Novoceram Ceramic Tiles Imitating Wallpaper
“Not of this World”
My father was an absolute wizard with wallpaper. He never really went bonkers with it, but most of the houses he lived in had one wall that he decorated with wallpaper, so it became a design focal point, as opposed to simply blanketing a home with wallpaper. He sometimes confined it within wood borders, and always he seamed it perfectly. The other thing I found particularly formidable was the absolute ease with which he installed it. I first saw him wallpaper a wall in our Helena, Montana home in the 1950s, and although I was a small boy at the time, it was clear to me that the Old Man had done this many times before.
For my own self, I could never really get my arms around the idea of wallpaper, both because of the perceived difficulty of installing it-knowing I would inevitably want to work to the Old Man’s standards-and because of the difficulty of cleaning it, because face it, there comes a time when one cleans it or paints over it. Well now, by gosh, someone has come up with a new type of wallpaper altogether, one that avoids the problems of both installation and cleanup by the simple of expedient of being a product that looks like wallpaper but is, in fact, ceramic tile!
Novoceram is a French firm that has come up with one of the most innovative ideas I have ever seen in tile, and that’s saying a heck of a lot, because, as my constant readers know, tile is one of my dominant interests in life. And I say that, knowing full well that before I began writing these blogs and searching out interesting items on the Internet, tile was something I never really thought about at all. It was always the ceramic stuff one puts at the back of countertops for backsplashes-big whoop. Well, now, I gotta tell you, that perception has most definitely changed!
Novoceram went at this particular project in ways that just blow my mind. I won’t presume to speak for them, to say which came first, the method or the inspiration, but what they did was create a way to mimic the look and feel of wallpaper. What they specifically wanted to do was to reproduce the floral detail and silky softness of Eighteenth Century hand-painted Chinese wallpaper. If you explore their website, you will soon come across a poem written by a Chinese poet who lived from 701 to 762 A.D. Li Bai is renowned for his imagery, and we can certainly see why in the poem they quoted:
“When I wake up I open my eyes:
“A bird is singing amidst the flowers;
“I ask him at what point in the year we are.
“He answers: at the point where the breath of spring makes the birds sing.”
Inspired by that poem, Novoceram created the charm of the wallpaper that Eighteenth Century Chinese might have used to illustrate this scene, depicting branches, blooms and birds in a soft, almost other-worldly setting. The ceramic tiles they used for this are huge, as much as 53″ by 70″, and they have been laid out in such a way that it is actually possible to arrange them in a number of different patterns, allowing the end user to make a design all his own. It’s the sort of thing that one can use on a short wall, or as a focal panel in a larger wall, or even as a design that takes up an entire large wall, as it is possible to repeat the design across the wall, just as one would do with wallpaper. All these years later I still remember the green ivy on white bricks wallpaper that covered one wall in our Helena dining room. As a kid I spent hours examining the perfection of the Old Man’s seams.
The other thing about these tiles, as I said at the onset, is the fact that they look like what they are not, like wallpaper. Because it is such perfection, I have mostly used pictures of their Florilege line with the flowers and birds, but with European artisans, it always seems to be first a design, then endless variations on that design. Another design for the Novoceram’s wallpaper-like tile is Tresjouy, which is made with a thin gold liseret over a tile made to give the effect of the original canvas fabric that would have been used in this design by Eighteenth Century artisans. We show it here as backdrop to a pool; and with that amount of water and humidity, no one with a brain that works would want to use the wallpaper this tile so closely resembles.
It’s a product and a concept that can be used almost anywhere, and one so stunningly original that it really is difficult to talk about it without gushing. Perhaps the best way to sum up Novoceram’s accomplishment is to simply quote another poem from Li Bai:
“You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
“I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
“As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,
“I have a world apart that is not among men.”
Joseph
Bontempi Italian Kitchen Designs
“The Power of Ideas”
Having researched and written these blogs for two years now, I am convinced that there is any number of absolutely perfect kitchen designs available, just not in my kitchen! But you know the kitchen design I’m talking about, right? For a long time our goal was that big dream kitchen. My wife and I both enjoy cooking, and the thought of having all that stuff and all that room and all those appliances, maybe even some kind of chimes ringing out “ah, sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found you,” whenever we entered the kitchen-it’s just such a glorious fantasy. And at some level, we would still like to do it. But the reality is that we are not willing to remodel our home to get enough room to do it, nor would we want to intrude into the adjacent family room which is where this childless couple spends the bulk of its time, watching movies on our large screen TV. For us, the smaller kitchen that is open to an active family room is just the ticket.
