This week is CERSAIE, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings. This was our first time to attend the expo, and I must say… It was quite swanky! These ceramic companies really know how to put on a good show. You could go for the stand designs alone and be fully entertained.
I’ve uploaded all of our photos to our Flickr photostream and embedded the slideshow at the end of this post. I’ve also published our corresponding list of links. But first, I’d like to go over a couple of our favorites from our day at CERSAIE, keeping in mind that we did not get to see everything by any means.
One of my favorite companies was a ceramic design group called Mutina. They had a beautiful stand divided into quadrants with 4 of their many designer collections. The photos don’t do the tiles justice because their elegance was in the subtlety of the textures.
Another of our favorites was Sant’Agostino, who had a version of the increasingly popular ceramic wooden planks which was far nicer than many of the others that we saw. While we are not usually fans of materials that claim to be something they are not, we couldn’t help but admire these beautiful and much more convenient planks. Many companies had obviously used what looked like pixelated photos of wood texture to create the ceramic texture, but this company had combined a nice image with actual modification of the surface texture to make it feel like wood as well.
As far as sanitary ware, there were a lot to chose from. One idea that I saw in many places, but was very nicely presented by Idea Group, was seamless frosted glass counter tops. My main concern when evaluating sanitary ware is always, “Well, how on earth would you clean that?!” For example, the stylish bowls that sit atop a wooden plank make for a beautiful statement, but I am positive that they’ll have mold problems within a month. Instead, these beautiful frosted glass counters flow into the sink without any nasty seems that can collect stuff. Please excuse the blurry photo!
Tomorrow is the last day, so hurry over to Bologna if you’re in the area. Just DON’T drive – take the train, trust me. People who made the mistake of driving reported traffic jams of 2 hours from Modena! While our morning bus from the train station was rather packed, we didn’t have to put up with any traffic. And our environmental footprint was a bit smaller, which is always a good thing!
As promised, here’s the slideshow of all our shots from CERSAIE, which you can also find at our Flickr photostream.
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