Underfloor Heating and What it Offers your Home

Heating your home has been a challenge for most people ever since homes became a thing. While many strategies and technologies have been developed to try and solve the challenge, they have varying amounts of success and efficiency. It seems short of setting fire to the whole thing, there’s no real way to heat everything up quickly and with little energy cost. 

While no system is perfect, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least endeavour to try, and there are systems that do better than others. Under floor heating in particular has been making new inroads into modern day central heating, and while it’s no means new it’s certainly proving popular.

The first underfloor heating systems were actually Roman, and these were systems called hypocausts. They were basically large fires lit under the stone floors of large buildings, typically villas, temples or bath houses, and the warm air would circulate between slate pillars and heat through the floor. They were used both to entertain and show off wealth: hypocausts were notoriously expensive to keep fuelled. Often “barbarian” nobles would be shown hypocausts to impress the capabilities of Roman civilisation.

Nowadays under floor heating is a little less expensive and expansive, usually resulting in specialised tiles spread out beneath the floor of a given room. The principal however remains the same, and it is surprisingly effective.

Pros

Traditionally a radiator is the principal means of heating a given room, however they very frequently only heat up the immediate area they’re in. It’s difficult to get this heat to diffuse across the room equally. Underfloor heating is much more widespread. Every patch of the room can be heated, and as a result there are no cold patches that radiators frequently leave. They’re also a lot less intrusive than radiators -- it’s impossible to bang your hip on the floor (short of falling over)!

Likewise they’re much more energy efficient. The heat diffuses evenly into the room, and works at once with the room’s insulation to keep the room well heated for longer. It can be turned on in the morning for an hour or two, and remain warm for quite a long while afterwards. Perfect for warming up a room during cold winter days.

It helps that they’re very easy to install too. Most off-shelf units are easily installed even by amateur DIYers, and they can easily fitted into a newly-built room or installed retrospectively.

Cons

Of course, no system is perfect, and underfloor heating is not any different. While they’re very efficient, underfloor heating systems initially are highly expensive to purchase, install and keep running. They’re not for homeowners redesigning their houses on a budget, and are most certainly a mark of high-end luxury.

Further not every home may be able to support an underfloor heating system, depending on how old the home in question is. Some may be too small to accommodate the necessary workings, while others may not be able to have one installed without disturbing essential utilities, such as water or electricity. It may not even be possible to remove the traditional radiator heating system either. Even if those are not concerns, the very act of installing the system can be very disruptive and will result in possibly an entire day, even two, of the room being out of action.

Another frequent complaint is that they take longer to warm a room up as well. As the heat is coming from under the floor, it first has to work through all the insulation found within it. Radiators, while presenting large cold spots, are immediately touching the air, and so their effects are more quickly felt. You may be waiting for half an hour or more before the underfloor heating kicks in.

How Border Tiles can Be Used to Improve Tile Design

There are a lot of tiles in modern home design that don’t receive nearly as much attention as they deserve. Sometimes this is simply because the tile is somewhat obscure and not easily attained, other times it’s because it’s expensive and other tiles do just as well for cheaper. Then there are tiles that are overlooked, even though if used correctly they can truly change a design scheme for tiles for the better. In this, border tiles most certainly qualify. Perhaps by examining how these tiles are best used, it can be easier to see why border tiles need much more love than they have been receiving.

What are border tiles?

Border tiles, for the uninitiated, are exactly as their name might suggest. They are tiles used to create a border around a given object.

While there certainly are other ways you can achieve this effect, such as by using ordinary tiles of a different colour, or maybe a more stylish tile such as a stone tile or mosaic, border tiles have been specifically created for this task. Consequently, they are much better suited for this task. Look at it this way: you can easily use the handle of a saw to bash a nail into wood, but isn’t it much easier to use a hammer? The same applies here.

However because of their specific nature they tend to be overlooked by most amateur home designers. Their name and use make them sound boring and unnecessary, however this could not be further from the truth. Used correctly, a collection of border tiles can really help make a tile design truly amazing.

