An Interior Designer Trick for Adding Architectural Pizazz To A Dull Room
Why settle for safe, predictable wood wainscoting when you can tile a half-wall and choose from a candy-store variety of hard-wearing patterns?
3 min
WOOD WAINSCOTING, whether painted or not, inarguably adds architectural interest to a wall, but—unlike tile—rarely does it jolt a room with energy. “Tile wainscoting adds character to a space that’s a bit unexpected, and it’s stood the design test of time,” said Los Angeles designer Caitlin Murray of Black Lacquer Design, noting that the technique has been used for centuries in regions such as Portugal and Mexico. Not all tiles are created equal, however, so we’ve put together this guide.
The Appeal
Among designers’ rationales for running tiles up a wall, practicality tops the list. In bathrooms and kitchens the technique guards drywall from, respectively, splashing water and errant olive oil. And when chairs are pulled back too exuberantly in dining rooms, the durable material won’t get scuffed. New York City architect Alexandra Barker defaults to tile for heavily trafficked areas, such as this Brooklyn brownstone vestibule. The large cement hexagons she chose not only safeguard the floor and lower wall, but their yellow-and-white pattern gives the entry its own vibe.
Why apply blandly safe, low-impact wood wainscotting when you could choose from a vast array of personable tile patterns? A tiled half wall “adds a decorative architectural detail to a space, especially welcome when you are working with a white-box room,” said Ms. Murray.
The Tips
You might need to commit to a scheme with just a tile or two in hand, so carefully visualize how a pattern will look when it’s repeated. “Some large or busy patterns may be too jarring and dizzying for small spaces,” warned Ms. Murray.
For the bathroom of a client’s home, Ms. Murray clad half a wall in small black hexagonal tiles, a low-cost designer favourite. On the floor, she set 5-inch squares of blue and white cement tiles in an elaborate pattern of octagons. If you introduce two tile designs in a space, she said, you want them to duet not duel. “While the pairing of blue and black is a bit surprising,” she said, “both patterns are geometric, so in a classic design sense they play well together.”
Encaustic cement tiles, though the rage of late, are not for everyone. “Cement takes on a worn, aged appearance over time, which some people prefer, but if you like things pristine, porcelain is a better choice,” said Ms. Murray.
We won’t advise on glossy versus matte finishes. That’s a personal preference, as is grout colour, though Ms. Murray cautions that white grout on floors will muddy and need upkeep.
The transition where the material ends and wall begins requires judicious thought. Ms. Murray topped her hex-tile wainscoting with a single row of solid black, traditional bullnose subway tile for a punctuating finish, while Ms. Barker tacked simple wood trim painted the same sapphire blue as the wall above, for an edge that disappears.
The Caveats
Painting the wall is a lower commitment than any wainscoting, of course. And masonry doesn’t come cheap. Ms. Barker estimates that installation will set you back $13 to $20 a square foot. But Ms. Murray notes you can curtail the budget when it comes to tile. While Zellige tiles from Clé Tiles in San Rafael, Calif., run almost $44 a square foot, porcelain penny and hexagon designs are affordable and look great on a wall or floor, she said. In solid colours, these shapes start at $45a square foot. And don’t tile a banquet hall: “Remember, a little tile can really make a statement, so it’s a great option for smaller spaces,” she said.
Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company. Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Original date of publication: April 7, 2022.
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Vacationers scratching their travel itch this season are sending prices through the roof. Here’s how some are making trade-offs.
3 min
Capri Coffer socks away $600 a month to help fund her travels. The Atlanta health-insurance account executive and her husband couldn’t justify a family vacation to the Dominican Republic this summer, though, given what she calls “astronomical” plane ticket prices of $800 each.
The price was too high for younger family members, even with Coffer defraying some of the costs.
Instead, the family of six will pile into a rented minivan come August and drive to Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Coffer booked a beach house for $650 a night. Her budget excluding food for the two-night trip is about $1,600, compared with the $6,000 price she was quoted for a three-night trip to Punta Cana.
