The Insider: inspiring tiles from Bert & May

The Conran shop is usually out of this blog's price range... but this story is only partly about Conran.

The rest of it is about Bert & May, a new company (but also not so new, more of which shortly) specialising in beautiful reclaimed and made-to-look reclaimed tiles. Bert & May today launch their collaboration with the Conran Shop, with whom they have exclusively developed a hue named Azure Blue, inspired by the French Riviera.

They've woven Azure into a range of geometric tile designs featuring an array of other blues. Rather lovely, don't you think? Especially on a living room floor... And if you can't afford enough tiles to do that, you could get busy with a stencil and some no-prep Annie Sloan paint... (I'll be writing more about Annie Sloan anon, since I've just done one of her paint effect classes).

Brits don't generally do tiles on bedroom or living room floors – it's not, of course, an idea that would ever have originated in a country with chilly winters. But underfloor heating has changed everything. If you fancy the idea, you might also find inspiration in this incredible 70s-heavy house in Mali, tiled pretty much all over.

Alternatively, you could also limit your tile numbers, as I did in the recent downstairs loo makeover, which made two salvage yard floor tiles centre-stage. And two tiles are eminently affordable.

But I digress.

My first contact with the company now known as Bert & May was a couple of years ago, when the company's co-founder Lee Thornley dropped me a line.

The email explained how his passion for beautiful reclaimed tiles had come about. And it was quite a story... Lee (Bert) and his wife Amelia (who is not, incidentally, May) met on a Spanish course in Andalucia. Both had quit their respective "rat race" lives in the UK (his words) and wound up there, searching for something new. They found each other, and in under three months of meeting had decided to open a hotel in Spain together. But when their search for a beautiful old building to renovate was unsuccessful, they decided to build their own "old new" version. The hotel Casa La Siesta has since been voted one of Tatler's top 100.

But the building process had opened up another new door for Lee: reclaimed tiles which, as he puts it, he now "rummages around Europe for", and the skill of reproducing said tiles beautifully. And a few years later, with business partner, Harriet Roberts (she's May) here we are...

Bert & May's Azure Blue Majadas costs £7.50 each (plus vat).

Azure Blue Churriana also costs £7.50 each (plus vat).

But aside from the Conran collection, these designs also caught my eye.

The Ortuno tile costs from £7.50 apiece (plus vat). And take inspiration from this bar decor using the tiles: why tile a full wall?

This is the base of a bar – but why not the base of a bath?

Another commercial interior to be inspired by: I love the idea of framing a window, or indeed another architectural feature, with a tiled column or two.

The Zorita tile is priced as those above.

And these ones, above, Monochrome Esparza (£9 each, originals) remind me a little of the pair I picked up for the loo, don't you think?

bertandmay.com

Post by Kate

A Picasso for under £100? Well, sort of. It makes these beautiful – but not cheap – cushions sound more reasonably priced. The range is new at the Conran Shop and the prices go from £69 to £79.

And you only need to buy one – but what a beautiful thing to own, and one of these squeezable pieces of art would add value to any chair, sofa or bed in a flash of its mid-century colours.

Clockwise from top right: Head of the Woman £79; La Ceinture Jaune £79; Portrait de Dora Maar £79; Hirondelles £69. All the cushions are designed by the 1878-founded Parisian textiles and tapestry company, Jules Pansu. They each measure 45cm x 45cm.

See the full range of Picasso cushions at the Conran Shop.

Terence Conran: The House Book

The House Book. By Terence Conran. First published in 1974. Absolute genius. 

I properly discovered this book (pictured above, in its 1982 incarnation) thanks to my deeply stylish (but she'd rather kill you than hear anyone saying that) neighbour, Emma.

I recently borrowed it from her and plan to treat myself to a secondhand Amazon version some time very soon. Why is it so brilliant? Well, quite apart from how fabulous it looks in all its glorious Seventies-ness - which you can see, here - it's full of the most marvellously practical advice about making one's home look lovely.

I only wish I'd had a copy to hand when I started the daunting process of re-doing my own home - so many decisions, such indecision...

[Conran's caption for the picture in the middle]: "If the floor is polished boards in the sitting room, you won't want to cover them except, perhaps with a long-pile white Greek rug, so 'project' the olive green from the landing on to walls or curtains." See? Utterly sensible advice (apart, perhaps, from the long-pile rug, but then again...)

[Conran on flooring]: "The ideal floor usually turns out to be more expensive than your budget allowed for. However, since your floor is expected to last for years and will get he hardest wear of any surface in the house, it is worth making sacrifices elsewhere and adding to your floor budget rather than making do with second-best. It helps to take a scale drawing of the floors before you decide on something, and work out the comparative costs."

[Conran on living rooms]: "The essence of a multi-purpose living-room is that it should be able to accommodate any number of activities, and each piece of furniture should make a positive contribution to this...The more potential uses you assign to any one piece of furniture the better; to over-furnish is the death to flexibility, quite apart from the claustrophobia it induces...bear in mind that the old three-piece-suite routine is the least flexible of the lot."

[Conran on kitchen lighting]: "Although the kitchen is primarily a work space it is also in many ways a living area, and the lighting, whether natural or artificial, should be efficient and stimulating. This means that although the work areas must be well lit... there should still be some variety in the light intensity."

[Conran on eating rooms - incidentally, as with the other sections, this has a luxurious 16 pages, packed with tips and luscious Seventies pictures]: "As in decorating every other room, what's best is what's most comfortable."

[Conran on colour]: "Working out a colour scheme for a whole house or flat is a daunting task...try tackling one room first to give yourself confidence...Consider the stuff for the important areas first - walls, curtains and sofa coverings will set the tone by virtue of their acreage."

[Conran in the 'Things' chapter - which, incidentally, has a spanking eight sections, including 'things on shelves', indoor plants' and 'tabletops and ledges' - amazing]: "Agreeable arrangements don't necessarily come up if you let the accumulation of objects take its natural course...When you no longer feel some positive pleasure while looking at your things, it's time to rearrange them."