A New Take on Delft Tile, Part II: Contemporary Evolution

Jan 16
5 min read

In the first chapter of A New Take on Delft, we traced the roots of blue-and-white ceramics and looked at makers who still live close to that lineage. Pastoral scenes, floral murals, and corner motifs translated into cobalt, oxblood, and olive.

This follow-up explores what happens a few generations later. When the motifs dissolve into gesture, when the grid turns sculptural, when the blue shifts into mineral greens or dense umber, and the reference becomes more atmospheric than literal. These are the studios working several steps beyond Delft, where tile behaves less like historical reproduction and more like canvas, textile, or carved stone.

The Evolution of Delft and Its Global Influence

Delft began as a translation. Dutch potters borrowed and reinterpreted Chinese porcelain, then folded in European stories, landscapes, and symbols. From there, the language of tin-glazed ceramics scattered across Europe. English makers leaned into domestic scenes and florals. Portuguese azulejos stretched the format into full architectural murals, wrapping facades and chapels. Other regions echoed the palette without sharing the stories.

That history matters because it shows Delft was never static. It has always been a shape-shifter, absorbing new influences and technologies. The recent fascination with blue-and-white tile is part of that same arc, but the most interesting work now is less about reissuing classic patterns and more about pulling apart the idea of Delft. Color loosens. Lines get rougher. Texture comes forward. Some pieces barely read as Delft-inspired at first glance, yet they evolve from the same family tree.

Think of this group of makers as the extended relatives. The DNA is there if you trace it, but their daily lives look different.

Nine ceramic tiles by Fanny Schulz with embossed designs of sun, moon, flower, and abstract shapes, arranged in a grid. Colors include white, beige, and brown.

Images courtesy of Fanny Schulz

Beyond Delft: Contemporary Tile Offshoots

Instead of treating Delft as a strict formula, these studios use it as a memory. A hint of cobalt. A rhythm of small squares. The way a story can unfold across a wall. Sometimes that memory shows up as a single color. Sometimes it is a fine line drawing floating on a matte tile. In other cases it leaves the picture plane entirely and becomes depth and shadow in sculptural relief.

What ties them together is not a shared palette, but a shared belief that tile can hold character. They are less interested in perfection and more interested in the energy of the brush, the weight of the clay, the tension between structure and spontaneity. This is where Delft starts to feel less like a museum reference and more like a living language.

Balineum

Balineum’s collections read like the bathroom or scullery scene from an old European film, edited through a Wes Anderson lens. Borders, florals, and small scenes are hand-painted, many in Italy, but the compositions feel simplified and refreshed rather than strictly historical. Colors ebb from chalky blues and tea-stained neutrals to vibrant greens and rich oxbloods.

Where they really shine is in the mix. Curios by Fee Greening, Egyptomania by Louis Barthélemy, and JP Demeyer’s Fearless Eyes bring in talismans, narratives, and a bit of wit, while Hanley pressed and hand-cut tiles, glass mosaics, and mottled bricks give you the solids, shapes, and texture to build the rest of the room. A lioness-and-palms panel in a shower, a band of eyes circling a powder room, or a single run of curios above a range can all be grounded by simple field tile and stone so the space still feels refined, not theme-park. If historic Delft once told pastoral stories in blue and white, Balineum trades in modern myths and symbols, rewritten in saturated color.

Colorful square ceramic tiles designed by Wayne Pate for Balineum with abstract designs and floral patterns on a textured peach background, featuring bold reds, blues, and greens.

Shower with gold fixtures, green walls, and white tiles featuring various eye designs by Balineum. Minimalist, artistic bathroom setting.

Custom floral tiles with green leaves and pastel flowers designed by Balineum are arranged on a table in a workshop. Stacks of tiles and boxes are in the background.

Nine tiles designed by Louis Barthélemy for Balineum depicting Egyptian figures in vibrant attire, engaging in activities like dancing and playing instruments, set against a cream background.

Tiled shower with floral and shell patterns designed by Fee Greening for Balineum with . Bronze showerhead and controls. White tiles with nature motifs create a serene feel.

Tiles with botanical prints lie on a green surface with floral patterns. designed by Fee Greening for Balineum. Two metal clamps are visible at the top. Text reads "Cow Parsley."

Images courtesy of Balineum

BDDW

BDDW approaches tile from the perspective of a studio artist. Wild clay is dug from their own pit, then formed, glazed, and hand-painted in Philadelphia. Their tiles take the familiar language of blue and white and push it into a different era.