“That way, everyone can still be together and we can still have that family time,” she says.
With hotel prices and airfares stubbornly high as the 2023 travel rush continues—and overall inflation squeezing household budgets—this summer is shaping up as the season of travel trade-offs for many of us.
Average daily hotel rates in the top 25 U.S. markets topped $180 year-to-date through April, increasing 9.9% from a year ago and 15.6% from 2019, according to hospitality-data firm STR.
Online travel sites report more steep increases for summer ticket prices, with Kayak pegging the increase at 35% based on traveler searches. (Perhaps there is no more solid evidence of higher ticket prices than airline executives’ repeated gushing about strong demand, which gives them pricing power.)
The high prices and economic concerns don’t mean we’ll all be bunking in hostels and flying Spirit Airlines with no luggage. Travellers who aren’t going all-out are compromising in a variety of ways to keep the summer vacation tradition alive, travel agents and analysts say.
“They’re still out there and traveling despite some pretty real economic headwinds,” says Mike Daher, Deloitte’s U.S. transportation, hospitality and services leader. “They’re just being more creative in how they spend their limited dollars.”
For some, that means a cheaper hotel. Hotels.com says global search interest in three-star hotels is up more than 20% globally. Booking app HotelTonight says nearly one in three bookings in the first quarter were for “basic” hotels, compared with 27% in the same period in 2019.
For other travellers, the trade-offs include a shorter trip, a different destination, passing on premium seat upgrades on full-service airlines or switching to no-frills airlines. Budget-airline executives have said on earnings calls that they see evidence of travellers trading down.
Deloitte’s 2023 summer travel survey, released Tuesday, found that average spending on “marquee” trips this year is expected to decline to $2,930 from $3,320 a year ago. Tighter budgets are a factor, he says.
Too much demand
Wendy Marley is no economics teacher, but says she’s spent a lot of time this year refreshing clients on the basics of supply and demand.
The AAA travel adviser, who works in the Boston area, says the lesson comes up every time a traveler with a set budget requests help planning a dreamy summer vacation in Europe.
“They’re just having complete sticker shock,” she says.
Marley has become a pro at Plan B destinations for this summer.
For one client celebrating a 25th wedding anniversary with a budget of $10,000 to $12,000 for a five-star June trip, she switched their attention from the pricey French Riviera or Amalfi Coast to a luxury resort on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.
To Yellowstone fans dismayed at ticket prices into Jackson, Wyo., and three-star lodges going for six-star prices, she recommends other national parks within driving distance of Massachusetts, including Acadia National Park in Maine.
For clients who love the all-inclusive nature of cruising but don’t want to shell out for plane tickets to Florida, she’s been booking cruises out of New York and New Jersey.
Not all of Marley’s clients are tweaking their plans this summer.
Michael McParland, a 78-year-old consultant in Needham, Mass., and his wife are treating their family to a luxury three-week Ireland getaway. They are flying business class on Aer Lingus and touring with Adventures by Disney. They initially booked the trip for 2020, so nothing was going to stand in the way this year.
McParland is most excited to take his teen grandsons up the mountain in Northern Ireland where his father tended sheep.
“We decided a number of years ago to give our grandsons memories,” he says. “Money is money. They don’t remember you for that.”
Fare first, then destination
Chima Enwere, a 28-year old piano teacher in Fayetteville, N.C., is also headed to the U.K., but not by design.
Enwere, who fell in love with Europe on trips the past few years, let airline ticket prices dictate his destination this summer to save money.
He was having a hard time finding reasonable flights out of Raleigh-Durham, N.C., so he asked for ideas in a Facebook travel group. One traveler found a round-trip flight on Delta to Scotland for $900 in late July with reasonable connections.
He was budgeting $1,500 for the entire trip—he stays in hostels to save money—but says he will have to spend more given the pricier-than-expected plane ticket.
“I saw that it was less than four digits and I just immediately booked it without even asking questions,” he says.
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