Summer Warehouse Sale

We're having a sale! it's time to clean out the warehouse and we've turned up a ton of stuff to clear out. There's porcelain tile galore along with glass mosaics, stone and all kind of great deals on Pratt & Larson material from custom murals to boxes and boxes of field tile. Come on in and see what kind of great deal we have for you!


Thurs. June 21st and Friday the 22nd - 9am to 5pm and Sat. June 23 -10am to 3pm. At our warehouse on SE Water Ave.

Color Inspiration: Violets & Tangerines

It seems like purple is turning up every where I look. Interiors, fashion, art. Here's a few inspiring images I found on line. I'm not normally a "purple person" but these purples are so lovely and sophisticated I could easily see using them in my own home and wardrobe.

Thomas Hamel via Pinterest

 From Sotheby's International Realty via Cococosy.com

I especially love the rosy purple couch in the first living room so I was delighted to find we make a glaze in just that color! 

Image via Pinterest

These P&L 1" hexagon rosettes would be the perfect floor for this bathroom!

Story boards in our showroom help to show how different materials and colors combine. This one showcases some of the purples and grays available in our line.

These lacy patterned tiles use a lovely shade of purple. 

From Dustjacketattic's tumbler

Tangerine Tango was Pantone's color of the year and it's popping up plenty too, occasionally right along side the violets!

Image via Pinterest

The Tory Burch Showroom in NYC combines orange walls with violet accents.

Tory Burch via Pinterest

I asked our glaze-making department if they could make me a Tangerine Tango glaze to match this Pantone color and Voila!  Our custom color matching abilities are pretty terrific. 

Image from Lonny via Pinterest

The bright orange wall in this living room looks terrific with this bright blue couch.  In the image below  they matched a beautiful orange damask pattern with a softer blue gray background.

Image from Design Sponge

 The dark trim reads like a tailored piping on these bold orange walls.

Image from Martha Stewart

We have lots of oranges in our glossy glaze line, and all of our shapes and sizes are available in them. 

P&L 1x4 Herringbone Chevron

P&L 1x1 mosaics

Fantastic orange triangle tiles from Ivette Soler's yard via thegerminatrix.com

Mission Tile West has some great oranges too. This concept board  is form their Retro Revival line. Their tile is available in Portland, OR through the Pratt & Larson showroom .

Mission Tile West

Jewel-tones are all the rage these days and these purples and oranges are just a few examples of some of the bold choices people are making with color.  Would you use these colors or are these colors or do you think they are just too much? Next color blog - Pinks and Turquoise?!

Coverings 2012 part 2 - The Panels

Our booth at Coverings was a great success thanks to all the hard work put in by the awesome team in our factory. They managed to take care of all our crazy and last minute requests (5 foot long tile anyone?!) as well as making sure all the day to day operations and orders were processed on time. We showcased 10 panels (but we made quite a few more!) using some new tile, some new glazes and a lot of new ideas. These panels are heading back to us from Florida and if you're in the area they'll be going up on display in our Portland showroom. We are also working on smaller concept boards so our dealers can add them to their displays in showrooms across the country. 

The first panel introduces our newest line, Motif  using the new Watercolor grays. The Arabesque is a new shape for us, available in large and small sizes, shown here in some of our new Satin glazes and a new Craftsman gray.

The white panel (so hard to photograph!) has some great examples of our new large format sizes in smooth field and in Intaglio textures. The panel on the right shows off a great customization of our Elongated Ogee shape with a fun oval cut-out, in some of our new Satin glazes. 

These panels use some Bas Relief and decorative tiles that aren't new but are shown in our new Duochrome hand-painting technique. The mosaic on the bottom right uses a new shape we're calling the Fancy Hexagon.

The new Motif line will also be available using R-Gloss glazes and along with the 6x6 patterns there are a number of borders and liners. The Starry Sky panel is an older mosaic pattern that we brought out of the archives and added some sparkle to with a sprinkling of Metallic glazed stars in a Watercolor night sky. 

Our 4 most popular Intaglio textures (A,B,C &K) are now available on any of our field and mosaic shapes and sizes. They are shown here on the Elongated Hexagon and a 1/2 x 4 mosaic liner.  Another  addition to our mosaic collection is a small star and cross. We used just the cross with a 1/2 x 1/2  for this metallic panel, creating yet another new mosaic pattern! 

We'll be promoting all kinds of new looks over the course of the year as well as revisiting some great pieces from our past. It's our 30th anniversary and we'll be celebrating our history as well as looking to the designs of the future. 

Coverings 2012

Coverings 2012 was a great success! After 30 years in the industry this was our first time on the show floor and we had a blast. Our booth arrived in Florida without a hitch, the set up went incredibly smoothly and we were very well received. 

Starting with an empty slate we designed our booth from the support structure on up. It was a great team effort. We crated it up and sent it off to Florida. A few weeks later Tim & Anthony arrived in Orlando and put it together in just three days.

The rest of our team showed up on Sunday and  Monday - 

And the booth was packed for the next four days!

Friday night the guys started pulling it all down and shipping it home.

The response was overwhelming and we're buried in work! 

We had a great time talking with old friends and meeting new ones. Many thanks to everyone for all the wonderful feedback. 

Stay Tuned! Next up i'll post some pictures of the beautiful panels we brought to the show. 

The new entry is complete!

The new entry to our showroom is complete. I'm sure there will be a bit more fussing and fine tuning but it's really beautiful. Bright and inspiring! Maybe the best part of the new entry is that the panels are easily removed, which means we can keep it updated, exciting and new.

On the right side we are showcasing our newest line - Motif. There are 3 large panels to give you a sense of how it might be used in your home and 9 concept boards to show you all the pattern options.

The other side has a Northwest feel, and highlights the fact that we make our tile right here in Portland, Oregon. There is a wall of great shots from our factory so you can see just how we make all these beautiful tiles (but you should still take the tour!)  

There are 4 panels showing  new contemporary takes on some of our favorite Craftsman style pieces, and a fantastic Craftsman glazed floor in our new Arabesque shape. 

 As always, it's even better in person. Come in and tell us what you think! 

Look out Florida, here we come!

Our booth for Coverings is finished, packed and on the road! 

We've been frantically working away at it for weeks and weeks and seeing it packed up and loaded on the truck is both a relief and a little scary!

Ron closing up the last crate

Coverings is the big tile trade show attended by tile makers, importers and showrooms from all around the world. This is the first time we are going to the show as exhibitors and needless to say we want to make a big impact for our first show. We had a great team working on the new tile designs and concepts and it was a lot of fun.

These crates are gigantic! Thousands of pounds of tile and all the trappings to display it. 

 I don't want to give away any surprises so that everyone who comes to the show will see all our new products for the first time. If you're in town for the show stop by to see us - we're booth 3211.

Find us at Booth 3211!

If you aren't going to make it to Florida for the show keep an eye on the blog - I'll post photos of all our new displays and some pictures from the show floor as soon as the show starts. That's April 17th.  Stay tuned or see you in Florida!

Loading it on to the truck