Tile Trend: “The Wood Look”

Wood floorboards and walling has always been a classic interior design choice for home builders – it’s beautiful to look at and gives a home a graceful and stylish feel. It’s also generally easier to match home furnishings with wood flooring and walls due to its warm hue and organic texture.

Unfortunately using timber as a building material comes with some downsides – it contracts and expands with changes in climate, it can be easily damaged by spills and liquids, cracks can grow, and it needs to be sealed and treated.

On the other hand, builders have been using ceramic, stone and porcelain tiles for flooring for thousands of years due to their durability and flexibility. Nowadays, tiling is also a more cost-effective solution than using reclaimed timber and wood as a building material. However, tile has been considered impractical for use in some rooms of the home, such as bedrooms and living areas.

What if we told you that there are now tiles on the market that have been manufactured to mimic the look, colour and texture of wood? Sounds impossible? Or tacky (like that wood-grain vinyl sheeting on the market in the 60s and 70s)?

Digital printing technology has advanced in leaps and bounds since the days of wood-grain vinyl! Manufacturers of quality tile products have found a way to digitally transfer the look (and the feel) of real timber onto ceramic tiles.

Some replicas are so close to the look of real wood that it’s nearly impossible to tell the two materials apart just by looking at them!

This is good news for home builders as they can now use a material that looks just like salvaged timber, but that comes at a fraction of the cost. Plus, it’s less time consuming than a wood-salvage operation!

Wood-look tiles can be made in shapes and dimensions that real wood typically can’t, plus home dwellers don’t need to worry about the ongoing staining and sealing maintenance that comes with using real wood.

If you’re considering using wood as a flooring or walling material for your building or renovation project, check out the wood-look tiles on offer. You can also contact us to discuss this and other innovative building materials in your project. Contact Us