A Love for Delft Tile Realized While Creating My New Tile Collection With Country Floors

Thoughts on the

Beauty & Historical Relevance

of Delft Tile

As both a writer and a designer, I am not certain I have articulated why I love to meld these two crafts. Firstly, as a writer I tell stories which allows me to share my passion for design and history together here on the blog and when writing editorials for magazines. As a product designer (specifically as an artist who makes pattern design) I have the fortune to extend that written story to my love for interior design and my passion for creating a beautiful home by telling stories in a way that uses a visual medium. Taking my love for the past and melding it together with my own creative vision creates an amalgamation of design. Each fabric, wallpaper or tile pattern I create then goes onto weave a story in someone's home.

So, when the heritage brand Country Floors asked me to design a tile collection, my mind went immediately to Delft tile. These historic tiles act as a canvas to tell a country's story. During the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age, artisans transformed tin-glazed earthenware into works of art. The initial reasons are not as glamorous since these tiles were used for practical purposes, and some say to line the sooty, heat-resistant surfaces of fireplaces. Later, as lovely water-resistant material for kitchen counters and backsplashes as well as in bathrooms. 

The Dutch merchants were inspired by travel to China, and brought back intricate blue-and-white porcelain. These Dutch potters sought to recreate that beautiful material but the fine clay was difficult to find. The potters trained for years to become master painters eventually fine-tuning their own tin-glazing technique with a similar luminous, opaque white surface. The Dutch artists also perfected subtle shades of the gorgeous cobalt oxide we love on these tiles today.

Soon enough, the potters were painting their own landscapes (no longer just copying Chinese scenes) inspired by the local windmills, ships sailing to distant ports, farm animals, and the region’s gorgeous iconic tulips. Like mini paintings, these hand-painted tiles are nothing short of a masterpiece.
Even though it took great artistic skill to make these tiles, they soon became affordable and were seen in homes of the middle class all over Europe. However, with the industrial revolution roaring in, production waned, and today only one factory survives- Royal Delft- which works hard to keep the legacy alive. 

As I designed my collection of five tiles for Country Floors, I held these Delft tiles in my vision. I have long collected these beauties, and thought about my home in the East End of Long Island (a similar topography to the Dutch landscape) with farms and rolling greenery, windmills and the roaring ocean. I thought about how we live here in East Hampton, and how summer is so coveted as we use every moment of every season here and knowing the homes need to withstand the elements. I channeled Delft tiles to create Summer House, and I love all five of the designs. I chose a terra cotta base tile and a creamy white glaze and utilizied a blue and cream palette. I tapped into my unique root cellar designs' aesthetic to create tiles that I feel blend all these ideas together, and I hope you like them as much as I do. Thank You for this press to Design Vibes, Tile Letter and Cottages & Gardens (for the October issue profile in CTC&G)!

my tile collection inspired by my summer cottage in East Hampton

Happy Nesting

XO Tamara