Especially when I can create my own!
To get starting on my flooring quest, I pulled out my favorite tile design so far. It's the only tile design I've completely make thus far that has a design focal point vs shape. I've mostly been designing the basic tile designs - hex tile, subway tile, basic square tile. I started by playing with shadow & proportion. I wanted to create a stock of basic tile designs to make some kitchen dioramas while learning what proportions I like the best.
Now I've moved on to making some lovely patterned tile, but only have one that I've created a full repeat for thus far. Luckily, I really love it, so it's been a pleasure to see it in different colorways. And speaking of colorways, I know I want my tea shop to have a vintage feel, so I've been scoping out vintage tiles that I have on hand and also authentic vintage tile designs online. I found a great website that has all the major tile colors displayed in all their retro glory. I also found a website that gave a synopsis of the modern history of colored tile and helped me to anchor my understanding of the colors appeared during the various decades and why (Now I want to find a book on that subject - it was a fun read!).
So I started out by printing out a set of vintage tile colors.
The yellow was immediately out - too light & indistinct. I have a feeling that the yellows will mostly only work as a solid color for tile vs a print effect. The pink is similarly pale. In this application, I think it's too faded. The blues are nice, but the blue with the blue tea house frame...I'm feeling a little over-blued.
Back to find more colors!
This set has way more pizazz & these colors hold their own against the vivid blue of the tea house frame. However, looking at all of them, I came to realize something very important - I freaking hate the brown color of the tea cabinet. I also realized that tile print is not quite doing it for me for the tea house. I think that knowing how many bits are going to be decorate this tea house makes me want a simpler tile design.
So the lessons of the last few days are that I want a simpler tile AND that cabinet needs a repaint. This will be my first repaint & I'm not sure how working on an already-built, already finished piece will go, especially since I'm feeling too lazy to do the full dismantle/sand all the finish route. In order to compensate for that, I think I'm going to go for a shabby-refurbished look, something that's been painted & repainted during a long glorious life. It'll keep me occupied with something physical while I play around with new tile ideas in Illustrator!