cat tiles/ cat paw tiles ????

11 years ago

A friend is struggling with a planned renovation of her small apartment kitchen. She's not into design and decorating and feels overwhelmed and doesn't seem to have any strong sense of what she wants, except to say "simple, cute, fresh". Generally, her taste runs to the traditional, (more than a little kitsch, and is budget oriented.) She has already ordered a medium stained maple raised panel cabinet, and seems to be leaning toward corian for countertop. But lighting, backsplash, floor and wall color are all still wide open.

The ONE design feature she seems to interest her is finding backsplash tile that reminds her of her love for cats. She has, I think, two or three, and is heavily involved with local cat rescue efforts.

So, anyone seen any not too kitschy cat or cat paw print tiles that could serve as a jumping off point for what to do with the rest of the kitchen? I've offered to help, but can't get her to focus on an overall look instead of picking out individual elements she likes. So, I'm thinking if I can find some cat tiles and do a few mood boards based on them...we might find a winner.

Thanks!

Comments (19)

Fori
11 years ago
If she likes kitsch, maybe you can find a cat wallpaper instead. Better for resale hehe.

And the selection would be better (I think!).
Circus Peanut
11 years ago
OMG, I have JUST the tile for you!

Tiles With Style: Cat Paw Tiles

They do mainly dog work; scroll down for the kitty paws. I've always wanted to see someone trail these across their backsplash. Check out the installation photos of paw tracks across the shower floor, etc. You just cut them in to any other kind of tile, like an accent.
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Our tiny female Burmese disappeared one spring day years ago. We had been in the attic that day and kids had been in and out of the house all day. We searched the attic -- no kitty -- so decided she had escaped unnoticed out the door. We searched the neighborhood without success, but she had escaped before and always returned so we didn't worry too much. When she didn't return the next day we became more concerned and d repeated our search. Still no kitty. The next morning I was standing in the kitchen and heard a faint mewing and looked up to see two golden eyes staring down in the ceiling air vent. We have no idea how she got into the ductwork or how long she had been there, but DH had to tear it up to get her out. We had the HVAC guys in the next day to fix the hole he made to get her out. They never could find where she could have gotten in. I wish I had some advice for you, but I can't outsmart a cat. That's probably why we have just a dog now - I can outsmart him. Seriously, I have had two Burmese and they're great cats!
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Ok Sister I hear ya! It was proababy my post about needing to go with stone instead of the dark wood i really want. And Im a Libra too!!! We had wood throughout our entire downtstairs, a light hand sitressed maple in the kitchen and FR and a dark pre-distressed wood in our LR and Dining. We had a slab leak and now it's all gone. We loved the dark wood in SO much and will put it back. The draw backs for it were that it only looked clean & beautiful, the day the cleaning lady was there (and that's not often enough for me) we have 3 cats and a 50LB dog and hair & pawprints just get everywhere immediately. Since im not in the rooms very often i could easily let it go. And will again. here's pic of the floor clean... and that floor with said kitty and dirt...same day but in the kitchen that particular wood was a constant problem with water, my kids would constantly drop water and the boards would swell and separate... it looked terrible and i was always freaking out about it. It being a light wood, was very forgiving with dirt, hair and crumbs, but i want the same dark and i know it will show every single thing and never look shiny. here's that floor I would love to hear that i just had crappy wood and to go with wood. But the dirty factor is probably too much for me. In my mudroom, we put in travertine and its great - doesn't show anything - ever!!! clean or dirty it looks the same.. here's an arty pic my DH took hahah it works with these white cabs and wood counter but i want a cooler stone look in the kitchen and im worried the stone wont go, but i've seen pics that i think work beautifully! We are also going to do underfloor heating. GL - i feel your indecisive pain!
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Thank you, I'm so flattered! Our kitchen is roughtly 17'x17'10". The room with the fireplace is the family room and a separate room. I am happy with the lighting plan, there will be two pendants above the island, and everything will be on dimmers. Cat_mom, your kitchen is gorgeous and appears to be larger than 13x13. Your kitchen no doubt inspires a lot of envy. ;-) Here's our aerial plan, with the family room appearing off the page to the left. We'll put a round kitchen table to the left of the island (empty space on drawing, bottom left corner) in front of the large window. The column will stand on its lonesome which we considered getting rid of but it was too pricey. Maybe in the future. As you can see in this old photo, our kitchen island used to end into the column to "ground" it, but it limited our island size. The old kitchen didn't make use of all the available walls so I'm happy with the new layout. A few more of our old kitchen. You can see that we put a temporary desk in the wasted space here: This blank wall will house the new desk and pantry area. A good shot of the column here.
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Fori
11 years ago
Hahaha CP, those are great!

