Redefining natural beauty

“Rawness and refinement are not opposite ends of a luxurious spectrum... they are two complementary features with which to populate a luxe environment.”
– Kelly Wearstler, Interior Designer.

American interior designer Kelly Wearstler is known for her signature designs—utilising natural products such as marble—and is currently at the forefront of a design trend championing ever bolder use of the stone.

“Kelly has really tapped into a growing interest and demand in mixed-marble formats and, through her designs, is influencing a growing movement around the world,” says Lindy Messam of The Tile People.

“Here in New Zealand, leading design studios such as Bureaux are adding their distinctive voice to the movement and our latest Italian porcelain tile offering, Sound of Marbles—which captures the raw allure of marble within a refined porcelain foundation—has been developed in response to this.”

Conceived by Fioranese Ceramica and designed in conjunction with Neropaco, Sound of Marbles rethinks marble as an element to be taken apart, fragmented and pieced together again with original colour combinations created to imbue interiors with a sense of movement, says Lindy.

“This collection is a tribute to architecture and perspective, enhanced by the magnificently timeless veining of marble. Abstracted but recognisable shapes—distinctive, linear and striking—from the world of architecture combine to create a sophisticated but also ultra-modern mood.

“The contemporary soul of this marble-effect porcelain stoneware is reflected in the colour combinations and shapes. Cuts, diagonal lines and curves coexist on the same tile, creating a variety of compositions that can be combined with each other or with the white, black, beige, pink and intense green base tiles to create original configurations.

“The setting made for this collection features both minimal and more classical furnishings, with a modern, clean-cut interpretation in the lines that deliberately combine styles to create living spaces with a strong personality, in which nothing is frivolous or superfluous.”

The Sound of Marbles collection comprises five ‘base’ tiles available in seven sizes from 15 x 15cm up to 74 x 148cm and two finishes—matt and polished; three 5 x 5cm mosaic formats—square, hexagonal and weave, which come in 30 x 30cm sheets; and, two composite series’—Fiomood Nero and Fiomood Verde—featuring 38 assorted patterns across two sizes, 74 x 148cm and 30 x 60cm.

“Italian porcelain manufacturers are always leading the way, continually spearheading and innovating and this collection certainly continues that trend,” says Lindy.

“The digitally printed designs create a really convincing replica and the large number of faces per colour range means there’s little to no pattern repetition making it a simple proposition to create the luxuriant ‘maximalist’ interiors that are firing up social media platforms at the moment.

“Additionally, the 10mm thickness of the tiles makes them really easy to install and the durability of porcelain means there is very little ongoing serviceability required to keep them looking great.”

“We pride ourselves on being able to source innovative ranges, like Sound of Marbles, from anywhere in the world and are in the unique position of being able to buy just about anything for anyone, be it for a one-off residential project right through to a large-scale commercial development,” says Lindy.

“Because we work directly with contractors, developers, architects and interior designers we prefer to be involved in a project right from the start, that way we can ensure programmatic delivery of product as a lot of our ranges are on indent. That said, we do also carry a broad offering of stock ranges that can help achieve the desired look without any lead time.”

Learn more about the Sound of Marbles collection.