Neisha Crosland turns her attention to tiles

Show your walls some love with these botanically inspired designs

IF YOU’RE CONSIDERING revamping your kitchen, bathroom or hallway, the surest way to add impact is with a colourful patterned tile. Geometrics have been dominating the tile scene of late, but a new style is emerging that introduces softer, floral and botanical motifs.

A case in point is the new collection from De Ferranti, its second with textile designer Neisha Crosland. Two years in the making, the Floris range has been inspired by classical and ancient art – Crosland spent time at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris and the V&A in London, researching Chinese and Japanese art, and neolithic stoneware – ‘caveman stuff ’, as she puts it.

Another key influence was 15thcentury Spanish, tin-glazed, earthenware pharmacy jars, whose lustreware glaze Crosland was particularly drawn to. Texture is key to the hand-done aesthetic of the collection.

‘The joy of surface design is that you can play with texture,’ she says. Here, she has mixed the raw ‘biscuit quality’ of the bare tile with both shiny and matt glazes to produce a result that looks and feels both traditional and fresh.

Designs range from abstracted flower heads to frilly, curlicued floral patterns and a tree of life taken from a piece of Jacobean embroidery. ‘It can be difficult as a pattern designer, because so many beautiful ideas have been done already,’ says Crosland. ‘I like to incorporate something familiar but it’s got to take you somewhere else as well.’

The colours, including cobalt, imperial yellow, pale terracotta and soft forest green, also help to bridge the gap between classic and modern styles.

Handmade, painted and stencilled at a family-run factory in Sicily, prices are accordingly high – from £480 per square metre to £1,170 for the more intricate tiles. It’s a big investment for an entire wall or floor, but a stripe, square or border mixed with plainer tiles wouldn’t dilute the effect. deferranti.com

Above The new Floris collection by De Ferranti and Neisha Crosland. Right Textile designer Crosland was inspired by prehistoric and Jacobean art