Coverings: The Global Tile & Stone Experience happens every Spring, sandwiched between Spain’s Cevisama and Italy’s Cersaie expos. Both of those nations are leaders in ceramic and porcelain surfacing, and both, along with the Tile Council of North America and several other trade groups, host this annual U.S.-based event. The opportunity to see the latest trends and innovations from around the world – including lesser known tile and stone exporters like Türkiye, Portugal and, notably, Brazil – without a passport or jet lag is irresistible to this aging trend spotter. Thus, I always say yes to being included in the Coverings press tour. And I always venture beyond the official talks and tours to explore the show floor on my own. These are my findings from the 2024 expo in Atlanta this past April.

First Impressions

Ceramic and porcelain surfaces have a lot to tout these days, as wellness, resilience and sustainability concerns take center stage for many specifiers and homeowners. Plastics have been a growing issue, even while luxury vinyl tile use proliferates. Ceramic and porcelain don’t create toxic waste like plastic-based surfaces, including LVT, do.

Uber-popular engineered stone countertops have also come under fire for the silicosis risk they present to fabricators; Australia has already banned the material and California is monitoring the industry’s safety improvements to see if our country’s largest state needs to do the same. Why is that relevant to Coverings, you might ask? Here’s why: in recent years, porcelain slabs have become a popular low-silica alternative, offering durability, low maintenance, innovation opportunities and style points, while also being outdoor friendly, something generally not available in engineered stone surfacing. (This was very much on display at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in February, with popular quartz brands showcasing porcelain and mineral alternatives.)

Resilience has also become a growing concern for specifiers, insurers, government officials and homeowners, with porcelain increasingly seen as a viable exterior cladding material. Unlike many composite materials on the market, it won’t burn even when hit by flying embers, and it won’t release toxins into the air, keeping the property safer for evacuation, rescue and firefighting.

This combination of wellness, safety and resilience benefits, I believe, is why nations like Brazil are investing heavily in porcelain manufacturing and exporting, and why they bring their wares to Coverings. With anticipated post-war rebuilds in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as rebuilds across the globe from storm and wildfire damage, along with addressing housing shortages in many regions, there’s ample business in the construction sector. Leading that trend, according to the Global Wellness Institute in its “2024 Wellness Real Estate Report,” is residential construction. Porcelain and ceramic fit that wellness profile perfectly. Will your business take part in these opportunities?

Innovations

Trend Spotting readers are likely familiar with the integration of induction hobs and cell phone charging into porcelain slab countertops. On display at Coverings this year were some add-ons to that technology integration trend. Porcelanosa was showcasing its Smart Kitchen system that comes with a compliant cordless countertop blender. Theoretically, any small appliance using the same type of wireless inductive electrification technology will also work. Will this type of offering spur development of more compatible small countertop appliances? Quite possibly! Food processors, toaster ovens, coffee makers and air fryers are all popular categories that could be added in the future.

Porcelanosa was also showcasing a line of water-resistant cabinetry called Emotions. With floods being America’s second most common insurance claim (according to the Insurance Information Institute), that’s a development worth noting.

EMAC, another Spanish manufacturer, was showcasing LED integration in its ECLIPSE profiles collection. In baseboards, stair risers and decorative fixtures (interior or exterior), this feature provides illumination for nighttime safety. It also provides accent lighting. The option for LED system integrated in the profiles can be motion, pressure or timer activated.

Houston-based Moderno Porcelain Works was showcasing two notable innovations at its booth. One was called MightySlab, introducing a new way to produce oversized porcelain slabs. Its patent-pending system of 6mm porcelain with a Moderno Core Board backer and resin mesh can make it more durable during shipping and fabrication, according to the manufacturer. This is an issue that sometimes arises when using this material. The combined slabs reduce breakage and installation time, while not noticeably impacting the weight of the 63″x126″ pieces. (Moderno says no special equipment is needed to fabricate them, a boon to fabricators, many of whom have been challenged by these new materials.)

Moderno also showcased its MightyMagnet system, which lets users add floating shelves to their porcelain clad walls without drilling into the surface. The magnetic shelves pair with MightySlabs for shower, fireplace, backsplash or any other wall where open storage adds functionality and style. It’s possible that this same magnetic strategy can work in the future for other elements, like hooks, towel bars, toilet paper holders and the like. One can hope!

Italian brand Casalgrande Padana was showing off its Aquatio series of shower pans and integrated sink vanity tops, making porcelain fixtures easier to install for specifiers. The sinks have hidden drains and the shower pans have integrated drains and a 2″ slope for drainage.

