Home decorating, interior design ideas, garden design - Homes and Gardens

Tom Sedgwick, managing director of Criterion Tiles in south west London, which has been trading for more than 25 years, travels the world looking for exclusive new ideas. His latest discovery is Futura Nero porcelain floor tiles, designed by Ellen Bachman at Meridiana Ceramiche in Modena, Italy. Made using advanced manufacturing techniques, such as roto-colour printing and gas-infused glazing, each tile acquires its own distinctive abstract “pattern” and the richly coloured glazes have a metallic sheen.

No two tiles are alike but, laid together, they create an unusual but chic floor surface which looks like pieces of aged metal sheet with a beautiful, almost rusty-looking, patina. The effect is sleek, low-key and very contemporary – well-suited for pared-down modern interiors. It would also blend well with more traditional patterns and furnishings. The material – porcelain stoneware – has a luxurious appearance, yet it is reasonably priced, easy to lay, hard-wearing and simple to keep clean. The tiles come in four metallic colours: Nero (black, shown), Bianco (white), Rame (copper) and Grigio (grey). Thanks to advanced technology, it is possible for this elegant ceramic flooring to be produced in large sizes. The larger sizing not only makes it easy to adapt the tiles to an individual floor layout, but also gives an impression of slabs rather than of conventional smaller tiles. Futura Nero porcelain tiles come in four sizes: 50x100cm (shown), 50x50cm, 33x66cm and 20x100cm.