends!

Our 2×8 ceramic subway tiles are sold by the square foot and our customers can purchase as many square feet as they’d like. We have seven colors in-stock and any talented tile installer can turn those individual colors into a completely custom ceramic tile blend.

We also carry ceramic “Plus” Mosaic tiles and we offer a “Regulated Mix” of the three colors we stock. This unique blend has been hot hot HOT with our retail customers and designers alike.

Take a look at the sweet installation photos we’ve received so far:

A funky-cool kitchen with our ceramic Plus Mosaic "Regulated Mix."

This gorgeous kitchen with all 7 colors of our 2x8 ceramic tiles was featured in At Home in Arkansas magazine.

A bathroom with modwalls 2x8 ceramic tile Brine, Milk and Licorice matte.

Fish eye view of the bathroom with modwalls 2x8 ceramic tile Brine, Milk and Licorice matte.

This little mixer looks adorable against this kitchen backsplash with modwalls 2x8 ceramic tile colors Splash, Milk, Brine, Wheatgrass, Zest, Cookie and Licorice Matte.

One happy kitchen backsplash with modwalls 2x8 ceramic tile blend.

Another view of the super unique Plus Mosaic "Regulated Mix" ceramic tile blend kitchen backsplash.

So what do you think… are ceramic tile blends your new favorite?!

A few months back we welcomed Interior Designer Katelyn Bowman as our Trade Sales + Interior Design Specialist here at modwalls and she has been an amazing addition to our team. She’s got impeccable style , great design tips and an abundance of information about tile and the wide world of design.

We asked Katelyn to give us her thoughts on choosing tile and the tile selection process and below is the result… Enjoy!

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So you finally decided that you’re ready to start browsing for tile options.  Great!  We’ve got some helpful designer tips on how to do just that…a.k.a. where to start.  PS, try not to rush the selection process if you can help it.

Tools of the Trade –> As an interior designer, I don’t often dissect my design thought process to others because it’s not the most profound method.  My hope is that while you master each of these steps, you will hone in on the tile that is best for your space.

Step 1 —>  Decide the look you want.  Think of it like your design game plan.  It always helps to have some type of design direction in mind when considering your options.  This will seriously help prevent you from looking at too many options and getting completely overwhelmed.  If this is you, don’t worry, you’re not alone and you have full permission to pull a “Mulligan.”  I highly recommend first browsing houzz.com or pinterest.com  and enter the key words that describe your desired look.  For instance, if you’re looking to achieve a “Modern Bathroom,” enter just that in to your search and voila!  Of course you could also browse google images or actual magazines, but I think you’ll find these sites more effective.  You can also check out the eye candy tile gallery of our site for real-life installations of different design aesthetics.  Save the top 5 images you like and don’t feel like you have to look at every single image in order to feel confident in your design direction.  Once you have an idea of your direction, you can now focus on more of the details…like color.  Here are some examples of some inspiring looks:

Eclectic Kitchen by Katie Brown featuring modwalls Lush 3x6 Reef

Coastal Country Kitchen featuring modwalls Ceramic 2"x 8" Subway Tile

Modern Kitchen by Playhouse Design

Step 2 —>  Cohesive color palette is key.  I recommend you assess the surroundings of your tile location and beyond i.e. what materials and colors are in the area or in an adjacent space?  Consider the whole room:  cabinet color, countertop color, flooring color, wall color, etc.  Ask yourself, “What colors repeat throughout my home?”  Your answer could be neutral or more vivid color. Narrow down the possible color options based on the existing ones and I recommend that you try not to be overly monochromatic or super-duper crazy.  Pick color options that complement one another;  a cohesive color palette is key and the beauty is in the repetition!  Think of your homes color palette like a chorus of a song.  A good song hooks you in and keeps your interest, but sometimes the song changes keys and that makes the song – or in this case your space – more dynamic.

Kitchen featuring Modwalls ModDotz Marshmallow

Step 3 —>  Narrow down your tile materials (and sizes).  There are what seems to be millions of tile products out there made of a billion different materials in a trillion different sizes.  Because you have your design direction and colors in mind, this should help narrow down the materials you might want to consider.  Do some online searches on  material options: ceramic, porcelain, glass, natural stone, and cork to name a few.  Also note that not all materials or sizes are appropriate for all applications.  For instance, I would NOT recommend using a large smooth tile on a shower floor.  You or a loved one will slip and fall OR the tile will crack over time because a shower pan must be sloped for proper drainage.  Determine your options based on long-term wear and usability.

Another consideration that could have been narrowed down during your design direction step is scale, or the size of the tile.  Check out these images to see what I mean:  do you want a look with a larger scale tile or do you prefer the look of a smaller scale tile?  Tile sizes range in all different shapes from less that 1/2″ to larger than 48″ plus everything in between.  Smaller tiles mean more grout joints – which can be a good thing depending on the application.  It’s a great idea for a shower floor for instance.  It’s really just another element to consider.  I also recommend narrowing down your material based on your cleanliness habits.  Knowing what it takes to maintain the tile before you install can help you realistically commit to the material.  Tile vendors are usually the best resources to assist with all this type of information.  The saying ‘knowledge is power’ comes to mind because the more knowledgeable you are, the more confident you will be in your decision.  Plus, this will make shopping a much more fun, and specific, experience.

Modwalls CorkDotz as bathroom flooring

Water Feature featuring modwalls Brio Glass Mosaic Tile

Shower featuring modwalls Lush 4x12 Fog Bank

Step 4 —>  Go shopping!  Now that you know your desired design direction, color options, and what materials can be used, your real shopping can begin!  *HOORAY!!!*  Consider all these areas we have already weeded through and your search will hopefully be more specific and less stressful experience.  Don’t even allow yourself to peruse through options that just won’t work for you based on the steps you have already mastered.  Whether you are a showroom shopper or an online shopper, most tile vendors offer tile samples that you can order or take home to look at in your space.  We hope that modwalls  will be your first stop in your shopping search.  From there, I recommend bringing your samples to your space and checking it out one last time before you make your final decision.  And last but not least, consult with your installer on how many square feet you need (including overage) and place your order.

We hope you found this helpful!  Feel free to call or email me and the crew at modwalls to talk tile + design anytime.

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Holy moly, we are pumped about this Designer Spotlight! We’re talking crazy excited, doing a happy-dance, jump-kick-into-the-splits type of feeling.  And why, you ask?  Well, that would be because of the super sleek set of photos we received from ultra-cool Playhouse Design Group out of Seattle,Washington.  Scroll down and let your eyes feast on the majesty.  Warning: These delicious photos will stuff you with delight; you’ll need to walk it off afterward.

Read more… 424 more words

modwalls tile + Playhouse Design Group = A match made in design heaven

Check out the super happy color here with one of our Lush® Henry Road Butterfly designer tiles used as an accent in the shower’s niche.

Yummy.