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Currently we’ve observed tile creeping nicely past flooring and backsplashes: onto counters and kitchen islands, hearth surrounds, and extra. However tiling this manner is much from new: In Lisbon, for instance, church buildings, metro stations, avenue indicators, flooring, fountains, and facades are coated with azulejos. And it goes again even additional than that.
A (very) transient historical past lesson:
These ceramic tiles are actually an icon of Portugal, however their historical past may be traced to Spain and, earlier than that, to Egypt (the title azulejo comes from the Arabic al zellige, that means “polished stone”), the place they acted as ingenious local weather management towards desert warmth. When Moorish affect introduced the tiles to the Iberian Peninsula, in addition they proved helpful towards the dry, scorching local weather of present-day Spain, and within the thirteenth century the town of Sevilla turned a central manufacturing hub. (An early, and well-known, instance of Moorish tile in Spain is on the Alhambra in Granada, the place tile mosaics are made up of alicatados—a method the place tile panels are dyed one shade, reduce into geometric shapes, and fitted collectively like a puzzle.)
Azulejos got here to Portugal when King Manuel I, surprised by the tiles he noticed all over the place throughout a go to to Spain, introduced the custom again to his personal nation. It was in Portugal that azulejos began to tackle a extra ornate, ornamental type, utilizing a wide range of strategies and incorporating influences from Indian to Dutch. Significantly with giant expanses of bare-plaster partitions, Portuguese tiles turned a method of filling up empty area with element and design.
Now, hoteliers and designers are taking this historical custom and making it trendy. To get the take a look at house, tile your kitchen, tub, or flooring with one of many 5 designs under.
5 to Purchase
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