Artistry and artifice are on display in new tiles

Tile has a rich and varied history in decor, from Roman floor mosaics to majolica to Delft ceramics to Mexican terracotta.

These styles and more continue to inspire artistry. Many of the newest collections of ceramic and porcelain tile were on display this fall at the five-day Cersaie international exhibition in Bologna, Italy.

Some of the trends:

Master impostors

Across the show, faux finishes ruled. What seemed to be barnwood or other timber planking was actually porcelain. Manufacturers can now produce tile that looks and even feels like wood, marble, granite or cement, but is thin and lightweight.

The application advan-tages are obvious: A 20-foot slab of slim porcelain printed to look like stone is a lot easier to make and install than the real thing. It can be wrapped up kitchen islands, walls and even ceilings, and is easily cut to accommodate plugs or faucets.

Advancements in digital printing have taken faux finishes a long way from earlier versions that looked unrealistic and one-dimensional. Now, the detail is more precise, the image is embedded deep in the tile, and the surface texture is transformed.

In the United States, the Reclamation collection from Crossville, based in Crossville, Tenn., is an urban-industrial mix of cement and tiles that look like salvaged wood in colorways with names like Steel City, Cotton Exchange and Tobacco Road. (crossvilleinc.com )

Serenissima Cir, based in Casalgrande, Italy, got hold of a palette of brick from Prohibition-era Chicago and used it to create a tile collection that looks and feels like time-worn brick, right down to the original maker's Chicago stamp. (cir.it )

Metallic glazes are also evolving. You'll see patterns with a subtle brush of coppery glitter, while others have dramatic gold, copper and silver finishes especially striking on 3-D tiles. Antiquing gives mirrored tiles a mercury-glass quality.

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Artistry and artifice are on display in new tiles