Patina

I think that Patina may be my favorite word these days.  While I like to buy new things, I don't seem to like for them to look new.  I want the feel of the house to be old, mellow with soul and patina.  A warmth that usually takes years to achieve.  Often you see new cabinets or furniture that has been distressed but many are horribly executed examples of a bad paint job with an overzealous rubbing with steel wool or sand paper.  Just because you rub off a bit of paint doesn't mean that you are fooling anyone- enough said.

I found a tile company that I know will be able to help me achieve this goal.  We visited Pave tile http://www.pavetile.com/ in Hatfield MA to see the tiles first hand.  The owner very graciously showed us his work and was very kind when we riffled through his boxes of tiles in the process of being worked on.

I found the perfect tile for our bathroom that matches the original stain.  I am hoping to use this as a boards in the tub with the cream color for the rest.

Below are a few examples of their work.  The pictures speak for themselves.

The tile above was my favorite- if I could only figure out where it could go.  Since it isn't glazed it won't be good behind the stove so we'll have to find some accent areas to showcase them.

The tiles come from Europe as plain blanks.  They are acid washed, stained and waxed to achieve the lovely patina that you see in the photos.  I found the rectangular tiles to be the most pleasing while the hexagons really made me feel like I was in Provence again,  for the house I am thinking rectangles or Parefeuille.