Last year my husband wrote the cutest letter from our son-to-be.  This one still has me in tears as I read this and write this blog!  My husband is so sweet and thoughtful, this was just the perfect Mother’s Day gift last year.  (PS. Ralphie is our dog)

I did a photo shoot of Ben and I not too long ago, so I thought I would share this for the special occasion

Meet some of the ACI family mother / child combos!

My mommy (who runs ACI) and me on my wedding day.

My sister-in-law, Anna, who handles our Marketing and my cutie pie niece, Sydney.

This is my sister, Lisa, who works in accounting at ACI, with one one of her 3 daughters, Addison.

These are all the mothers at ACI in the family I hope you all have an amazing Mother’s Day weekend!  I’m looking for ideas on what to do myself…do any of you have good plans set up?

1) Patchwork: Today was all about patchwork…I’m kinda bummed about this new trend because a year and a half ago I designed some patchwork concepts for ACI to stock in neutral tones rather than the typical spanish style bright color tones (neutral tones like white, grey, greige, beige, light blue, light green).  We didn’t move forward with the designs yet and now everyone is doing it!  Its okay though because I still love the look, and luckily we can get it

2) Paint In Tile: This was really neat.  This company takes a jpeg or vector file image or text of anything you want and prints it on tile.  You can do anything from a residential mural vanity wall with an image of your choosing (i.e. beautiful ocean scene) to commercial spaces with text / images.  Anything you can imagine  you can get printed on tile or “IN” tile as they told us!

My favorite part of the day was coming back to the hotel and seeing this photo of my son that my husband posted on facebook with the caption “This guy makes my day”.

If you’re interested in any of the products below please contact me at christina@architecturalceramics.com and I can get you details. Stay tuned for Day 2 through 4…more to come.

Let me know what you guys think of these new trends so far!

1) Graffiti – I have never seen this before at tile shows, so this is a completely new thing to me.  I saw this style at several booths today.  Its really neat looking, unique, and original.  This particular line is from Italy.   The Italians always start the tile trends, they are innovators.

2) Tree Bark – This porcelain tile is really cool looking too.  We’ve seen wood look porcelains become more and more popular over the last few years…but this takes it to a completely new level.  This looks more like the outside of the tree.  This particular one is by far the nicest replica of it that we’ve seen so far.  This one is an an Italian innovation as well.

3) Sabine Hill – This  line is cement tile believe it or not!  Its made in the Dominican Republic.  It is a green product.  The neat thing about it is that the cement coloring is actually 1/4″ down the tile…they use a mold to pour the cement colors on top of a base piece of cement to get the patterns and colors shown below.  The nice thing about this technology is that if for some reason there is a slight chip in the cement (although unlikely) there will still be residual color underneath the chip.  Much better technology than painted on cement.  This is much more rugged and will stand up to commercial traffic even! I really love this line and I’m so excited to introduce it into our showrooms.  We will have boards shortly  P.S. My picture does not do this line justice.

4) Slim Slab – You have seen this one on our website, but just seeing these slabs on display is incredible!  This is a 5 ft x 10 ft x 6mm thick porcelain slab designed to look exactly like Calacatta Gold.  They do an amazing job of matching the look of the real stone.  These slabs are designed for floor or wall spaces.  I’m excited to announce that we will be stocking 2 sizes in this material, so if you’re interested in it…let me know.

On a side note, I will be at a Tile & Stone Trade Show, called Coverings, this week in Atlanta, GA.  I’ll be sure to take photos of the newest trends in tile!  I can’t wait to see what innovative things are hitting the market this year.

Have a great weekend

White & Tan Area Rug (RugStudio.com)

Side Bar: I believe that its really important when designing a kitchen, bathroom, living room, or picking paint colors you select something that is in the color pallet that you wear on a regular basis.  If you wouldn’t wear the color personally, you’ll probably get tired of the color when the next seasons trends roll around.  Since tile is a long term (semi-permanent) decision, I think this is a good rule of thumb to follow.

Inspired by this dress I found the perfect tile combination!  Our ceramic Neri collection in a Bone color rather than white, in either 4×8 or 3×6 field tile for the walls.  Then our fabric look porcelain tile collection, Demure, in a large format 12×24 Sand color for the floor.  Simply elegant! Or you could get crazy and do a Neri Bone 2×4 brick mosaic on the floor and the Demure on the walls.  Or even…do a strip of Demure through the Neri Bone to really give it the look of the dress.  I wish I was skilled at CAD because I would love sketching out these design options.

P.S. I actually ended up getting this dress for our video shoot that we filmed a couple weeks go

What is your favorite outfit?  Need help finding tiles to match your style?

White House Black Market Ecru Paneled Dress

Left: Neri Bone; Right: Demure Sand

For the Lot:

I’ve found the cutest lot.  Its 1 acre of land, has a little pond in the front yard with fish, its private & surrounded by trees, and when we were looking at the lot I saw a rabbit run through the back of the property.  So perfect!  Have you picked out your lot?

