Adam Nguyen's Blog: 1″ unglazed porcelain ceramic tile in retro colors

Where to get unglazed porcelain ceramic tile — to use as a solid or to combine in a multi-color mosaic design — in a retro bathroom? Here’s a new source: Studio Tile & Stone of Melbourne, Florida, carries “Cinca” mosaic tile, made in Portugal for decades and available in 24 colors, including a number that could suit a vintage bathroom quite nicely.

The owner of Studio Tile is Lisa Bogo. A regular reader of the blog, she reached out to me proactively because she recognizes the retro-worthiness of these tiles. On the sample sheet it says these ‘unglazed vitrified porcelain mosaics’ are:

Great for historic restoration, re-interpreting classic mosaics and fresh modern interior design; it has color-through performance, frost resistance and natural slip resistance. Perfect for floor and wall, indoors & outdoors, spa & pool, in public or residential settings.
Ideal for curved surfaces, it’s produced in 12″x12″ sheets mounted on fiberglass mesh. Lisa added: “The mosaics edges are straight & flat — like historic porcelain ceramic tile — not beveled like Dal & American Olean…. These mosaics are manufactured in Portugal. It’s an ongoing line of tiles produced in Portugal, although this factory has been producing 1 x 1 porcelain mosaics since 1964.” And in the letter she said, “A.D.A. slip resistance recommendations.”

Lisa said the tile wells for $4 to $8 per s.f., depending on the color, with the more muted colors less, the brighter colors more. I presume there would also be shipping.

There are no bullnose or other trim pieces, so that could limit how you use the tiles unless you wanted to turn to a modern trim solution from Schluter. In the photo above, You can see that the bathroom was designed so that no trim pieces were needed. Notice the curved edge stepping up the the shower