The Batchelder repros at Tile Restoration are great. We also found Pewabic Pottery in Detroit which makes similar tiles - we used Pewabic on our fireplace hearth restoration.

Here is a link that might be useful: pewabic pottery tiles

Patster....Can you share photos of your fireplace? We live in Michigan and perhaps Pewabic is the route we need for our fireplace as well.

Patser, I looked at the Pewabic tiles. They're lovely. And there are some very VERY nice tiles at Terra Firma Tile. Sadly, they don't have on online catalog, although they have enough pictures that you can get a feel for their line. Happily, one of their showrooms is about a mile and a half from my house, so I'm going over there one day soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Terra Firma Tiles

I wish I did have photos of the hearth that I could post. Unfortunately, I only have "old-fashioned" paper pictures and don't have a scanner. And we moved from that house 2 years ago so I can't take current picture. I'll try and describe it, though. Our house was a 1905 4-square in St. Paul, MN. We used the Stratton 2" square tiles and we used one of the tile borders with a floral pattern (our border isn't on their site any longer). We did a checkerboard pattern in darkish red and medium gold for the body of the hearth. We used the border tiles in the dark red. Our floors were natural white oak which had aged to the gold color and the red border right against the floor looked great.

The fireplace itself was floor to ceiling dark brown brick, about 7 ft wide.

If I can find a picture on my work computer, I'll get it posted. The folks at Pewabic were great to work with...and except for the first visit which we did in person to gather info, all the rest of our transaction was long distance, including mailing sample tiles back and forth.

Hi, Vjrnts. I love Terra Firma Tiles. I used them as accent tiles in my shower and on my pellet stove hearth. Here's a pic of the hearth. I used three similar colors of Terra Firma's field tiles. The tiles were randomly placed to create a more interesting look because I couldn't afford to use any patterned tiles for this application.

I don't have pics of the shower but I created a decorative band using several colors of Terra Firma's field tiles along with a few of their "checkerboard" patterned tiles. They helped provide a contrast to the sea of white tiles. For the bathroom floor, I used Meredith Art Tiles (traditional oxide in "biscuit").

Sorry I don't know how to post links:

http://www.meredithtile.com/home.html

At the time I was planning the fireplace, I also considered using tiles from the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, which is about an hour away from me in Doylestown, PA. I toured the Mercer Museum and Fonthill (Henry Chapman Mercer's home) where he used these tiles extensively. The historic tiles are being reproduced today and are available for purchase through the Moravian and Pottery Tile Works' gift shop. They are are absolutely amazing. The Tile Works is also available for tour and quite an interesting process to see.

http://www.tiles.org/pages/mptw/mercer.htm#mptw

http://buckstravel.net/moravian_tileworks.html

Oh, and I think the Tile Restoration Center makes some lovely tiles!

I am such a pottery and tile junkie -- The owner of the tile store who assisted me with tile purchases for my bathroom, living room, kitchen and laundry room joked that now I would have to line my driveway just so I could continue to look for more tile!

Tina