On Friday we talked about one of our new Solana Glass Mosaic tile blends in the Seychelles color and today we are going to tell you about our new color Oatmeal. This color we believe will make a wonderful complement to many of the lighter shade porcelain tiles on the market as well as mocha color travertines and darker shade marbles. The colors in our Oatmeal blend were designed to be neutral in their hues yet strong and defined enough to capture many of the colors found in the typical home’s kitchen or bath.

Since most of the countertops, fixtures, and lighting found in today’s homes fall in to the neutral color family we wanted a glass mosaic tile blend that would work well with many of the combinations of these items that a homeowner might choose. As a result, our Oatmeal blend will fall right in to place on a kitchen backsplash, a wet bar as an accent strip, a tub surround or the face of a tub as an accent piece, or an accent strip in a shower to complement the primary material which might be stone.

Our Solana glass mosaic tiles are suitable for interior and exterior projects so the Oatmeal blends and any of our other blends can be used in swimming pools as waterline tiles or as an accent for an outdoor BBQ.

The possibilities are endless and if we can be of any assistance in your project design phase please don’t hesitate go give us a call anytime.

Our Solana Glass Mosaic Tile collection recently added three new colors to our color lineup and one of those is a color we are beginning to love called Seychelles. Seychelles is hard not to love given that (the country) is a small and beautiful island off the coast of East Africa with some of the prettiest scenery in the world.

In our Seychelles glass mosaic tile blend we incorporated some of the colors one might find near a beach area and we put them together in what is fast becoming one of our favorite glass blends.

The colors in our Seychelles blend will go very well with walnut or oak cabinets in the kitchen as a glass mosaic tile backsplash choice, or as a nice accent strip with a travertine or marble shower material in a bathroom project. Our Solana glass mosaic tiles come mesh mounted for easy installation and they can be ordered in any quantities.

Try out our Seychelles blend for your kitchen or bathroom tile project and you will be pleased with the beautiful colors this blend will bring to any room in your home.

Lance Jordan is a San Diego, California based Designer who recently worked with our Melody glass mosaic tiles for a client in San Diego. The project was rather detailed and very creative to say the least. We often receive photos of client’s renovation projects but we never heard what went in to the planning, design, and installation of the material. Lance was kind enough to send us some background information so we wanted to share it with you our Blog readers.

Lance’s San Diego client asked him to come up with some creative ideas for their bathroom remodel and their only criteria was that he incorporate some blue mosaics in the design.

Lance explains the project below:
The spiral floor design was to bring in the water element, with the shape of the room directing the overall design. We then decided that it would look best to bring the design up the face of the bath. This proved to be the biggest design challenge. Taking the blue mosaics from the floor and up the 90 degree face of the tub could only be achieved by a bottom cove and a very sharp left angle from floor on up the tub face.

Having gone this far in the design process, it brought up what to do in the counter and sink area. I opted for a built in pedestal for its sculptural effect as well as a base for the mosaics to run up from the floor design. A hidden service panel on the side was also designed for plumbing access.

The counter, a blue granite, with copper sink and sculpted birch drawer fronts were also designed to accentuate and integrate into the overall design. With the mosaic tile I wanted a pulsating transition from blue green, blue into a darker ultramarine blue. We went through more than a half dozen samples before deciding on the Melody glass mosaic tiles from Anchor Bay Tile. What drew me to these mosaics were two things. The way they shimmer in the light is very beautiful. Secondly is all the subtle variations within each color. I was able to achieve all the transitions I was going for with just 3 colors: Turchese, Esmeralda, and Zaffiro, with accents of Citron for the yellows and Lampone for the red element. All of this color was then juxtaposed to a warm soft toned butter creme marble.

One of the problems with mixing materials of various thicknesses is the need to build up the thin material to the thickness of the thicker material. This was achieved by using 1/4″ Hardi-backer cement board with the Melody glass mosaic tiles set on top. For setting the thin glass mosaics I used an acrylic mastic. If you are going to use a thinset, be sure to mix a liquid acrylic ad mix with your dry thinset since it will adhere better than the polymer reinforced thinsets that require water.

Lance Jordan is a classically trained artist who works as a multi media Artist / Craftsman out of his San Diego studio and onsite at client jobs. Lance is Available for Consultation / Concept design, development / Fabrication and installation. He can be reached at
Telephone: 619 276-6943
lance@lancejordancreations.com

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The sun will finally shine again on the remodeling market in the first quarter of 2011 if the scholars at Harvard University’s Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies are correct. The center’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) forecasts that spending on remodeling projects is expected to increase on an annual basis by the end of the year, and the LIRA points to growth accelerating to the double digit range in the first quarter of 2011.

The improvements that LIRA measures are not your smaller general maintenance jobs, rather, they are the larger kitchen and bath remodels and room additions mostly. These jobs are the bread and butter of the remodeling industry and are the areas researchers are looking at for any sign of a market turnaround.

