Bring Beautiful Back With Italtile

It’s time to stop making do, and start making divine.

“In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty”. The words of a rebellious mid-century singer, but his words ring true today, and we’re using them to motivate our July luxury style kickstart. For too long now we’ve been doing drab, getting by, schloomphing around in slippers, and dropping the lippie routine. Home has become a confusing mess of home office/ laundry room/ day-care/ school classroom, and we’ve all allowed it because our mental health was more important and we were all whirling out of control.

Tired-eyed and a bit bleary, trudging through it all. Friends, that’s been our journey too, at home. It has been OK to be just OK. But it’s not OK anymore. We need to buck up and get back to where we were before we took refuge from the corona blast in our PJs, slippers and fleecy blankies.

It’s time to stop making do and start making divine. Let’s start by recovering our beautiful selves from the inside out. Hair, hands and feet first, followed by face. Every morning don the good earrings, the impressive shoes, the flawless makeup. Even if you change back into sweatpants before suppertime, you did your best to bring beautiful back. You showed yourself you valued yourself. You put your best foot floorwards. Go you!

Next, take a long, hard and super-critical look at your surroundings. Why on earth has the laundry basket taken up residence in the living room? Begone, drab. Hello, divine. Let a little fabulosity back into your life! Repeat after us, “Luxury is not on lockdown!” … and lavish some care on your home spaces.

Bring back beautiful with Italtile style. The Germans call it ‘houseproud’. We call it beautiful living. And, remember, it doesn’t have to be imported for it to be incredible quality. Italtile’s locally designed and manufactured style is up there with the best in the world, if not better; and best of all, at Italtile, it’s all in stock, and not on call. So if you see it on their website or in a showroom, they have it. Being Proudly South African with your purchasing decisions is a beautiful way to kickstart not just your home recovery, but also the nation’s recovery.

Fresh ideas to bring back beautiful outdoor living.

Having Melanie Ewing, CEO of Chapters International, on the other side of your screen, is always an inspiration and a delight. If you haven’t already benefitted from her Lockdown Design Downloads with our Marketing Manager, Nicole Russell, we urge you to freshen up your cup (or glass… nobody’s judgey-judgey here) and spend a few minutes being inspired by her latest outdoor design edition: (https://bit.ly/ChaptersOutdoorInterview )

With outdoor spaces, the sky’s the limit (literally!) when it comes to ideas to bring beautiful back into even the smallest courtyard. We’re currently crushing on The Outdoor Bath or Shower, riffing on those glorious pics of deluxe five-star bush retreats: soft sunset light, some sparkles chilling in the ice bucket, and you, immersed in a mound of bubbles, soaking away in a glamorous DADOquartz freestanding tub (e.g. the LiveGreen loveliness of the Jane. Or waking up with a zingy rainshower experience, courtesy of the Dual Flow Square Slim Stainless Steel Showerhead by Almar – surrounded by greenery in a secluded nook.

Dual Flow Square Slim Stainless Steel Showerhead by Almar

The unrivalled selection of slip-resistant tiles offers you a variety of luxury looks for poolside and patio glamour. The wood look is massively on trend at the moment, and we encourage you to consider our LiveGreen Legno range. Best sellers for good reason, these are top-notch quality, beautifully authentic in texture and tone, and proudly South African.

While you’re taking a long, hard look at your pool and patio areas, feast your eyes on Italtile’s latest mosaics.

Luxury is in the details, and the perfect swimming pool copings add the finishing touches.

Natural stone cladding really underscores the South African vernacular style. Once mostly used on boundary walls, natural stone cladding is being incorporated more and more into feature walls and fireplace surrounds, both inside and out. The luxury eco-chic ranges have been designed and developed by local specialists Global Stone. 

Mood enhancers to bring back beautiful bathrooms. Bathtime during lockdown may have turned into a series of soggy towels and clothes in limp piles. We feel you, because you’ve been doing so much. But for sanity’s sake, let’s bring back the bathroom rules that got thrown out during the Covid chaos. Bathrooms are meant to be beautiful spaces; so let’s help you up your glam so intensely that dirty little feet don’t dare enter your shrine. If you just need a few finishing touches, make sure they’re drop-dead-delicious, like our sensational Zach accessories.

For sinkspiration, browse the lust-have, LiveGreen Laufen Ino and Val ranges; Swiss perfection with down-to-the-bone good looks crafted by award-winning designers from Laufen’s trademarked SaphirKeramik. Just one look and you’ll agree that these are, at heart, more art installation than bathroom sinks.

