Have a viewing of this custom made glass tile mosaic kitchen backsplash. One thing is for sure...it is entirely unique.

It is the centerpiece above the soon-to-be-installed (humongous) gas range cooktop. There are a total of 940 1-inch square glass tile pieces. As you can plainly see, the colors are red, black, white and clear amber. Two of those colors happen to be the school colors of the new homeowner's alma mater, the University of Georgia School of Law. Not sure if that's by design or if it was simply chosen to coordinate with the adjoining grand family room...or both. Either way...it looks great and really injects a nice punch of vibrant color to liven things up.

When I decided to remodel my kitchen, recycled glass tile was one of the materials I considered using. While I ultimately chose another material, recycled glass tile has become popular with architects and homeowners who are drawn to its unique aesthetic.

It's difficult to say exactly how environmentally sensitive recycled glass tile is when you consider that the only environmental benefit is that it uses recycled materials. The glass must be melted to be used, a process that expends tremendous amounts of energy. And while it's good to keep consumer waste out of landfills, glass can be recycled into many different things, not just tiles.

I had the opportunity to see travertine tile inlay being used in a custom-crafted fireplace recently that had been installed in a fantastic new Charleston Row House-style home under construction in the heart of downtown Aiken, South Carolina. Various shades of tan to brown with specks of slate blue were interlaced within some of the tiles giving interior designer, Tara, the inspiration to give a coat of a complimentary blue paint in the master suite. This particular travertine tile was mined in Turkey and lends a touch of class to an already beautiful Charleston Row House-style home design plan.

Aiken homebuilder (and old schoolmate) H.L. "Buddy" Stevens, along with Tara, have undertaken quite a homebuilding project in this historic section of Aiken on Park Avenue. He has taken a rather obscure piece of real estate and made it a focal point for what's in store for that section of downtown Aiken. I lived in Aiken for several years and continue to visit family in Aiken on a regular basis and I can't (for the life of me) remember what used to sit on the property that Buddy has built this beautiful new home on. Quite a transformation!

Reclaimed antique terra cotta roof tiles from Europe have been masterfully installed on this English cottage-style home. It's just one unique feature and/or material after another for this English cottage-style home. I stated in my introductory post that the materials being used to construct it would BLOW...YOU...AWAY! Well...I don't think it has disappointed.

General contractor, Rhett Bonner, and builder/developer of The Retreat, Jerry Bonner, closely guard their materials sources so I was unable to get a vendor name from which he obtained the antique reclaimed terra cotta roof tiles from but he did tell me how his supplier does it. Basically, his source buys reclaimed roof tiles from all over France (and probably most of Europe), ships them over in a container via ocean freight and voilà! They just happen to have gotten their hands on antique terracotta roof tiles. A rare find, indeed!

pssst...I'm not 100% certain but I think one of his sources may be Origines: Architectural Antiques in Paris.