Throughout March and April, Riad Tile hosted the Tile Madness tournament, pitting our distinctive varieties of tile against each other and letting our followers decide which would advance through the brackets. After some heated competition and spirited debate, a winner finally emerged: none other than Snow Zellige. Honestly, we weren’t exactly surprised. This bright, gorgeous white zellige tile is as versatile as it is unique, and it’s perfect for an amazing variety of different settings.
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Beyond winning Tile Madness, the rapidly-growing popularity of white zellige is something we’ve noticed, both among our customers and in the market at large. It really makes perfect sense; off-white is incredibly useful for balancing the light and dark of just about any space, and white zellige adds an additional dimension to a color scheme that, while practical, can skew toward being a bit on the unexciting side. With its gentle variations in color, unique texture, absolutely stunning glazed sheen, and singular, handcrafted appearance, white zellige tile is the perfect way to add neutrality without ever having to compromise on style.
At Riad Tile, we respect zellige for the art form that it is. All of our zellige is handmade by artisans in Morocco who have been making these exquisite tiles nearly the same way for generations. You can be sure that with Riad Tile, your zellige tiles will be crafted with the dedication to quality that you should be able to expect for your home decor. The result: a wholly unique variety of tile that has been perfected over centuries, now available to you.
Riad Tile’s Varieties of White Zellige Tile
As a proud purveyor of real Moroccan zellige, we are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest quality options at the lowest possible prices. We want to give you the tools you need to build the space of your dreams, and this remains true for our white zellige tile options. Our white zellige is available in two different shades, Snow and Natural White. These two distinct styles are the perfect example of how one shade of white can be profoundly different from another.
Snow is exceptionally simple and clean, exhibiting the signature zellige glaze with its bright color, while Natural White offers up a bit more variety, dipping into subtle beige and grey. Both have their own unique purposes and can be used to create different looks depending on where and how they are placed. Need to add a bit of texture to a stark and slightly plain space? You can do it with white zellige. Does the space feature a lot of dark colors that leave the room feeling cramped? White zellige can be used to add some levity.
Here are few examples of how our amazing customers use zellige to enhance their own spaces.
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We’ve got one word for this kitchen: stunning! Every single element in the space comes together masterfully, each building off the other toward the common goal of creating something gorgeous. This kitchen makes prominent use (to say the least!) of our Snow Zellige, seen here in 2×6, to soften the edges of the other colors, uniting them into a single outstanding palette. More than just elegant, this kitchen is incredibly interesting. Not too many kitchens feature the knockout combination of light green cabinets and black countertops. As great as this color match is, it can be a bit difficult to pull off, as these two colors can make a room seem too dark if they’re not offset by something fairly drastic. That’s what makes this kitchen the perfect candidate for Snow Zellige.
This application of white zellige tile serves to brighten up the kitchen enough to give these darker colors the space they need to look their best. The delicate, just off-white color is the perfect compliment to solid black countertops, offering up a level of contrast which is toned-down just enough by the darker tiles (remember, zellige tends to vary slightly in color). Additionally, this application is as much form as it is function. Zellige is an outstanding material for backsplashes, as its glimmering glaze makes it quite easy to clean. This white zellige backsplash ensures that every part of the kitchen, from sink to countertop to stovetop, is kept safe from any lasting stains.
As impressive as large scale zellige applications are, sometimes you need something a bit smaller to fit your space. Sometimes you just need a backsplash for the stovetop and countertops, like in this kitchen:
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Another super interesting color scheme, this kitchen’s deep blue is a great contrast to the white cabinets, bronze fixtures, and stainless steel appliances. But the backsplash is really what ties it all together in our opinion. The colors present in this kitchen are all quite bold, so they require something to act as a sort of in-between, something to ensure that the colors work together rather than against each other. 4×4 Snow Zellige was a perfect choice for this purpose, as it is just a bit darker than the bright white cabinets and countertops. It can be a bit odd to think of something as vibrant as white zellige tile as means to darken and add complexity to a space, but it serves its purpose well.
Outside of a few specific design styles, darker blue cabinets can be challenging to pull off well in a setting as prominent as the kitchen, but thanks to this customer’s keen design eye and some stylish zellige, this space positively exudes modern charm. Even the lighting in this space illuminates the backsplash in a truly brilliant way, guaranteeing that no guest will miss out on the gorgeous glaze. As demonstrated by this fabulous kitchen, which is so radically different from the one above, our Snow Zellige is far from being a one-trick pony.
