Italtile | Step Edges, Trims and Skirting

Style. Lasting good looks. Safety. Long life. Four excellent tenets of a life well lived. What more could anyone want (apart from 10 million rand and Ultimate Enlightenment, of course). If we had a magic wand, we’d wish these attributes on all of you. But let’s get real… what we can do instead is advise you how to achieve Homestyle Nirvana and live beautifully.

Whether or not you believe that there’s a ‘god in the details’ as the saying goes, giving due consideration to the final appearance of your floors, ceilings, steps, pool edges etc., is an excellent way to pave your path to ‘divine’ home looks.

Trims and finishes not only add interest and tremendous eye appeal, but they also:

-speak volumes about your luxe taste

-show you have an eye for detail

-extend the life of your tiles with a protective edge

-create a safer, smoother, rounder edge to lessen the effect of tripping and falling

Who started it all?

Let’s go back to that ‘god in the details’ comment for a minute. So it turns out that once upon a time, it was believed that there really were gods in the details of buildings. The gods of ancient Greece and Rome, no less. From temples and public buildings to the villas of the important and the mega-wealthy, classical architecture and design was grounded in meaningful, spiritual measures… to be pleasing to the eye, the soul, and the set of tricky, demanding gods one worshipped.

There were absolutely immutable laws and rules that governed the design of EVERYTHING! But, because these ancient bods were down-to-earth thinkers as well as ardent worshippers, many ancient classical ‘trims’ had a totally sensible purpose, too. For example, roof trims were designed to keep rainwater from dripping into the structure. (Seeing as the temples were built to house their deities… the gods must have been happy to stay dry in the rainy season. Nothing like a soggy sacred garment to dampen one’s immortal ardour and harsh that godlike vibe.)

Steven Randel, an extremely knowledgeable contributor to houzz.com – one of our all-time favourite décor and design sites – has written a fascinating article about the classical origin of trims and edges.

Edging 101.
If you are in the middle of creating a new look for your home with tiles, you’ll already be aware of the time and attention it requires to get a really great finished product. You simply can’t scrimp on the prep and planning and expect your tiles to look great for years to come. So if you are tiling just a portion of a room or area, then it’s really important to make sure the edges and the corners have a professional finish rather than an exposed tile edge which can be subject to damage and generally just looks carelessly unfinished.

To help finish off your job, you’ll want to use tile trim. Italtile stocks a wide variety of colours and styles for different purposes; so you’ll find exactly what you need to match not only the tiles you’ve chosen, but also the style of your room.

A rounded or bullnose edge will create a classic feature for your tiles and in various colours, can either accent by contrasting with your tiles or blend in by matching the tiles you’re installing. If you are looking for something more sleek and contemporary, a chrome finish straight edge is just the thing to finish off your look.

Italtile’s cutting edge trims.

Find an absolutely gorgeous range of tile trims designed to give your home a luxe, lush, professional finish. Don’t let the different terms confuddle you. Italtile’s design-certified sales advisers are available, both online and instore, to demystify the vocabulary of finishes and advise you on what to choose, and how to choose. Also… how to lay and how to maintain.

Aluminium and stainless steel straight edge trim. Chrome finish edging in a variety of sizes that adds an ultra-contemporary edge to your step tiles.

Torino Listello. Aha. A weird Italian word. It means ‘lath’ or ‘fillet’. In the building world, a lath is a thin strip of wood or metal, or moulding. Italtile’s suppliers, Torino, are the kings of utterly fabulous listello, quarter round, edging and skirting. The Torino ranges are all Italtile exclusives that include matching corner pieces. Did we say “some”? A better description would be “loads of”! How does over 20 colour finishes sound? From charcoal through to pale beige, in both monochrome and what we call ‘colour movement’.

Torino skirting. Skirting provides a graceful transition between the wall and the floor. Or between the tip and the foot of steps. Once again, you have a wide range of colours to choose from. And when correctly laid, these finishes will give you many years of hard use.

Torino step edges. A wide variety of step edges offering the same incredible colour options. These finishes are used to define the edge of your steps, help reduce accidents, and protect your tiles from scuffing and chipping.

Torino swimming pool coping. Italtile offers five different looks, depending upon your swimming pool size, shape and style. As always, you get to choose from the ridiculously wide range of Torino colours. However, here’s an Ital-style alert. Take them a sample of your pool tile and they can customise your coping colour. How beautiful is that!

Find all the Torino edgings and trims online here.

Beautifully made. Beautifully laid.

All edges require professional installation and work best with the proper installation products (which Italtile does stock). But if you’re not a seasoned tiler, don’t try to be a DIY superhero.

Put that cape away and speak to the professionals first. If you live in the Gauteng area, you’ll be able to benefit from an Italtile Installation Service. Treated with care, following the strict maintenance advice you’ll receive, your edges will look gorgeous for longer.

With Italtile’s divine details, you’ll channel your inner Domestic God(dess) and live beautifully.