Uses for border tiles

The most obvious use for a border tile is to create a border for something. While this may sound pretty dull, it actually serves a very small yet very effective function. Sometimes when you create wall tile designs, it’s very hard to create distinction. Colours and designs blend together into the background tiles, and as a result the final look may not be as striking as you like. Even if you use strongly contrasting colours, it never seems quite as strong as it could.

This is because there’s nothing that really defines the shapes and patterns, and as a result the human eye can’t really focus on them. It’s difficult to distinguish between it and the background. As a comparison, compare a draw that is made using only colour pencils with no graphite pencils.

Border tiles can provide that needed distinction. They can be used to help block out a given pattern and give it depth, bringing it out of the background and into the foreground.

The result is some much needed order and separation. Because it’s now clear what’s supposed to be in the background and what’s supposed to be in the foreground, your designs become a lot more effective and eye-catching. It also helps make your backgrounds a little less overwhelming. As well as designs, it can also be used to separate fixtures such as sinks and toilets from the design proper, giving them their own distinction.

Another use for border tiles is also to help accentuate the design themselves. Despite their name, they should not be used simply to ring around other objects. That’s a very limited application, and they can be used in other ways. With a little bit of creativity and innovation, border tiles can be used to help add to a design in its own right. Because border tiles tend to be elongated, they can help break up a cluster of uniform shapes. This gives a design more variety, and thus makes it more interesting to look at.

Mosaic Tiles in Modern Bathroom Design

Mosaics have had a very long and distinguished history in modern architectural design. First appearing in the Middle East as simple, stylised geometric shapes, the Greeks took them into their current and best-known form. Even after the Romans made them fashionable across Europe, the Greeks were always held to have the best mosaic artists. While they dropped out of use after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West and the movement away from Classical styles of architecture, from the Renaissance onwards mosaic tiles have seen new life in European home design and have now become a fixed part of any modern home.

Mosaic tiles nowadays tend to be a little simpler and scope than they used to be. While mosaics may summon up in the mind images of vast portraits utilising dozens, if not hundreds, of individual coloured tiles, modern designs tend to be a little simpler. While enterprising and resourceful home decorators may try to replicate the mosaics of old, modern mosaic tiles are often less excessively used.

The Mosaic Tile

Usually, modern mosaic tiles are small, square-shaped tiles of varying colours and shades, usually either coloured in a single block tone or else bearing a small stylised image in the centre. Often the pictures are natural in theme, such as small flowers, suns, ocean waves or leaves. They may be made of a number of materials too, although the most common tend to be plastic, ceramic, glass or stone. Metal is also used on occasion, but are much rare.

As a rule, such tiles are very durable. They can withstand a lot of punishment and come away relatively unscathed. This makes the ideal for use in bathrooms that experience a fair bit of foot traffic, or else can expect to come under heavy blows from time to time.

Further they tend to be very resistant to the sorts of stains and chemicals that a bathroom will likely experience, such as bleaches, shampoos and hair dyes. Thus they can last a very long time before they need to be replaced. Maintenance is very easy too, as most mosaic tiles are very easily cleaned and require only the occasional polish every now and then at most.

How Mosaic Tiles are Used

Commonly, they are used more to accentuate pre-existing designs and other tile types. For example a mosaic tile bearing a specific design may be interspaced through a collection of block-colour tiles to add variety, or else used to border a fixture such as a sink or bath.

Another use that they can be put towards as well is creating subtler, softer colours and shifts in tones. This is useful in bathrooms where you want a much more muted style than other tiles may offer, where the large sizes and vibrant colours may dazzle and overwhelm a bit too much. That said, mosaics can also be used to create very eye-catching displays too, depending on the colours and overall design used.

While it’s not common, mosaic tiles can also be used in their traditional way and used to create entire pictures on a wall. You may have seen this from time to time in public yourself, and the effect is very easy to achieve with a little bit of vision and creativity. Try to envision what sort of image you wish to have, and use your tiles to pick it out. This is a very advanced use of mosaic tiles, however, and can be difficult to pull off without an understanding of how all the different tiles play off and complement one another. If you’re unsure how it will look, try to do it “dry” first on a sheet on the floor. This will allow you to work out the details and avoid mistakes that cannot be easily corrected.