Actually, when I think about it for a moment we are on the cutting edge of kitchen design, in a sense, because more and more these days, people are looking to make of their kitchens a room where the family lives, the heart of the home, as opposed to a room where Mom cooks, apart from the home and all that concerns it. And when you think about it that way, devoting less space to the actual kitchen appliances carries with it a pureness of vision that has heretofore escaped us in our lust for all that is glorious and approved by the National Kitchen & Bath Association. But in saying that, I do not mean to say that the NKBA does not, in many respects, have the right idea in what they have put forward in their planning guidelines for kitchens. I personally found them most helpful in looking for a better way with my own kitchen remodeling plans, keeping in mind, of course, that it is not going to be possible for me to comply with a large part of what they have set forth as ideal, beginning with the much vaunted kitchen triangle.
A compact space, if it is laid out intelligently, would be just the ticket for us, and I suspect, a lot of other people, which brings us to Bontempi Cucine.
Like all Italian kitchen designers these days, Bontempi has any number of kitchen designs, all of them glorious, but I was particularly struck with their Omnia kitchen design, as it makes such an efficient use of the space. Those with the la-de-da kitchen designs will think this layout much too small, but all I need is a stove and sink and a small area for food preparation, because, truthfully, that’s pretty much all I’ve had anyway. Oh, we do have some counter space, but think it through a little. How much space do you really need for a chopping block; and that’s where you work, right? Throw some stuff in a pot; how much room do you need for that? Hell, my wife and I have made pumpkin pies together every Thanksgiving for as long as we’ve been married, the last seventeen or so in our current kitchen. She sits at one end of the counter to make the filling, and I roll out the pie crusts at the other end of the counter. And that is about as much space as we ever find ourselves needing.
And that brings us back to the Bontempi Omnia kitchen design. I’ve seen it described as “a distinctive, young-at-heart modern kitchen,” but maybe what it really is, is an idea whose time has come. And you know how powerful those are.
Joseph
Garden Collection from Stone Forest
“People”
One of my favorite companies is Stone Forest because. well, that’s what today’s blog is about in some respects, just the things I like about Stone Forest. They are located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which makes them an American company, and given the many times I have waxed ecstatic about something made in Europe, it’s kind of nice to see the focus this time around on an American-made product. But beyond that, there is really just the quality of the designs and the integrity with which every product is made at Stone Forest.
They like to do things the old fashioned way, with craftsmen who take pride in their work and who are paid a wage commensurate with their skills. Imagine that, a living wage in this day and age! Even so, that is the philosophy with which they approach their employees, and seeing what their people return to them, it’s not hard to describe this as a mutually beneficial relationship.
OK, with that as background then, I would like to talk a bit about what they have for the outdoors. I do know, of course, that a large part of this country is covered with snow as I write these lines, but it’s a situation that will be changing soon. And maybe by the time it is warm enough to do something else with one’s yard, one can have arranged the shipping of a few products to transform one’s back yard into a backyard paradise.
One of the items Stone Forest has is a fire pit, which is often welcome in the summer nights at night when it’s a bit cooler. A few years ago my wife and I hosted a party in our backyard and told everyone to bring sun glasses for the daylight hours when it’s very bright and jackets, because we get the sea breeze at night. One of our guests laughed us to scorn. “It’s San Diego,” he said, and indeed it is. But we still get the sea breeze, and later that night, only pride kept him from getting a coat like everyone else did. But I swear his lips were just slightly tinged with blue!
The line of fire vessels and fire bowls from Stone Forest is something else, beginning with their names, which come from Greek mythology. They are a wonderful mixture of the ancient and new. In keeping with a company philosophy that celebrates fine workmanship, they are all hand-carved, but they also have gas kits available for those who simply wish to flip a switch for heat. Another item in this line is the new Suspended Fire Pit which blends natural stone with iron to achieve a contemporary look. The stone used in this creation is green granite, and the fire pit actually comes from a single stone which is split in half to suspend the hand-forged iron vessel between the two halves. As it is with their other fire pits, it works with both wood and gas.
The other item I wanted to discuss is Stone Forest’s long line of granite fountains. They have a wonderful rough finish that makes them both rustic and elegant because there is something most enchanting about the aspect of looking at works of art so painstakingly carved from a solid block of granite. As it is with all of their works, the craftsmen who carve these works decide upon the design of the finished work, making each piece that comes from their hands utterly unique. And that brings us back to the other thing that’s unique about Stone Forest. Unlike so much of corporate America these days, it’s run by people who know they need people to do the work that makes the company prosper, and the artistry that thrives in such an atmosphere makes their clients the luckiest people in the world.
Joseph
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