Style & Design

Textiles take hold of hard surface products

Textile visuals invite warmth and increased sophistication into any space, offered Emser Tile’s Barbara Haaksma, evident here on the company’s Dunham product.

In a nod to the tailor-made looks popular today, textile visuals on hard surface flooring — namely ceramic tile and resilient products — as well as wall applications is a trend showing no signs of slowing as the marriage of soft surface prints with hard surface platforms brings consumers the best of both worlds.

“Textiles have become a focal point of any space and surface, even hard surfaces,” offered Interface designer Gretchen Wagner. “Being a unique material that bridges craft and design, textiles define a highly coveted category that engages people both physically and visually — striking the perfect balance of warmth and design in any space.”

Indeed, textile visuals bring warmth and sophistication to hard surfaces particularly through contemporary recreations of classic fabrics, offered Emser Tile’s vice president of marketing Barbara Haaksma. 

“Monochromatic pincheck patterns elevate wall design with a subtle shimmering effect. On the floor, the refined textures of bespoke suiting fabrics, like linens and silk tweeds, find new form in alluring tile panels,” she said. 

According to Metroflor designer Robert Langstaff, since the explosion in popularity and use of luxury vinyl tile (LVT), the healthcare industry was a major driver of textile-influenced designs in hard surface. 

“While many designers/architects have the philosophy of using ‘real’ materials, they were more likely to accept an abstracted textile look over a vinyl wood grain,” he said. “Another reasoning behind the textile influence: A very soft, subtle and textile-like visual will not trigger any stroboscopic effects that vibrant patterns can evoke in some patients.” 

Textile prints on tile specifically made their way onto the scene in a significant way at Italy’s Cersaie exhibition in 2016, explained Emily Holle, MSI’s director of trend and design. At Cersaie, linen and denim prints were made into a punch that created the visually appealing textures seen on textile inspired tiles today. 

“Things like crosshatch, linear and plaid prints emerged in neutral colors like gray, graphite and ivory to offer a new look among all the wood and stone visuals we see in porcelain tiles,” she explained. 

Atlas Concorde USA debuted its first textile-inspired tile collection, Fray, in 2016 in order to meet consumer demand for hard surface products with highly textured and multi-dimensional visuals. 

“It was important to us to deliver a collection with the perfect balance of colors, graphics and textures that would result in a realistic textile surface,” said marketing and communications manager Jamie Huffman.

Here is a look at just some of the latest hard surface products reflecting the popular textile visual trend.



Bringing warmth to any space was a key inspiration behind Atlas Concorde USA’s first textile-inspired tile collection — Fray — in 2016. Fray mimics worn fabric and the realistic texture of loose fibers. “Fray has proven to be one of our most popular collections to date and we don’t see the trend going away any time soon,” said Atlas Concorde’s Huffman.



An important driver of the textile trend, offered Interface’s Gretchen Wagner, is a continued emphasis on hand-crafted materials as seen here on Interface’s Native Fabric line of LVT.



MSI has seen success with large scale textile tiles in commercial applications with its Tektile line and has also seen more residential acceptance in accent pieces like mosaics in its recycled glass line Revaso, Holle said.

You May Also Like

Behr 2024 Exterior Stain Color of the Year

American Olean Releases 2024 Trend Report

Marazzi Releases 2024 Trend Report