Bathroom storage goes beyond merely functional to fabulous with imported Spanish cabinets. Enhance your personal style with ultra-modern, classically elegant or simple Nordic design options.

Have you considered the importance of mood lighting when glamming up your bathroom? Affirmations LED mirrors offer modern, built-in lighting solutions!

Open up your shower stall with a minimalistic, sleek, freestanding or wall-mounted shower screen: our spectacular options are finished in both black and chrome, to suit the palette of your sanctuary. The exclusive Nanotech glass shower screen is Super Phobic… which means it is specially treated to repel water, dirt, bacteria and grime. Now that’s a superpower!

Taps are much more than just an efficient way to get water out of the wall; they should also be a delight to look at and to touch. The deluxe range of Tivoli taps for baths, basins, showers and bidets offers a whole spectrum of looks to suit your style: from classic elegance to sleek minimalism, from dramatic to subtle. From shining chrome to matt black, and the ultra-chic Dress Nobili range that includes exciting “insert” hues. Whatever you choose to bring beautiful back, your Tivoli taps offer a 15 year warranty on manufacture defects.

Delicious style to bring beautiful back to the kitchen. Comfort food has been on the menu every day, and we reckon the kitchen counter has also been doing sterling work as an office and classroom desk. Even before these chaotic Covid times, the kitchen was the heart of the home, and we believe it’s the space where you can’t afford not to make good investments in statement style, built to outlast the longest, hardest pandemic!

Top of everyone’s sexy kitchen list is Smeg: the iconic Italian brand with a glorious blend of fashion, function, architecture and design. We’re happy to feed your need for sheer Italian sex appeal with simply Smeg-cellent sinks.

We’re also big fans of Swiss sinkmasters Franke, with their extraordinary Fragranite sink and prep bowl ranges.

A fine sink needs a fabulous sink mixer. Look no further than Move, an astonishingly beautiful mixer with a divinely delicious black rubber hose.

Kitchen feature walls and black splashes were born to dress up in prettiness. Patchworks work a treat and add instant eye appeal. And we stock a brilliant selection. We’d also like you to reconsider Subways. These timeless classics are getting a lot of airtime on social media as stylistas reimagine the old-school installation patterns and grout and create new ways with classic Subways. With a little innovation, you can compose captivating configurations to turn an ordinary wall into an extraordinary one: https://construction2style.com/tutorials/subway-tile-pattern-ideas/

Bring beautiful back to your living spaces.

You’ve spent far too long staring at the same old walls and floors. Let’s excite your imagination with feature walls that pop with our 3-D décor tiles, or the fascinating new oxide metal trend perfected by Nox. Then there’s the return of terrazzo that’s got every design and décor magazine giddy with love, elegantly reimagined by Sant’Agostino in their outstanding NewDeco range.  

Any conversation about beautiful living will always centre around the glamourous and decadent Italian opulence of marble. In the 21^st century, marble is outrageously unsustainable in its natural form, but top tile makers are able to remaster its delicately veined beauty in porcelain. We say three cheers to Italian tile specialists Atlas Concorde, and their marble-ous Marvel range. Marvel Calacatta Extra Lappato is the ultimate homage to the marble from the Carrara region in Italy: pure white with ultra-realistic grey/honey-brown veining. These are monumental slabs – 1200×2400 – and we recommend you use the expertise of a professional tiler. Italtile offers a Professional Installation Service.

Wood-look tiles are the answer to bringing nature indoors, and they are bang on trend (although they’ll never go out of fashion!). All wood-look tiles carry the Italtile LiveGreen logo, and the extensive range of local and imported super-natural woods offers both indoor and outdoor options and slip-resistant finishes in an exceptional variety of wood tones and textures: from Nordic ash blondes to rustic walnuts, and trendy recycled ideas like burnt, painted ColorArt by Sant’Agostino.

Another hot-off-the-press wood look is vinyl… a far cry from the mid-century versions you might remember from your gran’s house. Italtile is the proud stockist of the very latest vinyl ‘plank’ technology by Moda Vinile.

All the beautiful you’ll ever want. Our prescription to heal mid-corona madness is simple. Remember who you are. Remember who you were. Be your drop-dead gorgeous self again. Open your door to the little luxuries (and a few great big ones!) – all waiting for you instore and online – that make your heart sing and your soul soar. And repeat after us:  “I will never again let beautiful living take a back seat”.

Be done with making do, and begin bringing beautiful back.

Discover more at Italtile.