Satin Wall Tiles and How They Can Fit Into Your Home Design

Despite what the name may suggest, satin wall tiles are not wall tiles covered in a fine layer of fabric. That would, after all, be rather impractical, and perhaps a little tacky. Rather the word satin refers to the look that the tiles in question have, which is a slightly frosted and textured glaze effect. In contrast to the shinier gloss tiles, this makes satin tiles a lot more muted and faded in appearance. However this in turn can lend a great strength to the design of your bathroom or kitchen. Understanding how a satin tile can add or subtract from your bathroom is key to making your final room design a success.

One of the main strengths that lie behind satin wall tiles is that they generally don’t require as much cleaning as other tile types, especially gloss tiles, do. This is only in the sense that they’re not as obviously dirty for longer periods of time, it’s easier to hide smears and marks if the tile in question doesn’t have a shiny and reflective surface. It will still need cleaning, of course, and some claim they’re harder to clean than smoother tile types, however you’re less likely to notice that due to the longer intervals between each cleaning session. Another little bonus with cleaning is that you want me left with ugly smear marks left by the soap and water either.

Be aware though that although they’re more resistant to dirt, the frosted texture of satin tiles are more vulnerable to scratches and scrapes. Be careful if you’re using to back a crockery rack, or to line the base of a wall in a busy corridor. Otherwise you’ll quickly mark them with unsightly blemishes.

Whilst shiny gloss tiles can be used to great effect in smaller areas of the house, satin tiles work best in larger rooms. The muted appearance of the satin wall tile means it’s great for bringing the energy of the room down a notch or two, creating a more eased and relaxed atmosphere. They also seem a little less artificial and clinical than the almost unnaturally bright gloss tiles can be, bringing into the room a more organic atmosphere.

The trade of, of course, is a room that can seem a little darker, a little smaller and a little less energetic. Depending on the needs of the room and household, this may not be the ideal theme.

For more information about satin wall tiles, visit the website of Crown Tiles, a British tile merchant. You can also phone directly by calling 0800 156 0756.

How Kitchen Tiles Differ From the 1960s Decor

Over the years kitchens have changed drastically from those 1960s yellow and green colours with wall paper featuring flowers to today’s popular choices of lighter white kitchen tiles and use of warm metals.

Here are some of the noticeable differences

Colours

Today’s colours are sleeker and much brighter with whites, blacks, and greys and silver being used to bring the kitchen to life.  In the 1960s Colours played a huge part in the kitchen design, with bold, bright colours at the forefront, and checkerboard floors and patterns commonly seen in many homes.

The 1960s red was a popular colour used in kitchens during that era, representing emotional upheaval and rebellion.  The passionate colour, represented agitated and restless.

Lime green was another colour that was used a lot within the home by mixing green with yellow, and bright, lime greens. The colour Green is associated with relationships, especially those related to the heart.  Often used with yellow (the colour of ego and intellect), the combination represented a renewed sense of self. 

Orange was another important colour used, representing transition and change. The 1950s Pink still had an influence in some homes during the swinging 60s, however, brighter shades containing red undertones represented in most homes. Graphic black and white colours were also used to help bring out the colours around them.

Lighting

When purchasing lighting for the home there are many options and considerations to take into account, most importantly choosing the right light to help bring out your kitchen’s features such its colours, paint, wallpaper or tiles. These can include overhead lights or under cabinet lighting and recessed lights which are popular choices in many homes.

Pendant lights are a great choice for placing over sinks and come in a variety of styles which include track lighting to vintage glass pendants. Chandeliers, which were commonly used in kitchens in the 1960s, still look good in many homes today, appearing over table adding a touch of elegance to the room. 

Wallpaper and Kitchen Tiles

Many homes featured flowery and graphical, green and yellowish wallpapers during the swinging 1960s in comparison to today’s modern and fashionable tiles. Today most homes opt for more natural wall and floor tiles in the kitchen with white, cream and black being the most popular choices.  Lighter colours can also make a small room look much bigger and brighter.

If you are planning a new year makeover for your kitchen you can purchase some modern kitchen tiles for your walls or floors call Tile Choice on 0800 1560 560.