108. Tudor space invaders

I’ve tiled the greenhouse wall

30th June 2016

There’s a ten-foot-high south-facing wall in our first-floor greenhouse, perfect for growing a peach up. To help plump up our future peaches, I have just finished tiling this wall with Moroccan tiles. These will absorb the heat of the morning sun and so help to keep the peaches warm as the day cools.

The 100mm x 100mm tiles are hand-made, wood-fired and hand-cut, which means that every tile is different. The variations in colour and texture are what make them special but it’s the variations in size and thickness that make installation a bit tricky. However there’s only so much you can do to smooth out such differences. I decided to go with the flow and celebrate the wonkiness of the tiles.

The pattern I picked out was inspired by a wall in Hampton Court Palace that I have long admired: a playful celebration of brick diapers that looks like an early version of space invaders. I have adapted the original two-tone brick pattern for three colours in square tiles. Although the patterns are quite simple, I still had to take care, working from the bottom up, that everything met in the right place. I marked out the colours with arrows on the wall, row by row as I went up, to be 100% sure.

The tiles came from Fez, so we will be instituting a house rule that anyone entering the greenhouse must wear the eponymous headwear of this city. Akbar and Jeff, we salute you!