They'd have to be embedded into the countertop to be realistic...
Circus Peanut
11 years ago
Hmm, the site appears to be down right this moment, so here are some pics to tide you over until it's up again:
beeps
11 years ago
Oh my dog! Those are too cute. As a huge dog and cat person, I will need to figure out how to install some of those on my back (concrete, not tile...) patio. Won't do it in the house, too cutesy for me for the house, but on the back patio leading to the back door? Yep. It just has to happen!
melissastar
Original Author
11 years ago
CP...that might be just the ticket! But I see on her website that she is backed up until Sept. 15 or so (not too bad) but requires a $1000 minimum order. I'm afraid that's going to be too rich for my friend. I was thinking perhaps a dozen or so of those paws across the backsplash would do the trick. Rats. Still, I'll contact her, just in case, I misunderstood the minimum order thing.
aiallega
11 years ago
OMG. I love that!
eriepatch
11 years ago
Haha I didn't realize how in style I was. I have puppy paw
prints on my hardware floor coming from the back door all the way through the house :)
beeps
11 years ago
I just saw that minimum order thing too. Bummer. She does say minimum $400 for dog paw prints, but... that's a lot of prints. I'll bet someone else makes them. Or, maybe even appliques so that for resale they could be removed?
melissastar
Original Author
11 years ago
I just called and the message on her answering machine is worse...minimum is now $1200 and no mention of $400 for dog (and presumably cat) tracks.

would love to find something similar...
kaijutokusatsu
11 years ago
Try Etsy. I found these for jewelry but she might do others.

Here is a link that might be useful: paw print tiles
Fori
11 years ago
Pewabic has kitties that can be used as accents. This one isn't bad.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.pewabicstore.org/
Circus Peanut
11 years ago
Well rats. Sorry about leading you astray; I've always been very amused by those pawprint tiles.

How about a small white glazed accent to put amongst simple white subway tiles, good price at $12?

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Emu Art Tile in Ohio
melissastar
Original Author
11 years ago
OH...those Emu ones are good too, CP. They may be too subtle for her, but there's a chance. She did also like the Pewabic cat (which frankly surprised me.

Any suggestions anyone on affordable field tiles to work with either the Pewabic or the EMU cats? Clearly the easiest one to work with would be the EMU in white, as you suggest CP. Should be able to find a white field tile that would blend. But it is available in some other very nice arts and crafts type glazes.

Thanks everyone!
Mizinformation
11 years ago
I bet you could find a local ceramicist/potter who would make paw tiles for you. The raised small "medallions" of paws are super cute, or you could do the opposite -- have a standard sized tile (like 4x4) made with little paw indentions like the clay had be walked upon. That way you could purchase cheaper standard field tile in a color you like, and have the ceramicist just make as many as you need in a coordinating or matching color. A friend of mine in Wyoming frequently does this type thing, see the link below. She's done it with children's handprints, Indian woodblocks (for dying fabric), dinosaur bones, botanicals -- all kinds of things. It could be fun to work with a local artist to get just what your friend wants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Whitewater Ceramics custom tile
User
11 years ago
I thought I had seen a price on these the other night when I saw the Peter Cottontail for L.L. but now there is no price so if you have to ask.........

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitty tiles
User
11 years ago
Forgot about etsy.com

Here is a link that might be useful: cat tiles etsy
beeps
11 years ago
There are some cute cat paw decals on etsy which might be the best anyway since they could be removed later if new owner wasn't a fan.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Paw Decals
vsalzmann
11 years ago
What about using sautillo tiles with animal prints. More authentic and less kitschy. We had several in our last house by accident, but favorite part of floors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Animal prints in tiles

cat tiles/ cat paw tiles ????

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cat tiles/ cat paw tiles ????

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