The Northwest's best source for your tile design selections. See what's new in stone, ceramic, porcelain, metal, and leather tile at our Washington and Oregon showroom locations in Portland, South Seattle (Renton), North Seattle (Everett), and Spokane.
We recently worked with Helix Design Group on a very fun project: a flagship retail store for Griot’s Garage in Tacoma. This business is all about car care for the perfectionist. They offer the finest in automotive detailing supplies, car care products, garage organization, floor paint, specialty hand tools, and anything else you can imagine.
Helix Design Group chose to go with a black and white checkerboard look for their flooring, which looks great against all the red accents throughout the store. The flooring features our Florim USA, Urban Landscapes Series in colors Soho and Brighton in an impressive 24″x24″ size. Be sure to check Griot’s Garage out if you have any automotive needs!
We recently held a competition where United Tile employees were encouraged to create new versions of our ever-popular MOSUPREMA BLENDS. We had 35 submissions, which we narrowed down to 16. We then invited customers to vote for their favorites online, and we had a designer panel come in to make the final selections. We are thrilled to announce the winners of this competition, and to introduce you to our newest members of our stock collection! These winning blends are on order and will be available in our showrooms and through our dealers soon.
Twilight Blend - 1x2 Arched (designed by Kate Jessup)Northwest Blend - 1x2 Mosaics (designed by Debee Larsen)St Johns Blend - Rhomboid (designed by Molly Pedersen)Harbor Blend - 1x2 Mosaics (designed by Kate Jessup)Black Diamond Blend - 1x2 Arched (designed by Dawn King)Sand Piper Blend - 1x2 Mosaics (designed by Dana Early)
In July the Central Oregon Builders Association held their 22nd Annual Tour of Homes in Bend. There were 37 homes on the tour this year, with prices ranging from $115,000 to $1,800,000. Owners Scott and Karrie Bomstad of Choice One Builders in Bend were in the $400,000 to $600,000 category with the home they built in Northwest Crossing. At the awards ceremony they received awards for Best Architectural Design, Best Kitchen, Best Value and Best of Show. All the tile used in the home was from United Tile and selected by the home builders, as they worked with Laurie Fox our of our showroom in Bend.
Tile used in kitchen Counters: Walker Zanger – Pietra Di Fiandra – color Avana – 24″x24″
Backsplash: Quarry Collection by GBI – Napolina – Tumbled 3″x6″
Tile used in guest bath
Floor & shower: Porcellana Di Rocca – Timeless Stone – Color Crema Marfil – 13″x13″ and 4″ hexagon
Shower walls: Crossville – Empire – color Parisian White – Unpolished – 14″x14″
Shower deco: Stone & Pewter Accents – Buyi Series – color Prairie & Morioka – 1″x1″
We are pleased to announce Lois Wallace has joined United Tile, and will work with Lisa Anderson and John Barker on the development of commercial project specifications and sales in Washington. Lois has an impressive background in A/D sales. She began her tile career with Interstyle in Vancouver BC, has worked for Dal Tile and Ames Brothers and most recently held the position of lead A/D representative for Pental in Seattle.
As we inch our way out of the down-turn in our economy, high on our list of priorities was adding an Architect/Design Representative to increase our coverage and service to our A/D customers. This change is occurring sooner than anticipated, but we feel the opportunity to have Lois join our team will help strengthen our service level immediately.
Lois will be your direct contact for project information, samples, technical support, and product updates.
We were thrilled to be a part of Seattle Fashion Week this year! This exciting event is an amazing gathering of extraordinary designers, models, and industry professionals. The garments we created along with NBBJ and Callison over the past couple years for Product Runway (see previous blog posts) were featured Saturday evening at the event, as a kick-off to the final evening. The theme of the evening was Established International Designers, and we were proud to have our garments represented on the same stage as:
B’ZMA (Dubai)
Catalin Botezatu (Romania)
Eva Chen (Canada)
House of Versatile Styles (Washington DC)
MONAPALI (India)
Richard Blayne Walsh (Seattle)
Vera Wang (by Marcella’s La Boutique)
It was wonderful to have the press and fashion design community take interest in our talent and innovation! The event was featured in Seattle Homes & Lifestyles (May/June issue), a segment on Evening Magazine, and in Seattle Metropolitan’s “Shop Talk” newsletter.
