I am in the process of building a house in Thailand and would like to install ceramic floor and wall tiles. Preferably, I would like to lay them in a pattern (not the standard checkerboard) but I am having trouble locating different jpg images of projects. Has anyone come across any web pages with a selection of existing projects that I could adapt to my home?
Any links would be appreciated, and when I am finished, drop by for an Iced Tea and check it out.
A combination called Penrose tiling can create non-repeating patterns, but I don’t know if anyone mass produces actual ceramic tiles matching those dimensions. Sometimes half the battle on something like this is finding out the right name (Penrose tiles) to look for. I did find one picture and another page with lots of links (some of them a bit more theoretical than you may need).
How complex a pattern are you contemplating? Surely you could work something out yourself with some colored paper or a graphics program. You might also go to a tile showroom (if those are handy in Thailand) and ask for some manufacturer’s brochures in which many patterns will be shown. The distributor or installer might even offer design assistance. Beyond that, it seems like a simple fun task for an interior designer or an architect, or maybe better an artist – you might get some really great designs that way.
If you know what your limitations are re: size and colors of tiles and the dimensions of the room, maybe I could whip something up for you myself.
Are you restricting yourself to squares, or is any tileable shape OK? Penrose tiles make some wild patterns, but they’re more time-consuming to put down, because nothing repeats and you have to pick the right tile for each spot. My personal favorite repeating tile pattern is a sort of equilateral pentagon: All of the sides are equal, but two of the angles are right angles.
If you’re sticking to squares, then you don’t have nearly as many options.
Like the universe and human stupidity, possible patterns of square tiles are indeed infinite if you take variations between tiles into account. Even in arranging monotypical squares you have the option of a grid, offsetting each row by a regular or random increment, and if you really want to you can space the square tiles randomly in a very generous setting bed leaving broad grout joints between them. If you take color into account, you can reproduce anything on an 800x600 square grid that you can bring up on your monitor. With the added variable of texture and finish you can multiply the possibilities exponentially.
The tesselae of many ancient mosaics were at least squarish and I don’t think the possibilities of mosaicry have been exhausted yet.
If you really want to see some astonishing non-square tile patterns, look into Arabic and Moorish architecture. The prohibition of pictorial representation really channels one’s creativity with patterning.
These are black and white charts showing tile layouts. They all seem to use square tiles.
http://www.bedrosians.com/flrpatrn.htm
There are fewer patterns here, but they are still interseting. Most of these patterns use rectangular tiles.
http://www.daltile.com/aotile/pages/technical/tile_layout_guide/tile_layout_guide2.html
Just for fun here are photos of much more elaborate patterns.
http://www.expanko.com/pat.html
And this just looks like generally good info.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/HOWTO/LIBRARY/wallflr/certile2.asp#E10E35