For the Home:

I was searching for things like ‘cost to build a home’, ‘building your own home’, and I came across this website that offers a huge selection of already designed home plans from Contemporary to Mediterranean to Victorian.   I picked a quaint 1,440 sqft cottage style home plan that fits perfect for my family.  See below.  What is your favorite home plan from this site?

Find your favorite home plans on http://www.dreamhomesource.com!

For the Living Room:

Since its my favorite porcelain tile, I want to do Wood Replica Grey Pepper throughout the entire house…living room, kitchen, and stairs.

Yep, Wood Replica has stair treads available!  See image on left.  I even picked the sofa that I want (from Macy’s).  It comes in an ivory color that will be perfect with these grey floors.  Even my husband thinks this sofa is comfortable by the way, so that means that it really gets an A+.   I would get the sofa and love seat combo.  I haven’t decided on end tables, coffee tables, and lights yet…those are always harder to pick.

I was looking through ‘the lettered cottage’ blog and I saw this post on a fireplace makeover.  I thought this is the perfect fireplace for our Cottage.  It has the white wood surround and a splash of glass tile on the exterior and a simple Bianco Venatino marble on the interior.  Check out our Marble and Naturals glass series on the website for some ideas to makeover your fireplace: http://www.architecturalceramics.com/products/marble  & http://www.architecturalceramics.com/products/naturals.

For the Kitchen:

I love the look of the white shaker style cabinets.  Its simple and classic.  Imagine these cabinets with the grey Wood Replica porcelain tile floors and a simple 6×12 Glossy Naturals Cloud glass tile backsplash installed subway style.  What would you pick for the counters?

For the Master Bathroom:

A pinwheel style wood vanity with a pinwheel stone floor from our Park Place collection!  The pinwheel is a white marble with a beige dot.  For the shower walls I would just go with the 3×9 marble field tile from the Park Place collection installed in subway pattern.  I don’t want to mix a pattern on the floor and on the walls.

For the Guest Bathroom:

I would get a little fun with this one.  I would pull from our Sabine Hill cement tile line which brings in a mix of greige, white, and blue.  For the shower walls I would do a glossy 4×8 white ceramic field tile from our Neri Collection: http://www.architecturalceramics.com/products/neri.

Playful floor! Simple Walls :)

That is all I have designed so far, now I just hope that I will be able to build it one day!  I want to hear about how your home re-modeling or building projects are going.  Let me know.  If you need some ideas for what to do with tile, leave a comment and I can help you find something

Talk to you next time!

We were filming an About Us video a couple weeks ago and we got the whole family together for the shoot.  It got me thinking about how grateful I am to work with my family and how much fun it can be!  We always have such a great time when we all get together to work OR just hang out.  It made me want to share this ‘family’ piece of our company with you.  Along with everyone’s favorite tile of course!  I think it’s interesting to see the differences in each of our tastes.

Betty Sullivan, CEO, My Mother 

Benefits of Working @ ACI: Seeing product we designed or selected installed!

Favorite Part of Working with Family: Impromptu lunches with family.  Seeing her kids mature and become professionals.

Favorite Tile: Our new series, Lines

Fun Fact:   She enjoys staying ahead of the curve in tile style and trends.  Listening to Larry get excited about a new tile that he discovered and we had to have. During Katrina when the front desk was fielding the calls from the victims and the warehouse guys were delivering furniture at night. That was real teamwork.

_______________________________________________________________

 David Benson, VP Sales, My Brother

Benefits of Working @ ACI: New product everyday!

Favorite Part of Working with Family: Working hard to sustain and support the family.

Favorite Tile: New Ravenna Silk Road

Fun Fact: Dave, his wife, and I were all cheerleaders in college together.

_______________________________________________________________

Christina Ginn, VP Marketing, Product, IT

Benefits of Working @ ACI: I feel like I’m apart of something bigger than myself.

Favorite Part of Working with Family: Getting to talk to family everyday, growing closer, and keeping in touch.

Favorite Tile: Devotion Cathedral and Wood Replica’s 9 Piece Pattern

Fun Fact: I have a 10 month old baby who is so adorable.

_______________________________________________________________

Shane O’Donnell, Warehouse Manager, My Brother-in-Law

Benefits of Working @ ACI: Working with family and having that feeling like everyone is part of it.

Favorite Part of Working with Family: Going out for surprise family lunches.

Favorite Tile: Wood Replica Grey Pepper mixed with Calacatta Gold Marble

Fun Fact: He’s a closet Harry Potter fan.  P.S. This photo was taken at Universal Studios in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

_______________________________________________________________

Dianna Sullivan, Stock & International Purchasing, My Sister

Benefits of Working @ ACI: Working from home and working with family.

Favorite Part of Working with Family: Open communication, working towards a common family oriented goal.

Favorite Tile: Wood Replica

Fun Fact: She wants to learn Chinese and Italian so she can improve relationships with international vendors.

