ICONIC Portfolio
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*inspired by the belief that "the earth never goes out of style," we blend modern, organic design and intentional living where form and function coexist seamlessly.
ICONIC Portfolio
Shop
About
*inspired by the belief that "the earth never goes out of style," we blend modern, organic design and intentional living where form and function coexist seamlessly.
Marble or Dirt
The Making of SUBSTRATE
05
It's no surprise that my design philosophy revolves around taking inspiration from nature. I find that I can never run out of unique textures, color palettes, or shapes when I look to nature. I ’ve always felt a deep connection to the desert. I love living here and believe it’s far more diverse than most people realize. That said, traveling to different climates—whether it's coastal retreats, high-altitude getaways, or bustling cities—inspires me to incorporate elements of those unique environments into my projects.
Often times, I find that too many people just turn to Pinterest to find inspiration for their home renovation, new build or furnishing project. This approach often leads to very trendy design decisions, an unclear vision and quick regret. When I work with my clients, my first question is 'how do you want your home to feel?". Their first few words are very telling, it can be as simple as 'calm', 'organized', 'playful' or 'bold'. I never pressure my clients to use bucket terms like 'modern', 'traditional', etc. The next exploration are the surroundings of the property as well as the architecture. Depending on the project, we may be working with new construction or an existing building. It's important to understand the architectural intention and how it connects to the surrounding landscape. These will point you in the direction you should go with the interior design.
For example, with this exercise above, you may come to the conclusion of "calm", "minimal", "organized" with Mid-Century architecture in desert landscape OR "bold", "playful", "organized" with Contemporary architecture in coastal surroundings. Calm and minimal will lean itself to more repetition in materials, closed storage, simple lighting, etc. The Mid-Century aspect will allow you to bring in geometric shapes and desert landscape will bring warm, earthy tones. Bold and playful will lean itself to more layered fabrics and wallpapers and sculptural lighting fixtures. The Contemporary aspect will allow you to play with scale and metal finishes and coastal landscape will bring in blues and corals and rugged textures.
Within SUBSTRATE, I've curated my favorite tiles from Spain, Italy and more, to bring you a refined collection of tile options that can be paired together interchangeably. To further refine the selections, I've specifically curated sample boxes based on the landscape. We have five different sample boxes total - Relaxing in the Desert, Exploring the City, Up in the Mountains, Along the Coast and KW Picks. Each sample box was curated specifically with these landscapes in mind and provide a variety of tiles from large format, mosaics, breeze block, porcelain, marble, terrazzo, clay and more, to allow you to spec an entire home of tile from this one collection. You can mix these tiles confidently, knowing that no matter how you pair them together, your space will feel balanced. The KW Picks box is the most eclectic of the bunch, as they are my personal picks and combine all of my favorite things. If you're feeling a bit more daring, this may be the box for you.
In addition, we also have a semi-custom tile line, which may be for the person who wants something truly one-of-a-kind. With 25 different color options, all named after U.S. National Parks, and various shape options, you can create your own pattern unique to you. Order the color chips sample box to view all of the diverse color options.
To ease the specification process, we've included technical spec sheets of every tile, high res imagery and a customer support team, here to answer your questions.
I absolutely cannot wait to launch SUBSTRATE into the world, she's already specified in several upcoming ICONIC projects and coming to consumers early 2025. Shop at substratetile.com
Kaitlyn Wolfe