Another innovation was from WOW’s new Sukabumi collection. The Spanish brand created unexpectedly delightful tiles for use in pools and spas or on shower floors that give the illusion of changing colors with the play of light and water.

Style Trends

A major style trend on display was fluting. Whether sharply ridged or softly undulating, these dimensional wall tiles were everywhere! Another major trend was the skinny brick format, most 2″ or 3″ wide and anywhere from 12″ to 16″ long. Some were made to look like actual brick, and some like marble or wood, while others, like Estudio Ceramica’s Karatsu Spanish tiles, were deeply rich and glossy hued.

Another style trend was the dimensionality of natural stone looks rendered in porcelain. This trend showed up in several collections last year, and really took off in 2024. Deservedly so! All of the veins in these large-format tiles and slabs are ‘carved’ to produce a more organic look and texture, as though the naturally occurring fissures in the stones they’re rendering are real. This was on display across the show floor, usually in large slabs for wall installation. Several, like Italian ABK’s, were book-matched for even more realism and drama.

The realistic wood and stone looks tie into a larger biophilia trend, bringing love of nature indoors. There were fewer dramatic floral or fauna prints this year, leaning more toward subtle and sophisticated looks, especially popular marble styles.

I saw far fewer wood-look tiles at this year’s show. The ones that were on display were more realistic and rustic, with many offerings being lighter in color and feel. There was also a shift toward oversized planks in the wood-look trend, like Tennessee-based MILEstone’s 12″x70″ wet space-rated Malibu series. Italian Ceramica Rondine and a few other brands used wood-look tiles to create handsome and very resilient wainscoting displays and images. (This look can go into spaces as wet in full bathrooms, rooms where you’d never specify wood!)

Resilience Trend

Speaking of resilience, I’ve been on the lookout these past few shows for exterior porcelain cladding, a phenomenal resource for wildfire country, as I’ve shared in Trend Spotting before. Tennessee-based Landmark was showing its WallPlay for outdoor facades and a Frontier20 series for coordinating indoor and outdoor walls. Spanish brand Gresmanc was displaying its Favemanc series for exterior cladding too. I expect to see even more at future expos as wildfire seasons extend and worsen.

A study conducted by the California Air Resources Board after the state’s deadliest wildfire in 2018, which compared the blaze to other large burns that fed on vegetation (instead of homes and other buildings): “When structures burn, they can produce a range of harmful and toxic substances. CARB’s analysis shows this was indeed the case during the Camp Fire, which burned for two and a half weeks.” Choosing resilient, nontoxic, nonflammable materials (like porcelain) for exterior cladding, roofing materials and interior surfaces makes these buildings safer for occupants and individuals outside too.

Brazil’s Big Deal Opportunity

Many of the countries exhibiting at Coverings were showcasing the beauty of their natural stone offerings. One, notably, was showcasing its growing porcelain slab and tile industry. The oversized slab sector is particularly notable, as so few nations have the facilities to manufacture them.

While many of the oversized slabs offered by Tile Council of North America U.S.-based members are produced by their Italian parent companies and suppliers, two firms (and possibly others I didn’t speak with), Grupo Lamosa and Portobello America, get slabs from Brazil. Will others follow in future years? Stay tuned!

The U.S. is Brazil’s largest and most important export market, its Coverings representative told me, which explains the 16 participating Ceramics of Brazil exhibitors at the Atlanta expo this year. The trade group was created in 2001 and has experienced tremendous growth these past two-plus decades. Statistics from TCNA put the South American country in the top five import nations by volume with the two oversized slab leaders, Italy and Spain. That’s not all that Brazil’s ceramics industry manufactures or exports, but it’s the most challenging, sophisticated and – most significantly – hard-to-replicate success. It’s also a fast-growing category for the industry with tremendous potential in the next decade.

Last Words

Given my enthusiasm for porcelain tile and the forbearance of the show’s public relations agency and corporate sponsors, I’ll almost certainly be at Coverings 2025 in Orlando. Will you be there too? I hope so. It’s always fun to cross paths with readers at trade events. Please say hi if you see me ogling sexy stone-look slabs on the show floor; I’ll probably be the weirdo running my fingers gently along their textured veins. 

Jamie Gold, CKD, CAPS, MCCWC is an author, wellness design consultant and industry speaker. Her award-winning third book, Wellness by Design (Simon & Schuster, 2020), has a new Bonus Chapter: Lessons for How We Live Now, published October 2023. Learn more about her wellness design CEU presentations, books, blog and consulting services at jamiegold.net.