Piece By Piece Customize Your Home With Stylish Tile

Amy Goldware's master bath has an earthy, approachable sensibility, much like the rest of her home in this gentrifying Palms neighborhood.

Dark, warm colors fill cozy spaces as tumbled limestone extends up the walls and rounded pebbles cover the floor to the delight of bare feet seeking a stone massage.

"There are a couple of jaggers," warns Goldware as she cradles her infant son in her arms. The 37-year-old, who runs a recruitment business, also has a 2-year-old daughter. "But I like that kind of texture under my feet, you know?"

Pressed, poured or molded -- the new look in tile is all about bringing bold textures to the home through a variety of patterns and materials.

"Glass has gone beyond the Bisazza flat mosaic ... some of the new ceramics are coming out with amazing metallic glazes that range from rough -- like raku pottery -- to almost smooth," says Lisa Strong, an L.A.-based interior designer. "Metal tiles have come a very long way. You can now get the metal stamped and texturized or smooth with patina."

Many tiles also come in much larger sizes than were previously available -- giving them unexpected drama.

"There are great companies that make large molded tiles that can make a feature wall come alive with pattern and movement," Strong says.

The first thing people notice when walking into the kitchen of interior designer Erinn Valencich (pronounced VALEN-sich) isn't the wall but the layout of the floor.

"Everybody loves the floor," she says, referring to the gray- blue Xilo porcelain tile by Artistic Tile ($12 to $12.80 per square foot at Mission Tile West, 626-799-4595) that she also has on a wall in the guest bathroom of her Hollywood Hills home.

Staggered with 1-inch metal square accents throughout, the porcelain tile has the look and feel of stained wood.

"It's got this really cool kind of brushed finish on it," she says. "Everybody who walks in is like, 'Oh my gosh what is this?' "

In the master bath, the show-stopper is the Ann Sacks "Veranda Bamboo" tile ($25.52 to $38.53 per square foot) that's reminiscent of a floor-to-ceiling bamboo forest.

"I like to go into a few of those big high-end showrooms because when you walk through, you do really see the range of tile that's out there," Valencich says. "And then, for someone who doesn't have that budget, you can buy one or two important pieces from them and then you go flesh out your field tile somewhere that's less expensive."

Interior designer Scott Corridan was going for "affordably stylish" when he took on the remodel for Goldware and her husband, P.J. Brownrigg.

Since welcoming another child into their fold, the family of four has outgrown its 1,400-square-foot home and is now in the market for more space -- which greatly influenced Corridan's design plan.

He knew it was a transitional house that the couple would flip within a matter of years.

The moderately priced tile he chose was purchased at Expo Design Center, although Corridan says his usual supplier is NS Ceramics in Santa Barbara, where he shops for leather tiles, glass and hand- crafted ceramics.

"This isn't the time to pull off that super-high-end bathroom just yet," he says. "So, using materials like the tumbled limestone and the pebbled flooring just made sense for now. And it's still elegant."

Sandra Barrera, (818) 713-3728,

sandra.barrera@dailynews.com

Designer hopes he's HGTV's next big thing

Santa Barbara-based interior designer and event planner Scott Corridan is hoping to be HGTV's next "Design Star."

He's one of nine remaining finalists on the Sunday night reality show. But win or lose, he's made good friends.

The 37-year-old points to one particular bonding moment in New York, when the sequestered cast was celebrating the launch of season two. Confidentiality agreements prevented them from spending unsupervised time together. Still, they went so far as to get their handler drunk until executives clamped down on their fun, sending them off to bed.

Could you describe the elevator ride up to your rooms?

I don't know who started it ... but somebody just kept saying "I'm going to watch 'Space Odyssey: 2004' tonight, you really should check it out, it's going to be on everybody's TV in 30 minutes, 'Space Odyssey: 2004,' (wink wink). (Contestant) Josh Johnson's room was 2004.

And you went. How did you manage slipping past all the handlers?

We didn't have keys, so we were all jamming paper and magnetic strips into the locks on our doors and then putting the "Do Not Disturb" signs out on the handle.

It was so 'Mission: Impossible' -- we were storming the hallways, making sure the elevators that we jumped into were clear, and we all made it up to Josh Johnson's room.

We didn't talk about the show, nobody broke the confidentiality agreement, it was just all giggles and silliness and drinking. It was so much fun. We had the best time.

So, when's the next reunion?

We're doing a big cast reunion with no adult supervision in January at my townhouse up in Mammoth Lakes, and we're going to have a big skiing, week-long retreat, all of us piled into my place. So, that's going to be a blast.

>S.B.

>what's haute

Want to add a unique, creative flair to just about any room in your home? Consider these looks:

>MOSAICS:

A popular material for bathroom floors these days is pebble mosaic. Expo Design Center carries Solistone Pebble Tile Mosaic, sold by the case at 10 square feet for $110 to $130, depending on color. On walls, keep mosaic patterns modern, suggests interior designer Erinn Valencich. She used Erin Adams "Zen Weave" ($105.88 per square foot at Ann Sacks, 310-273-0700), left, to add accent stripes to the kitchen backsplash of her Hollywood Hills home. Don't be afraid to mix up the palette of materials and finishes, blending glass, stone and metal.

>LEATHER:

Patterned, stitched and available in a variety of colors, leather tiles are hot. HGTV "Design Star" hopeful Scott Corridan even calls these tiles "kinky" when installed on bathroom walls in the slickest red finish. The more natural skins, like sueded brown stitched at the seams, (call NS Ceramics at 805-962-1422 for pricing) can add warmth to your home. Leather tiles start at $35 per square yard. Depending on quality and the uniformity of the skin, prices can go through the roof.

>HANDMADE:

The handmade tile look is popular in more traditional high-end homes these days. Corridan's favorite is the real-deal artisan tile such as this molded floral pattern he found at NS Ceramics in Santa Barbara (again, call for pricing). But the flat tiles in Mexican, Spanish and Moroccan styles remain big sellers, especially when the glaze has dried running off the side and the sides aren't necessarily perfect. You can find these in almost any price range.

>S.B.

(c) 2007 Daily News; Los Angeles, Calif.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.