Kitchen Tile Back Splash 01, originally uploaded by MidModSTL.
This is it. This is what I would strive for if I had the option to do the kitchen back splash in any fashion I could choose. I don't even know if this example is actually vintage, but it sure looks right to me. The white flecked tile are classic mid century.
Tiles and mosaics were a very popular design element in the mid century. They moved beyond the walls of the bathroom and kitchen and became common on every day items, table tops and objets d'art (pssst... that's French for "objects of art", by the way).
According to what I've read, the 1/2-inch square ceramic tile size was seen in homes around about the early Sixties. It's use here in the photo with the 1-inch and other sizes make a mosaic eye candy pattern that's not too repetitive. The pale colors also help it to stay in the background without fighting for too much attention.
Brother Dear had made a tiled trivet in shop class back in those days. It's been in use in the kitchen every day since. I look at it, a little piece of MCM design history, and dream about having more of where these came from... it's light blue and white 1/2-inch ceramic tiles with gold flecks glittering off their surface. What I could do with a couple crate loads of those!
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3 comments:
My original kitchen floor was a linoleum pattern just like this.
For some reason, we had this kind of tile, glued to the little screen stuff it used to be backed with, pattern already made, in the garage. Some project Mom or Dad was going to do, but never did.
This looks like it would take a VERY long time to do.
Anyone know where to find some good examples of mid century tiling (like vintage pics)?
Everything I can find for example ideas comes off of Flickr. Over the years I think most people must have ripped out their original tiling since it's seen as "dated" :P
The bath in this house was never fancy when she was built. We had the cheap plastic tiles around the tub and brick-colored linoleum on the floor... a look I don't want to recreate!
I remember those squares of mini-tile glued to a net backing. Dad brought home some that were leftover from the office, light green with light flecks, but he never used them either.
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