This article was first published in The Post.
There’s a particular feeling that comes with getting a room exactly right. The way a kitchen suddenly feels like it belongs to someone with a genuine point of view. A bathroom that shifts from purely functional to somewhere you’d actually want to linger. Often, it comes down to a single decision. A tile.
It’s easy to underestimate what tiles can do. For years, many renovators treated them as a background choice: neutral, safe, forgettable. But that’s changing.
Across kitchens, bathrooms and laundries, New Zealanders are starting to treat tiles as the design statement they’ve always had the potential to be.
Think earthy terracotta warming a laundry floor. Handmade Zellige on a splashback catching the light in a way no factory-pressed tile ever could. A mosaic feature wall that gives a bathroom real character without demanding a full-scale renovation. These aren’t gestures reserved for architectural builds or unlimited budgets, they’re the kind of considered choices that make everyday spaces feel genuinely special.
That shift in thinking is exactly what ABI Interiors had in mind when it launched its boutique tile collection in September 2024. The range draws on ABI’s co- founder’s Japanese heritage and European design influences, resulting in a collection that feels considered from every angle.
Spanning Ceramic, Zellige, Mosaic, and Porcelain, there are floor and wall options for the kitchen, bathroom and laundry, with smaller-format pieces ideal for splashbacks and feature walls.
The handmade and handmade-look tiles are the standout. Each Zellige piece is shaped from natural clay, with gentle variations in shade and texture that give a space a real soul. And because each tile is designed to sit naturally alongside ABI’s tapware and fixtures, pulling a cohesive look together has never been easier.
Explore the full collection at abiinteriors.co.nz, or visit the Auckland showroom at 165 The Strand, Parnell.