“The recovery in home improvement activity appears to be moving beyond simple replacement projects and energy retrofits to broader remodels and upgrades” says Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. This is exactly the direction the market needs to take for this segment of the economy to be on more solid ground.

Stay tuned folks to see if the fine folks at Harvard University are right.

With the introduction of our Solana Beveled Glass Subway tiles we knew we also needed a glass tile trim piece for use on projects that have an exposed edge. Thus, we are also introducing a collection of glass tile quarter rounds in matching colors to our Solana Glass subway tile collection and our Solana beveled subway tile collection.

There are eight glass tile quarter round colors even though our Solana glass subway tiles only consist of seven colors at this time. This is because we added a black color quarter round for those projects where folks might want to add a dark trim as a decorative piece with white or lighter color tiles.

Our glass tile quarter rounds are sold by the piece and they are in stock and ready for immediate shipment.

It would be an understatement to say that the wait for our newest product to arrive was a long one. We finally received the product shipment last week and here it is for you our wonderful customers to see.

The newest member of our Solana brand of glass tiles is our Beveled edge Glass Subway Tile collection designed, manufactured, and sold exclusively by us at AnchorBayTile. We put our hearts in to this new product and we hope our customers are receptive to the results.

There are five colors in the collection including Cappuccino, Khaki, Mint, Smooth Grey, and Snowflake. The tile comes as loose pieces for easy installation and is now in stock at our warehouse in Arizona.

We also designed and are now stocking a glass quarter round tile piece to use when a trim piece is needed for a project. More on this via our Blog later in the week.

Keep in mind for those now considering our Beveled edge Glass Subway Tiles, it is important when making cuts to these tiles to use a proper tile blade in order to achieve a smooth cut. Porcelain or ceramic tile blades will not do the trick, especially and even more so on beveled glass tiles where you have high-to-low points on the same piece of glass tile. So we are making the effort to advise our customers when purchasing our glass subway tile products to either source a glass tile blade locally near your home or we sell glass tile blades in either a 7 inch size or a 10 inch size via our online tile store.

If you have any questions about our new beveled edge glass subway tile product or any one of our other products please don’t hesitate to contact us via email or phone at 888 260-7371.

With sweltering heat making life rough in much of the US for the last couple of weeks we thought we would share some cooling tips from the US Environmental Protection Agency that are low cost and can be applied by any and every body to try to stay cool.

Most of the items are methods that we all have heard before but sometimes we may forget and it doesn’t hurt to have a little nudge to get us to make those small adjustments that could make our lives a little better and more comfortable.

No-Cost Cooling tips from the EPA:

Program your thermostat to work around your family’s summer schedule—set it a few degrees higher (such as 78 degrees) when no one is home, so your cooling system isn’t cooling an empty house. With proper use, programmable thermostats can save you about $180 a year in energy costs.

• Check your HVAC system’s air filter every month. If the filter looks dirty, change it, but change the filter at least every three months. A dirty filter will slow air flow and make the system work harder to keep you cool, wasting energy.

• Run your ceiling fan to create a cool breeze. If you raise your thermostat by only two degrees and use your ceiling fan, you can lower cooling costs by up to 14 percent. Remember that ceiling fans cool you, not the room, so when you leave the room make sure to turn off the fan.

• Pull the curtains and shades closed before you leave your home to keep the sun’s rays from overheating the interior of your home. If you can, move container trees and plants in front of sun-exposed windows to serve as shade.

Apply some of these no-brainers to your home or office and surely it will make the day a little better.

Enjoy your summer!

For our customers remodeling their home in order to move to a new city or state, take notice of the USDA’s Home Loan program if you are moving to a small town and not a big city.

The USDA Home loan program was created in 1991 as a way to boost homeownership in rural areas and has been relatively little used over the years until recently. Tightening lending standards and increased loan application scrutiny has forced homeowners and their real estate agents to dig deeper to find money for property purchases.

The USDA Home Loan program may be a viable option for those who meet the criteria of the program. To qualify for a USDA backed loan, borrowers must be living in or moving to towns of about 25,000 or less people, they must have an income that does not exceed the moderate income limit established for the area, and they must be a US citizen.

The program in the past two years has been “rediscovered” by many in the real estate and home building community and has become one of the primary tools sales agents are now using in communities that qualify.

If you are looking for a home in a smaller town or community that you feel may qualify, find a lender in your area on the USDA Home Loan website and call to learn more about any specific requirements in your area.

We wanted to help kick off sales of our new Penny Round tiles by running a Free Shipping offer for 2 days only – Monday and Tuesday for any order of 10 sheets or more. The order must be placed over the phone by calling our offices and completing the order with a customer service representative.

What a great way to kick off your week by saving money on your home improvement project. We look forward to speaking with you.