Sydney features a rich repository of beautiful heritage architectural edifices. From Colonial and Victorian, right through to our Federation Bungalow, the Sydney heritage scene is a mecca for beautiful floors. Tessellated tiles can be found adorning the verandahs, pathways and bathrooms across cities in Australia. Here is our guide to choosing the right style for your home.
East Suburbs and Inner Sydney
Paddington, Balmain, Bondi, Surry Hills, Camperdown, Newtown, Darlinghurst
The inner city suburbs contain some of Sydney’s oldest Victorian houses. From terraces to cottages, the Victorian style home is littered across the Sydney city scape, and the tessellated tiles that one can find adorning homes are plenty. Paddington, in particular, is famous for the terraced format, and many verandahs/pathways contain a beautiful array of vibrant Victorian colours and encaustics in their tessellated tile floors.
So what are Victorian colours? They’re vivid and bold – a somewhat stark contrast to the primarily earthy colours you’ll find in many Federation homes. Pinks, blues, light and dark greens are all very Victorian. Victorian floors also heavily employed Encaustics as a decorative accent, so be sure to insist on them if you live in a residence that was built earlier than 1900 and has Victorian style elements. Tessellated tiles around the Inner Sydney area are varied and plenty, so go on for a stroll around areas like Paddington and Surry Hills for inspiration!
Inner West
Marrickville, Haberfield, Camperdown, Newtown, Enmore, Burwood, Hurlstone Park and other Sydney Inner West Suburbs
The Camperdown, Newtown, Enmore corridor is where we start to see a transition from the elegant Victorian style of home, to the charming, distinctly Australian Federation style.
From the garden suburb of Haberfield, all the way out to Hurlstone Park and beyond the perimeter of Sydney, tessellated tiles can be found in the verandahs, pathways and bathrooms of many Federation homes. Haberfield, Enmore and Marrickville in particular are Federation Bungalow meccas – a sea of red brick, these suburbs consist almost entirely of beautiful Australian bungalows. The Arts and Crafts style is also heavily prevalent in Inner Western Sydney suburbs, so choosing a tessellated tile floor or wall should consist of designs elements that are congruent with the Federation era.
Because of the ubiquitous use of red brick in these areas, The Tessellated Tiles Market suggests a strong red presence in the colour scheme of the pattern as a way of tieing together the common red facade and floor of the building. This is, of course, not a hard and fast rule – even the paint colour of building features like the balustrades for example, could alter the colour palette of the design of your tessellated tile floor. As with all Federation homes, we recommend keeping the colours earthy, the patterns simple, and the encaustics subtle.
Upper and Lower North Shore:
Lindfield, Killara, Pymble, Gordon Wahroonga, Neutral Bay, Mosman
The Upper North Shore is particularly famous for it’s Federation Queen Anne and Arts And Crafts Federation presence. Lindfield, Killara, Pymble, Gordon and Wahroonga are but a few of the North Shore Sydney suburbs with a strong Federation influence, and the design of the house should thus be accounted for when choosing a tessellated tile pattern.
Like the many tessellated tiles in found in Sydney’s Inner Western Federation style homes, designs should consist of signature Australian earthy colours, like red, green and yellow. Tessellated encaustics are also used in Federation floors, but they’re not as ubiquitous as their use in Victorian style residences. If you do choose Encaustics for your patterns (and you should, they’re beautiful), stick to a two colour design, as opposed to the three and up colour schemes that feature in many Victorian encaustics.