38 Ideabooks by Paul Anater

So far in this flooring series, I've discussed a variety of ceramic tile, plank wood, engineered wood and laminate floors. Rounding out but by no means completing this series are linoleum and vinyl — also called resilient flooring, or sheet goods. Resilient...

Laminate floors aren't wood, though they usually appear to be. Rather, laminate floors are entirely manufactured. They can be made to look like nearly anything, but most often they're made to look like wood. Increasingly, more options are showing up,...

After two weeks of discussing the different characteristics of a variety of solid plank wood floors, it's time to delve into the world of engineered wood floors. Once installed, an engineered wood floor can be difficult to distinguish from a

In the first installment of my flooring series, I reviewed some of the characteristics of some common wood species used for solid plank floors that are common in North America and Europe. In this second installment, I'll review the characteristics of...

Wood floors are a classic addition to any home. Barring damage from fire or flood, a well-made and correctly-installed solid wood floor will add warmth, character and value to your interior as long as you're in your house. However, not all wood...

Natural stone has been popular for use on floors for centuries and for very good reason. Stone tile brings the colors and texture of nature to our homes and adds a quality and warmth to a room that's not possible with any other material. Because...

The first article in this series explored ratings for ceramic tile, using various types of tile for comparison. Two more options fall outside traditional tile categorizations: quarry tile and cement tile. Neither material is a new category, although...

There's a lot more to buying ceramic tile than finding a color and pattern that will work in a room. Every tile manufactured and sold has an intended use, and that intended use is made pretty clear on the label of a box of tile. However, it's always in...

Imagine a beach house that doesn't look like a beach house. Imagine a beach house that bypasses the expected driftwood and conch shells and instead delivers high design with contemporary dazzle. What would it look like if you took great tile, custom furniture...

Marco Dellatorre designed this 5-meter-high loft in an old metal factory in Milan. His goal was to pay homage to the original industrial use of the building while avoiding minimalism and preserving the open plan. Dellatorre was born in Casale...

Knowing the difference between a warm color and a cool color can help you choose color combinations more confidently. When you understand how the temperature of a color affects how it's perceived, you can use that knowledge to design color schemes...

Designers use a color wheel to illustrate the colors of the visible spectrum. It's a simplified model, of course, and it's important not to interpret it too rigidly. However, using the color wheel can take some of the mystery out of selecting a color...

When a lot people hear the word neutral, they think immediately of brown and beige color schemes. While it's true that browns and beiges can be a good place to start, there's a lot more to neutrals. Before we get to that though, it'll help to...

As I mentioned in my last ideabook, I am freshly back from a trip to the Spanish city of Valencia and that city's annual tile, bath and natural stone showcase called Cevisama. My last ideabook covered the bath trends I saw, and this one's all about the...

I just got back from Valencia, Spain, where the Spanish tile, bath and stone industries have gathered for a massive trade show called Cevisama. The mood was somewhere between ebullient and ecstatic, and Cevisama itself was a visual feast, filled with...