We're in New York City right around the corner from Union Square, and we are visiting Country Floors.
A wonderful company that was started about 30 years ago by Normal Carlson, a New York City photographer who traveled extensively every year in Europe, and discovered the beauty of the ceramic tile industries and the tradition of tiles in countries like, Italy and Portugal and France and Spain and he started importing them.
He started the business out of his basement on 26th street here in a New york, but today its grown to be one of the best sources for ceramic tiles in the country.
Beth Kaufman is going to be our design consultant.
She'll give us a tour because we're not only going to look at European tiles but also the revived Artisan-ship of the American ceramic tiles, come on in.
Hi Beth.
Hi Bob, how are you?
What a busy place?
Oh it's beautiful.
Isn't it?
You need a need a design consultant though.
This is like going to a candy store your eyes can be overwhelmed and I mean right away the first thing I look at is very reminiscent of Malibu potteries that we used when we were out building a house in Malibu, California.
This is something very familiar to me, is this new?
Right, this is a manufacturer that have out in California.
The tiles can be used for wool material and for floor material and also light commercial use.
So it's been, it's really replicas of the work that was pioneered in Malibu back in the 1920s.
Yes, it is.
Now something like this carpet.
How much hat is that worth?
Something like this can cost six thousand dollars approximately.
They have the Capabilities of making it bigger and small to fit your needs.
And then over in over in this corner.
This is what I really associate with country floors.
The, the pattern European tiles.
Right, a lot of people do.
This material is manufactured in Holland it is hand-painted, a lot of the design s are of Dutch life.
What I like is how you've mixed the ceramic tile with stone.
Right.
To create this mantle and over mantle it really sets that the tile off.
Right.
Natural stone is something that's very popular right now, it's tumbled marble, it comes in a lot of different colors and different sizes.
So these were actual squares of marble.
They're cut to tile size and they're tumbled to make them look old.
Exactly, exactly.
Cool.
Wonderful.
And what about this corner set up here, is that also stone?
This is, this is an other display that have of our natural stone.
It, this one variation of one color and it shows how we mix different colors together to make a really nice vinyette for a bathroom.
And this is the traditional Dutch Blue Oak right?
Exactly, exactly.
Boy, look at this tell us about all of these displays on the wall here.
This material over here is that of a factory in Portland, Oregon.
They have the capabilities of making all of these relief tiles in different colors and different sizes.
So the relief is actually applied to the tile?
The relief is a mold.
I see.
Sure.
And then they apply the glaze to that.
I love the . . .
Right.
. . . display back here with all the little wild critters, and the fish, and the bears, and.
Right .
Again, this is another example of how we can combine all these different materials.
We have these great branches right here . . .
Mm-hmm.
. . . that can frame the mirror.
Mm-hmm.
It's beautiful.
And what about a staircase like this?
Well, this tile is terracotta from Italy .
It goes also indoor and outdoor.
Mm-hmm.
It's non-slippery when wet.
And these tiles right here on the risers . . .
Yeah.
. . . are from Spain.
They're in our stock in our warehouse in Queens.
This is reminiscent of a Moorish design and it's also a very classical design.
Yeah.
I love the white and blue combined with the terracotta.
It's very, very . . .
Oh, it's great.
very nice.
Lot of places.
And then what about some thing like this.
Is this antique roman mosaic or what?
Well, it could be, but it's, it's new.
It's a mosaic that it comes pre-netted.
it's sold by the linear foot.
By the, almost like a square foot there?
Right, well this particular one is a square foot, but they're usually sold by the linear foot.
What the price range for something like this?
Something well, somthing like this can run any where from 25 dollars a linear foot to 175 dollars a linear foot
So some thing like might be just 25 bucks a foot?
Exactly, exactly.
Because of how complex, I guess.
Yeah.
And we can, we can change colors as they work for your home
Well that fountain, that floral thing is really gorgeous, tell me about it.
This is a floral from France.
It comes in different sizes.
This particular one is forty one hundred dollars.
And do they come netted or are they loose?
No, this is a loose tile.
They'll have numbers on the back so that you can make it, you know you can put the picture together.
Now over here this looks like the work station.
This is where we have all our fun, and we design all of our different bathrooms.
And these are some of the ones that are going into our project.
This one, for example, I believe is the guest bathroom, right?
This is the guest bathroom.
It's a very traditional 3 by 6 metro tile with a Portuguese floral design.
Beautiful.
And then over here right next to it, this looks very familiar.
Right, right.
This is going to be the border tile in the floor with a matching tile that is going to be made in this color and then the walls are going to be this 4 by 4 hand molded terracotta tile.
Gorgeous.
And over here, is this the powder room choice?
This is the powder room, this is a mosaic tile.
Again it comes pre-netted.
The floor is actually going to be this color mosaic.
And than this is going to be the molding around the base of the floor.
Fabulous.
And this is the tumbled stone we were talking about.
That's the tumbled marble again.
Great.
But it's going to be in smaller sizes.
But these are my favorites, the cobalt's and the blues.
For some reason I really associate this with country floors.
Yes, this again is a Spanish tile used with our Portuguese brush stroke this is a scroll border also Portuguese with Spanish cobalt blue tiles that we are going to be using on the counter tops.
It is a beautiful blend, and this is such an extra-ordinary place with kids and moms and interior designers, and everybody all wants.
We hate to leave.
Thanks for the tour.
Thank you.
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