Laurann Claridge
- Posted:
- January 06, 2012
Keys to the Door: Owner Olivia Boone; manager Bryan Dye.
Stocked Goods: For the last 16 years, architects and designers from all over the state have sought out Olivia Boone’s expansive Italian tile showroom in Dallas for their commercial and residential projects. In an industry where experience and relationships parlay into perks — like being first in line at the quarry for their pick of premier-grade slabs — Boone and her staff are rewarded with the best natural stone, from basalt to gorgeous Carrara marble. Now they’ve expanded to Houston with a sleek showroom that opened last month to both retail and the trade. Boone recruited Bryan Dye and Ed Gonzales, whom many remember from their days at Waterworks. With access to some of the oldest and largest Italian porcelain-tile manufacturers, Horizon’s old-world artisan suppliers are embracing new technologies to develop porcelain tiles that will have you doing a double-take. There’s pebble leather, not to mention glazed croc tiles so glamorous that your admiring fingertip will be shocked to find porcelain tile, not skin beneath. For those who enjoy a little trick of the eye, compare a piece of Calacatta marble tile (matte or glossy) alongside natural Calacatta marble, and your eyes will dart back and forth, trying to detect which is which. And for those who remember when wood-grain-looking porcelain tiles were nothing but badly stamped repetitive patterns, discover 24- to 40-inch “planks” of red and white oak, maple, ash, teak and more with miniscule grout joints, their surfaces rendered with sophisticated ink-jet prints in countless wood-grain configurations. Find those plus Japanese porcelain varieties, wall tiles of ceramic and glass, and loads of high-tech solutions that let you lay good tile over existing tile you might have inherited in your home or office. 2707 W. Alabama, 713.523.4500; horizontile.com.
Image: Horizon Italian Tile