Art Deco and modernity in a unique house in El Cabañal, featuring tiles by WOW

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El Cabañal–one of Valencia's historic neighbourhoods–still conserves its traditional architecture, with a colourful use of ceramic tiles on the façades and interiors of its buildings.
WOW Design's ceramic tiles recapture the vintage aesthetics of tiles of the period, with an original tile mosaic that represents "the foam of a sea wave".
Interior design studio Saramar Home was commissioned with refurbishing the whole building although it decided to conserve the original tiled façade.

A family home in El Cabañal, the old fishermen's district of Valencia. Spain.

El Cabañal is the city of Valencia's former fishermen's quarter. Originally, it was made up of rows of rustic houses, replaced, in the early 20^th century, with small traditional houses richly decorated with glazed tiles and built in charming Art Deco style. These cultural legacies played an important role in the refurbishment of the family home, using tiles by WOW Design for this purpose.
El Cabañal's traditional houses all intermingle in this culturally vibrant, buzzing seaside neighbourhood. Its Modernist façades reflect the colours and light of this bygone period, and so a decision was taken by Saramar Home to conserve the main façade, with its hand-painted tiles, and to rebuild the interiors, using traditional materials.
The house stands on a narrow plot, just three and a half metres wide. Hence, the aim of the design project was to take as much advantage as possible of the available space, leading to the creation of 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and loft space.
Because this is a through plot, with two parallel frontages on two streets, the house has a covered garage, a courtyard, and a small swimming pool to make the most of the weather in this Mediterranean city.

"Ceramic tiles reflect our local roots"
For Valencia-born architect Sara Martínez Requena, "Ceramic tiles reflect our local roots and they lend this house a strong Mediterranean appeal. Handmade tiles, artisanal exposed brick, and the terracotta shades of the chosen tile models are all typical of Valencia, El Cabañal, and seaside homes."
Indeed, tiles play a prominent role in the newly refurbished home, tying in with the façade and the history of the building. The ground floor is clad in porcelain tiles evocative of handmade terracotta, with a unique continuous design. These delicate diamond-shaped tiles by WOW Design, in white and earthy shades, are from the Mud Diamond series, used in combination to form a rich mosaic. 
The architect told us that this flooring "represents the foam of a sea wave breaking on the sand, ensuring seamless continuity throughout the ground floor".  She also pointed out that "This flooring adds a refreshing touch of luminosity and movement, whilst also bringing to mind traditional local construction techniques."
To maintain the traditional spirit of the building, the exposed brickwork was conserved and then painted white.  Wherever it could not be conserved, it was replaced with newly manufactured brick-effect tiles. Matt white tiles from the Crafted collection by WOW were used on the walls of the kitchen, behind the living room sofa, in the courtyard and also on the walls of the first-floor main bedroom.
The materials, furniture and interiors of the home all lend it a refreshing, welcoming, Mediterranean air. Its whole design, indoors and out, offers a new take on the traditional architecture of this historic beachside neighbourhood.

Saramar Home
Saramar Home is an architecture and interior design studio headed by Valencia-born Sara Martínez Requena. Its philosophy is to create homes conceived to make a positive impact on users' happiness and personal sense of balance.