As you can see in the examples above, white zellige tiles aren’t limited in their uses. Snow Zellige is lively enough to add brightness but is also varied enough in color to add the contrast needed to bring disparate colors and textures together. This versatility isn’t limited to Snow though. Our Natural White Zellige brings a similar adaptability to the table.
In this bathroom renovation, you can see how our Natural White Zellige tile is used to contrast almost exclusively dark decor:
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This Natural White Zellige in 4×4 augments this space’s fascinating color scheme and eclectic fixtures in a really intriguing way, serving to deepen the colors. Black countertops, while not the most commonplace, are a fabulous way to add a bit of rich darkness to space. The challenge is figuring out how to add black to space without making the room seem too gloomy. This customer accomplishes this goal with 2 elements, the first being the marbling in the black countertops, and the second being the zellige backsplash/vanity.
Black marble is a clever way of adding darkness to space without losing the levity needed to keep the room feeling welcoming and comfortable. The light-colored veining creates a natural contrast that both lightens the darker color and opens the countertops up to other contrasting elements. Because of the veining, this black marble countertop was perfectly postured to be contrasted by Natural White Zellige. The zellige in this bathroom works exceptionally well as a vanity and backsplash. It is just off-white enough to brighten up the dark wood cabinets while lively enough to offset the black marble and light-fixtures. In this photo, you can even see how the glazer catches the light, glinting with the iridescence that comes from these tiles’ slight variations and imperfections.
Like Snow, Natural White Zellige tiles are perfect for multiple settings. The previous bathroom space was rich and moody, but Natural White is a good choice for significantly brighter spaces as well:
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From bits of decor to fixtures to the natural light, it’s pretty clear that this kitchen is designed to be lively, vibrant, exciting, and colorful. This kitchen’s light and airy appearance is grounded by the addition of accent pieces that provide contrast and complexity. The natural grey countertops provide a pleasant texture that is just dark enough to match up with the natural vibrance of the room. This countertop is a great match for other key design elements, like the silver faucet and soft blue cabinets.
In this kitchen, the 4×4 Natural White Zellige tiles are an ideal choice for a handful of different reasons. For starters, the off-white color tones down the brightness of the room, ensuring that the natural light benefits the space rather than working to its detriment. Additionally, the different shades present within this application match the simple shelving fabulously, helping the natural wood look and feel right at home in this kitchen. In this kitchen, simplicity and vibrance is the name of the game, and our zellige tiles exhibit both of these qualities in spades.
What Makes White Zellige Tile Amazing in Today’s Homes?
This is actually a pretty common question with zellige. After all, this rustic Moroccan tile can seem an odd candidate for today’s sleek, modern kitchens and bathrooms. In reality, there are a lot of different ways to answer this question. One of the most obvious is their unique appearance.
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Zellige tiles bring together 2 sought-after qualities that are rarely seen together. 1- a shiny, glimmering glaze, and 2- rustic imperfections that can only come from being handmade. Zellige is among the only traditionally-crafted tiles that also includes a glazed enamel as a part of the tilemaking process. This isn’t some new innovation either. Zellige has always been made this way, it just never became readily available in the US until a couple of years ago. We were among the first US-based tile shops to offer this quirky variety of tile, and almost immediately after offering them, we saw orders for zellige skyrocket, especially white zellige.
Fortunately for you and everyone interested in zellige, this glazed tile isn’t just another in a long line of fleeting trends. As you can see in other cultures that have been using zellige for much longer, this style of tile is utterly timeless, with countless opportunities to use it around the home. It’s fairly durable, easy to clean, stain-resistant, and versatile without being a one-size-fits-all type of tile. Whatever you’re working on in your home, zellige can be used to enhance and add color, texture, and an irreplaceable sense of Old World charm.
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Though our Snow and Natural White Zellige tile are among our most popular offerings, Riad Tile is proud to offer multiple other colors of zellige in several different shapes. From the soft yet multifaceted Sea Green to the delicate, rosy Blush to to the bold and straightforward Black, our offerings are designed to provide you with the spectrum of color and style you need to craft the perfect space for you. All of our zellige is available in 4×4 and 2×6. Natural White and Snow are also both available in 2×2. We also offer Hexagon patterns for Snow only.
Build Your Perfect Space with Riad Tile
All of us at Riad Tile are dedicated to providing you with the design tools and options you need to craft something wholly and completely unique to your tastes. We set our low prices with the goal of giving you access to the high-quality materials you need to build a space that is free of compromise. If you’re interested in our white zellige tile or any of our other tiles in person, please feel free to order a sample, and we’ll ship it directly to your front door. With zellige, we recommend ordering a few tiles, that way you can get a better idea of how the slight variations in color and texture might look when applied together.
