Most of you know (unless you are new here), that we are currently building a custom home in the Houston, Texas area. Kevin and I got to experience a small aspect of adding in custom finishes in our last home, however, starting completely from scratch has been a whole new ball game for us. Two weekends ago, we selected all of the tile for our home and it was such a fun and exciting experience. However, I could easily see how it could have been overwhelming if we didn’t have the right guidance. I will go into a little more detail in a minute, but our experience with Interceramic made the entire process seamless and so inspirational. We learned so many tips for choosing your home tile and I have been really excited to share about our experience with Interceramic.
When we were establishing our home budget, we had to decide between hardwood, interlocking vinyl, or wood tile. It was during my research that I first discovered Interceramic while reading about wood tile. My search for design inspiration continued and I kept seeing a trend that all of my favorite tile designs were made by Interceramic. I learned that Interceramic is a family owned company that has been in business in 1978. They are now an international company and known as the largest manufacturer of glazed floor tile in North America.
Further than that, they strive to not only provide an amazingly beautiful product selection, but to create an inspirational, hands-on experience for their customers while providing a new level of customer service. They recently renovated two new flagship showrooms (in Dallas and San Antonio) based upon the desire to change the way people shop for tile and create a new, innovative and inspirational experience.
We received an opportunity to visit their San Antonio showroom in person for our design meeting and were blown away. It seems like an understatement, but as soon as I walked in the door, I was met by beautiful design after beautiful design. Their two new showrooms are geared to inspire architects, designers, builders and home owners. They have created a space for you to interactively work with their products and select what works best for your home.
List of Rooms
When we arrived, the friendly staff at Interceramic helped guide us through the entire process. It works best if you can call ahead for an appointment so that their staff already has an idea of your needs as well. The first thing we did when selecting our tile was list out all of the rooms that would receive tile. We knew that we wanted wood tile throughout the house, except in the bedrooms where we would have carpet. We knew we would have a tile backsplash in the kitchen, bathroom shower wall tile in two spare bathrooms, bathroom shower tile in our master and backsplash tile in our laundry room.
Consider sizes
From here, the Interceramic staff helped guide us through considering different sizes for each room. I found that this really helped us in narrowing down tile, because you can honestly have so many different options. In small bathrooms, you could choose to put small, medium or large tile on the floor or you could even carry your wood tile into the bathroom. Knowing the size you are thinking really helps you in the design process. I will say however, this might change slightly once you move through the process.
Color palettes of interest
Narrowing down color palettes and even textures can help you as well. Kevin and I both love neutral, light colors – so we knew we wanted white, grey, and other natural colors in our designs. You may know that you want a bold tile design or you may be drawn to certain color. By noting this, it can help you pick your style.
Research style
That leads me to researching your style. Are you drawn to a modern, farmhouse, classic, traditional, transitional or other design style? By deciding your overall home style, this can really help you in the selection process. Kevin has a very transitional home style while I tend to lean toward transitional farmhouse. By knowing this, we could really mold our styles together. Interceramic also encouraged us to send in designs we liked so that could pull together designs for us to see in advance. You can also bring in images of tile pairings you like and this will help them get to know your style.
Visit a Showroom
This was the best part of the process. Honestly, all of the prep work matters, but once you get in the showroom, a lot of things might change. I loved being able to see all of our tile options, feel them, and pull them out on a table to match pieces together. The easiest way for me to describe their showroom was that it felt like a real life Pinterest. It was gorgeous, inspiring and felt like home. The staff guided us to start with our floor tile, because that would be our “base”. This is where things began to change. We originally thought we wanted to put different tile on our bathroom floors, but after falling in love with our wood tile. We decided to use it throughout the house.
Layout Tiles
From here, we looked at Interceramic’s suggestions based upon the images we gave them. They pulled different combinations of tile and showed us products we might like for each room. From there we narrowed in more to a color scheme of white/grey and focused on one room at a time. By focusing on one room at time, it allowed us to not feel overwhelmed with all of our options. The best part was being able to lay everything out on the table in front of us and physically see it.
Decide on placement and grout
Next, we decided on how the tile was going to be laid and the grout colors. This is another area where Interceramic went a step above. They have a great book that lays out different options for “laying tile”. You can look through the book and be really inspired about how to lay your tile in a unique way. How tile is laid matters big time. There are so many different was you can have the tile installed and it creates a completely different look. For example, you can lay your wood tile offset or you can lay it in a herringbone pattern. There are so many possibilities and the same goes for the grout color. The color of the grout can completely change the look of the room. They can also help you with this by sharing recommended grout colors.
Ask about install requirements
The staff at Interceramic is extremely knowledgeable and knows all things tile from the latest trends down to the details of installation. They can help advise you in ways to install their tile properly. Tile products are not all the same and some are made differently. Its important to know what products you are working with and how to have them installed.
Overall, I highly recommend visiting your nearest Interceramic showroom to experience their design process. They help guide you through the process with questions and help you figure out your style. They are knowledgeable, friendly and very helpful – not to mention, they carry the most amazing product line up for every style! I cannot wait to show you all what we selected for each room!
