Scallop Tile Bathrooms

Scallop tile bathrooms offer the rich look of mosaics with half-moon, mermaid or fish-scale tiles.

Have you ever noticed fish scale-shaped roof tiles on vintage homes? Or overlapping rows of curved shingles on Victorian-era buildings? I have and I’ve always liked them. Fish scales have been a decorative motif since ancient times (think old stone carvings) but haven’t been seen for a long time. Now, along with patterned cement tiles, Moroccan lantern tiles, and other decorative shapes, the fish scales are beginning to appear prominently on bathroom walls. In design school, this pattern with a curved top and pointy bottom is called imbrication – the technical name.  But there’s nothing academic about the dazzling sink wall of a modern scallop tile bathroom [top and below], where Aussie designer Camilla Molders deftly mixed five different lines of color to give the tiles visual movement as well.

The oceanic blue-green colorway of glazed Australian-made tiles really does evoke undulating ocean currents and shimmering fish. For me it’s a romantic wall treatment and one inspired by the natural world, attributes the Victorians appreciated, too.

A single accent wall in a very minimalist open shower gets a a similar show-stopping shot of color from scallop tiles. Note that in this bath, and in Molders’, the “fish scales” face up.

In another bath, the scale pattern faces down. This looks a bit odd to me even though the wall and shower still have that lavish texture. Clearly, there are two approaches to setting this type of tile.

A close up of Douglas Watson crackle-glaze scallop tiles show beautiful color variations within the tiles plus a luscious Arts- and-Crafts- look crackle glaze. I wonder how long it will take for designers to rediscover these for powder rooms though this graceful shape can do the job in a bath of of almost any style bath.

(Source: Camilla Molders, desiretoinspire, northernvirginiamag, douglaswatson)

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