Mexican Tiles

You may be surprised but there is a significant market in the US for Mexican painted tiles. They are handmade in Dolores Hidalgo in various sizes and presentation. Most often used Mexican tiles have painted designs from colonial period. Those are Spanish style terracotta as well as plain color which add rustic look to the room. Some mosaic tile artists use them for their decorative projects in Mediterranean and Moorish style.

Where to buy Mexican Tiles?

Many companies announce in their promotional material that they are the largest and only handcrafted tile outlet specialty on the US market. The truth is only those located in Mexico can really make such claim. In those unique cases brightly colored Talavera Mexican tiles and terracotta ceramics for floor are distributed by just a handful of firms and we are one of them.

Origin of Painted Tiles

Painting tiles in Mexico has a long history and dates the beginning of Spanish colonial period of fourteen century. It is when Europeans arrived on the American continent and immediately after began handcrafting large supply for their houses, palaces, churches and public buildings. Painted tile designs were precisely same they used back home. In time they began evolving and nowadays we can clearly distinguish between old world tiles and Mexican talavera because of their distinct style and colors. Various patterns are similar in their nature to Arabic style and they indeed had their origin in Morocco during Muslim domination of Spain before it became catholic.

Decorating with Mexican Painted Tiles

If you are renovating your bathroom or kitchen Mexican hand painted ceramic will add interesting character to the space and make it rustic. You can install them on a backsplash, stair risers, walls and showers. Since they are glazed that is a natural bio-product of heating ceramic talavera to high temperature and backing the paint, they are water resistant. Occasionally, they are decorating swimming pools, saunas and outdoor fountain basins. There is a large selection of Mexican Tiles on Rustica House site and beside mymexicantile brand, they are the outlet in USA.

Handmade Mexican Tile is seldom offered with free shipping and in my opinion it is the best source that implemented no cost shipping policy. It is important to remember that painted talavera tiles are hand made involving cutting the clay into square pieces. It means each one of them can differ in dimensions. To avoid any installation problems and the wall looking rare, leave at least half an inch spaces. Once the wall is finished and cement entered between them, artisan elaborated tile from Mexico look really great. It will resemble antique style found in old buildings of Europe and Latin American continent.

As I mentioned before, they can be used in wet spaces including bathrooms, kitchens, counters and tabletops. Some of them come in form of the tile murals where the entire set is made of a single image brushed by the artists. The most common images are Mexican village, fruit baskets, wine and cheese or country leaving. If you have enough resources, you ca upgrade from regular talavera to painted relief tiles. Vast majority of them use the same paintings but due to the ceramic material and production technique are much more expensive. The relief tile is very decorative and it presents itself very well especially on stairs and significantly exposed areas of the house making find focal points.

When ordering painted ceramic tiles consider the following pros. They are functional, beautiful and practical easy to maintain. Their colors will last for a long time, perhaps centuries and you can install them virtually anywhere including patios, verandas and as floor accents. We invite you to browse our collection of authentic handcrafted, and hand painted Mexican talavera. Incorporate them in to your next custom home improvement project for borders, trims and a backslash.