Exterior Tile Finds a Home Outside the Mediterranean Courtyard
Add color and pattern to an urban patio, an outdoor shower or a garden area with exterior tile
Lauren Dunec Hoang
February 4, 2017
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset's Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and... More
Bring tile outdoors and enliven your backyard patio, garden wall or outdoor kitchen with a jolt of color and pattern. Not reserved just for Mediterranean courtyards, exterior tile is increasingly cropping up in unexpected places and being used in less formal, more playful designs. See how to use this versatile material with a look at nine outdoor spaces, from Los Angeles to London, that use tile in inspiring ways.
Ground a table with a colorful tile “carpet.” In this Southern California backyard, flooring made of patterned blue, gray, black and white cement tiles brings the Moroccan theme of the home outside. “The patterned tile acts as a grounding framework, much like a large Oriental rug does to house a living room arrangement,” says designer Tatum Kendrick of Studio Hus. “The colors also create an interesting bohemian vibe under a mostly neutral furniture palette.”
Rather than going with a standard layout, Kendrick and her team created an asymmetrical mash-up of tile patterns. “We wanted to create a random patchwork feeling that was playful and unexpected,” she says. It turns out getting random to look just right is more difficult than it appears: “It actually took many more hours than anticipated to make sure the pattern’s colors and balance felt right.”
Encaustic cement tile: Cement Tile Shop
Encaustic cement tile: Cement Tile Shop
Add color and texture to outdoor showers. Outdoor showers can be an opportunity to add a hit of color, texture and pattern to exterior spaces. Choose a tile in a single hue or use the backsplash as a blank canvas for a pattern or design.
Create modern mosaics. Use garden walls and the exteriors of buildings as blank canvases for form and pattern. For example, the designer of this backyard in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood used traditional glass and ceramic mosaic tiles to create a lighthearted design.
Organic leaf-like shapes shimmer above the main planting bed, while a river mosaic flows down through a living wall. The cushions for the outdoor furniture were chosen to pick up the pink, green and gray in the mosaic’s river of color.
Turn a hot tub into a stylish garden feature. Often relegated to a back corner of the garden or hidden in a side yard, hot tubs can become garden focal points. For example, this Moroccan-tiled hot tub acts as the centerpiece of a Spanish-style backyard in Hollywood, California.
The contrasting tile patterns used for the pool’s interior and exterior draw the eye. Soft sandstone colors, terra-cotta red and turquoise are echoed in the home’s exterior paint color, outdoor throw pillows and dusty blue chalk sticks succulents (Senecio sp.).
Lay a shimmering path. With more variety of color and pattern than any other paving material, tile can be a great medium for backyard creativity. In this London backyard, landscape designer Sara Jane Rothwell and landscape architect JoanMa Roig Ortiz used a soft rainbow of Moroccan tiles to create a truly unusual garden path. Meant to resemble dragon skin, the zigzag walkway seems almost iridescent set into the lush green landscape.
See more of this mystical garden
See more of this mystical garden
Make your own barbecue backdrop. Outside their home in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, homeowners and avid DIYers Terry and Jo Vaughan used broken pieces of Fiestaware and other china to create a colorful backdrop for their outdoor grill.
The playful mosaic sets the stage for festive outdoor parties and reinforces the eclectic theme of the backyard. Here, Jo harvests greens from a repurposed vintage washbasin with a neighbor.
See more of this house
See more of this house
Add pizzaz to small patios. It’s easy to shy away from bringing patterns to small spaces, but a good dose of pattern with neutral colors can energize an area without feeling overwhelming. For example, this pint-sized patio off a basement could easily have felt like a dark, confined space, but patterned Moroccan tiles create an inviting stage.
Make a colorful backdrop for a focal point. Use tile on exterior walls to highlight garden focal points such as fountains, statues or sculptural agaves. In this Dallas garden, Texas, cobalt blue tiles set into the curve of the garden wall form a water-like backdrop for a classical fountain.
Use tile as a wood look-alike. To mimic the look of wood with a durable easy-to-clean material, consider porcelain tile. Available in designs and hues from rich redwood to weathered silver, look-alike tile can be used to complement gardens from rustic to contemporary.
In this south London backyard, tiles that look like wood create a smooth transition from the kitchen to the backyard vegetable garden.
Porcelain tile: Woodtech, BluePrint Ceramics
More
Landscape Paving 101: Tiles Bring Bold Color and Pattern
Details Bring 15 Patios to Life
Porcelain tile: Woodtech, BluePrint Ceramics
More
Landscape Paving 101: Tiles Bring Bold Color and Pattern
Details Bring 15 Patios to Life
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The BBQ wall has been my inspiriation for a privacy wall by our hot tub (my first attempt at a project this size, made with scavenged tiles).
Outdoor quality digital tile printing offers incredible possibilities for art and photos for your yard, BBQ area, and public art display. Headed for installation in Brazil is a blend of mosaic and digital tiles, in Utah are frost resistant tiles of childrens' art at a school, in California is a large tile mural at a school, Lake Elsinore boasts an attractive set of tile murals, and San Antonio has several park benches with our graffiti resistant outdoor tiles. Other clients have graced the exterior surfaces of their home with personalized tiles of art and photos.