The portraits feel almost like film stills, each face floating in a field of negative space, repeated across a grid in a way that feels more graphic art than folklore. Landscape scenes are stretched across elongated bricks, then broken apart, so the image becomes cinematic and fragmented rather than a single framed vignette.

On the floor, tiny round tiles with scattered cobalt marks read like confetti or hand-inked dots underfoot. Other bricks are etched with spidery botanical lines or speckled glazes that suggest Delft only in palette. It is Delft after a detour through contemporary painting and a design studio, not a museum archive.

In interiors, these tiles work just as beautifully with clean-lined furniture, plaster walls, and sculptural lighting as they do with timeless pieces and charming fabrics. They infuse a nostalgic nod with an edited—and sometimes cheeky—twist.

BDDW hand-painted planter and patterned tile floor featuring blue accents.

BDDW stacked white ceramic bricks with blue floral designs form a partial dome.

Grid of BDDW beige tiles, each depicting a blue silhouette of a person in a hat. Tiles are accented with greenish-blue dots at corners.

Images courtesy of BDDW

Emu Tiles

Emu Tile’s work feels like someone handed Delft a field journal and sent it into the Australian bush. Native flora and fauna appear in loose, illustrative drawings, sometimes rendered in washed blues, sometimes in softer earth tones. The tiles are charming without tipping into novelty, and there is a sense of humor in the way creatures and plants sneak across the surface.

Installed en masse, the tiles can form an almost textile-like background. Used in small clusters, they act more like vignettes tucked into a backsplash, fireplace surround, or shower niche. The connection to Delft is less about direct motif and more about the idea that a small square of ceramic can carry a story

Gray tiles with raised wave patterns designed by Emu Tiles.

Embossed beige tiles by Emu Tiles with nature motifs: flowers, leaves, a bee, a turtle, and an animal. Decorative patterns on a tiled wall.

Images courtesy of Emu Tile

Fanny Schultz

Fanny Schultz works in high relief rather than line. Her contemporary tiles feel like fragments of a sculpted frieze: swans, shells, lilies, and abstracted waves rising out of the clay in sinuous curves. The forms sit proudly off the surface, so light skims across them and throws real shadows, giving each tile the presence of a small sculpture.

The palette moves from milky cream and pale stone to moss, tobacco, and occasionally a Delft-adjacent blue. Installed as a field, the tiles read almost like an Art Nouveau wall panel translated for a pared-back interior. Used around a mirror, as a plinth, or as a band in a bath, they behave more like objects than background. If historic Delft painted its stories onto a flat surface, Fanny pushes them into three dimensions, turning the tile itself into sculpted architecture.

Cream-colored tiles by Fanny Schultz with raised tulip patterns arranged in rows. The tiles have small brown speckles.

Ceramic vases by Fanny Schultz with white tulips on a table next to matching plates and decorative tiles. Soft light, neutral colors, and a calm mood.

Blue ceramic plates with cream cloud patterns by Fanny Schultz on a beige fabric background, creating a serene and artistic vibe.

Two painted ceramic plates with green swirls and blue flowers by Fanny Schultz. A small tile with similar designs and an open paint palette sit nearby.

A textured, dark brown ceramic plate with floral designs by Fanny Schultz. The background is a soft beige, adding warmth to the scene.

Clay tiles with floral designs by Fanny Schultz, a paintbrush, and a bowl with paint are arranged on a textured surface, creating an artistic mood.

Images courtesy of Fanny Schulz

When Tradition Moves Forward

Seen together, these makers confirm what the original Delft piece hinted at: the most compelling ceramics now are not copies of the past; they are descendants that have developed their own lives. The grid of small tiles is still there. The idea of narrative is still there. Blue appears often, but it no longer has the final word.

In high-end residential work, that shift opens up more interesting possibilities. A fireplace framed in expressive painting instead of a standard surround. A bath that feels like a sculpted volume rather than a box of matching tile. A kitchen where a few hand-painted squares break up a field of stone and metal, introducing a human pulse.

Part I of this series explored the pleasure of leaning into Delft more directly. Part II is an invitation to step further out, to let that history be a reference point rather than a boundary. The tiles here are not about nostalgia. They are about evolution, and about giving interiors the kind of layered, lived-in complexity that only comes when tradition is allowed to move.