Wild for Tile: Jewelry for Your Kitchen

Tile has become kitchen jewelry that consumers can't get enough of — behind sinks, on countertops or floors, above stoves, on island fronts or kitchen carts, and even in freestanding wall hangings. "People are using tile in whatever way your mind can think of," says DeAnne VanHaaren, a designer at Ginivito Flooring in Petosky, Mich., which specializes in designer tile.

If tiles are the new kitchen jewelry, then glass tiles are its gems, often painted on the back and refired. "The colors are endless — from hot pink to bright blue, from bronze to metallic," DeAnne says. And their uses are just as far-ranging: Use liner bars — a thin pencil-like glass rail-like tile — to create an outline over the stove filled in with stone tile. Or mix glass with contemporary metal tiles. Try a few as an accent or paint the whole backsplash with glass.

"Although glass tiles have been around for a while, their popularity has exploded within the last five years," says Tisa Adamson, owner of Mission Tile West in South Pasadena, Calif. One of her favorite manufacturers is Bisazza, an Italian firm that preserves and reproduces traditional Italian Arts-and-Crafts vitreous mosaic tiles. Another favorite: Oceanside Glasstile in Oceanside, Calif., which offers seven glass tile product lines ranging from field tiles (tiles without decoration) to contemporary to gemlike minis, many made of recycled glass. Laurel True, founder and director of The Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, Calif., favors glass tiles from Trend, an Italian company that fashions a range of opalescent, metallic, gold and vitreous glass tiles.

Glass or not, the variety of colors available in tiles is also drawing buyers. "People are particularly interested in bright colors and the play of light," says Laurel. "And people are mixing more colors." That's why field tiles are increasingly popular, says Tisa: "The trend used to be decorative tile. But people are now willing to buy a higher grade of field tile with better color or handmade tiles with exotic-looking glazes."