Behind The Design: Hiser Handmade Tile
Nov 15th 2017
It’s fascinating to us where artists, designers, and other creative types find their inspiration. Often it seems people are instinctively attracted to certain things without knowing exactly why – other times it’s a bit more obvious, as is the case with our tile designer Kirsten Sharp.
For most of their childhood, Kirsten and her brothers and were raised in this late 1800’s Victorian farmhouse in the Midwest.
Over the years, it was painstakingly renovated by Kirsten's parents to restore it as close to its original glory as possible. Among other things, her father rewired the entire house, refinished period furniture to match the decor, and her mother hand-stenciled and wallpapered much of the house in a classic, Victorian design. They are both very talented and the result of all their hard work is amazing.
Despite having this idyllic setting growing up, the first thing Kirsten did upon securing a “real” job out of college was to rent the newest, most modern apartment she could find. It was so new, in fact, they weren’t even finished building the complex! New windows, new carpet, new plumbing. Nothing squeaked, nothing leaked, it was “perfect”. This lasted about three months until she realized that each apartment and building looked so similar, it was darn near impossible to explain to friends how to come visit. Not that there’s anything wrong with new construction, but this was the point where she realized she was an old house person. She blames her parents entirely!
We like to think the style of our collections at Julep Tile Company is a blend of this “old” inspiration with a new flare. Modern vintage, perhaps. A throwback to the beauty and detail of old wallpaper and fabric patterns, but simplified.
To get back to the inspiration behind our Hiser pattern, a few years ago Kirsten's parents were redoing the closet in her brother’s old bedroom and under layers of paint and other wallpaper, found this:
Kirsten's mom sent it to her and it ended up being the perfect inspiration piece for our Hiser tile pattern (the Hisers were the family that built her parents’ house in 1893.) Here is Kirsten's interpretation:
Shown above: Hiser handmade tile in New Satin White