_______________________________________________________________

Lisa O’Donnell, Corporate Trainer, My Sister

Benefits of Working @ ACI:  Love being with the family and continuing our legacy.

Favorite Part of Working with Family: Everyday can turn in to a family lunch or mom and daughter time.

Favorite Tile: Artistic Tile Zebrano Stone

Fun Fact: She wants to be a science fiction writer when she grows up.

_______________________________________________________________

Anna Benson, Marketing, My Sister-in-Law

Benefits of Working @ ACI:  Working from home.

Favorite Part of Working with Family: It makes me want to work harder knowing that my work affects not just me, but many of the people I love and care about.

Favorite Tile: Calacatta Gold Marble

Fun Fact: Same as Dave’s

_______________________________________________________________

Tile Photos of Family Favorites:

1) Lines (Betty)

2) Silk Road (David)

3) Wood Replica’s 9 Pc Pattern (Christina, Shane, Dianna)  - This is tile not wood!

4) Devotion Cathedral (Christina)

5) Zebrano (Lisa)

6) Calacatta Gold Marble (Anna & Shane)

I’ve found some great photos to illustrate these design trends.  This one is absolutely perfect because it captures the wood counter, thin-brick backsplash, AND the splash of color!  The hint of color is a big trend this season that I have seen used in all living spaces.  For example, a bathroom with neutral tone tile & walls may have a blue vanity.  Using furniture to accent and bring color into a room.  This cobalt blue cabinet really captures that trend.  Plus I love cobalt blue!  My next blog I’m going to talk about color and highlight walls…stay tuned

Another photo I found on Houzz was done by Plattner Custom Builders, LLC (www.plattnercustombuilders.com).  This has the nice wood beams across the ceiling, wood counters, and thin-brick tile backsplash.

Italians start all the tile trends, then they slowly make there way here.  When I was in Italy at a tile trade show over a year ago, I saw the use of wood-look tile combined with cement-look tile.  This is really cool because it takes a ‘cool’ element and warms it up with wood-look tile.

Now you’re asking…where can I find this?  Well Architectural Ceramics has everything you need!

Wood-look tile called Wood Replica combined with cement-look tile called On Square you can get the exact floor shown in the image above.

For the gorgeous thin-brick tile check out our Seneca Cotto series shown below.

For more information please contact me at christina@architecturalceramics.com OR visit our website http://www.architecturalceramics.com.

I’m really curious to hear what you guys think of these new trends??

I really wanted to share Anne-Marie’s 10 Rooms blog with you guys because it does such a great job at explaining the differences between GREY, BEIGE, AND GREIGE.  Click the link above for details.

Below is a summary of her blog:

1. Definition of GREY: black + white = grey or black + white + green/blue/purple = grey. 
2. Definition of BEIGE: 
   white + red & or yellow + a little blue = beige.
3. Definition of GREIGE: white + black + red & or yellow + perhaps a little blue = greige
4. If it’s cool, with a blue, purple, or green tint, it’s a GREY.
5. If it’s warm, with a red, orange or yellow undertone visible, it’s a BEIGE.
6. And if it’s warm, but contains black, it’s a GREIGE (or as so many people say, a warm grey)

I guess I liked sharing the formulas since I have an engineering background, the equations help me visualize the color combinations!

Have a great early weekend!

I personally love browsing through Houzz and Pinterest for great ideas for my home…after the website launch I told my husband that this website is just as much fun to browse through!  I told him my ACI Wish List will be my next Ideabook for our home, LOL.  However, in case you want to continue using Houzz and Pinterest, you can add any tile series to your ideabook or board. Have fun pinning!

Check it out!  www.architecturalceramics.com

On the Product page, there are a variety of filters to make it easy to search through our large product offering.  You can filter by Application, Material, Size, Color, Grade, Availability, Finish, and Installation Materials.  

Get ready to be inspired!  Architectural Ceramics has been in business for 30 years and we sure do have the projects to show off.  The Portfolio page allows projects to be viewed by job type (Contract & Residential) OR by application (Bathroom, Kitchen, Floors, Exterior, and Fireplaces.

You can also find the friendly faces of our ACI team on the Company page .

We are happy to offer a new feature…Scheduling an Appointment online!  On the Contact Us page you can submit general inquiries or schedule an appointment.  Your submission is sent directly to our showroom managers who will respond as soon as possible to your request.  You can also find directories for our residential showrooms, contract department, and all corporate departments.  To find the showroom or warehouse nearest you, please check out our Locations page for offices in Maryland and Virginia.

You can also find News & Events, FAQs, Glossary, Learning Center, etc.  We really wanted this website to be a resource for you from initial design all the way through to installation.  We have knowledgeable staff that can help answer any product or installation questions you may have.

Last but not least, we have a separate section for all Sale items.  If you want to design something nice with a modest budget, this will be perfect for you!  Sale items will have a limited quantity available, so please call ahead to check stock and you may need to place the order quickly before it runs out.

What do you think about the website??  I would love to hear your feedback, you can leave a comment on this post or email me at marketing@architecturalceramics.com!