Ashland, OR, July 18, 2006--The glass tile revival has been remarkable. Architects and interior designers like glass tiles’ versatility and design options and Hakatai Enterprises, Inc.
Hakatai’s expansive tile palette range and growing variety of glass tile collections, combined with their innovative and easy to use online custom blend and gradient options, has become a valuable tool for a growing list of designers and architects. Recently, Hiromi Ogawa Architects, with offices in San Francisco and Portland, discovered Hakatai on the web, which led to a dazzling bathroom and kitchen remodeling project.
“We were in the market for glass tile but couldn’t find it at the price or in the colors that we wanted,” Ogawa said. “But our client found Hakatai online and they have great products, they’re affordable, and there was no compromise in quality. It was a great advantage for us because of our project constraints. But regardless of the pricing advantage, we will be using Hakatai in the future. The color range and the ability to create custom blends online are great features. It’s just a very smart business idea.”
Hiromi Ogawa Architects’ first mission in their Albany, California client’s recently purchased home was to remodel a bathroom that Ogawa referred to as “old” and “outdated,” which was further complicated by the fact that there was no window in the room. Ogawa first punched a hole in the ceiling that was the exact dimensions of the shower walls, creating the refreshing feeling of being in nature’s elements while in the shower.
Besides bringing the feeling of the outdoors into the shower area, the skylight was also designed to wash natural light over the glass tile feature wall that they created using a Cartglass 3/4” x 3/4” Classic Series standard blend in the color Light Blue/Ice Green Blend. To make sure that this wall was the centerpiece of the bathroom remodel while complementing the white ceiling for a design concept she calls “two hands cupped to make a cube,” Ogawa chose to tile the remaining walls and the floor with the same glass tile series in the color sky blue, which created a gorgeous contrast and complement all at once.
Hakatai products also helped Ogawa remodel the kitchen. The backsplash, originally slated to receive solid glass panels, proved too prohibitive to realize. Searching for something more flexible to configure, Hakatai’s mesh-backed Ashland Series in 1” x 1” mosaic glass tiles were the perfect solution. Stylish and handmade, the Ashland Series contains random crazing on the surface of the tile, rough-cut edges and shade variances of tiles within each sheet. Ogawa selected the color Snowdrift Blue for the backsplash.
“Because the room was so small,” Ogawa said, “we needed something with a reflective quality to make it appear larger. We were planning on using solid glass panels, but the space was too small and hard to configure. We chose Hakatai’s Ashland Series and ultimately it worked out much better. It’s a very clean and attractive installation.”