The garments were made exclusively from United Tile products. The outfit made with NBBJ included:
**Laticrete’s 9235 waterproof membrane fabric
**Composeal shower pan liner
**A mosaic headdress, belt and shoes featuring glass from Bisazza, Stone & Pewter Chimera, and Crossville Water Crystals.
The outfit made with Callison included:
**Laticrete 9235 waterproof membrane fabric
**Mosaics from Stone & Pewter Mu Wood, Bisazza glass, Interstyle glass, and Crossville glass.
(the dress was stripped and woven with the Laticrete fabric)
Thanks to the United Tile staff who participated in the making of these garments, as well as our partners at Callison and NBBJ!! And thanks to Alvin Nguyen Photography for providing the photos.
The Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland (HBA) awarded their “Best Website by an Associate” selection to UNITED TILE at their recent Sales & Marketing Excellence Award dinner. Sponsored by The Oregonian, the award recognizes the creativity and marketing effectiveness of websites supporting the home construction industry.
In presenting the award, HBA praised the design appeal, navigation ease and links to other relevant sites as key attributes of the site. Danielle Hickey, our website designer, accepted the award on behalf of the company. She said, “It’s great to have customers tell us how helpful the site has been when they come in to see products first-hand and make their selections. We have spent a lot of time getting our website to where it is and are committed to continue to develop this valuable marketing tool.”
We are proud of this honor and hope everyone is enjoying our website!
Danielle Hickey accepting the award with the HBA representatives around her.
Ken Wiedemann, Ron Cook, and Heidi Martin recently attended COVERINGS on behalf of United Tile. For those who aren’t familiar with this annual event, COVERINGS is the largest tile show in the U.S. Manufacturers from all over the world come to display the latest in tile, stone, setting materials, machinery — and anything else that may be related to our tile world.
COVERINGS is always a wonderful opportunity to connect with our current suppliers, and often find some new ones. We are always excited to see the newest trends in tile. We continue to be impressed with the new digital inkjet technology that allows porcelain manufacturer to produce an incredibly realistic replica of stone. We are pleased to announce that we have adopted a couple of these looks, and look forward to introducing them to you in the next few months:
Century Darwin - Floreana
TRAVERTINE LOOK (Ethnos & Darwin Series) – We selected three colors from sister companies Monocibec & Century, to create a dynamic travertine looking package in a porcelain tile. We will offer these in a 20×20, 10×20, 10×10, 13×13, 2×2 & battiscopa. One color (Floreana, shown in photo) will also be offered in a 20×40 size!
NATURAL STONE – We are also looking at some new natural stone programs. While these negotiations are still on-going, we are excited about the possibilities to expand our stone program to include some deeper, richer colors in limestone and vein-cut stones.
Quarrying Stone
Stay tuned for additional creative products this summer and fall!
We love this unique installation of our Oceanside glass on a master bedroom fireplace! The custom home is located in Bend, Oregon. Kirsti Wolfe, of Kirsti Wolfe Designs designed the fireplace along with assistance from Cement Elegance and Sun West Builders. Slabs of concrete were designed around a two-sided, see-through Sparks fireplace and then carved out to allow United Tile’s Oceanside Elevations (color 957 Incense) 1.25″x10″ offset glass tiles. The idea was to create a vision of flames rising from the fireplace.
Kirsti Wolfe Designs offers interior architecture and design for the entire home, with unique expertise in kitchens and baths. Each design is exclusive, balanced, and harmonious while functional and strikingly beautiful. Kirsti, based in Bend, demonstrates a sensitivity to each client’s personal taste. With over 18 years of experience and a master’s degree in interior architecture, Kirsti understands and appreciates the architecture of the home.
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