Luke Edward Hall recently gave his advice on the most beautiful tiles for your fireplace in The Financial Times, and summed up with 'Give neglected old tiles a delightful new home - I am entranced by the idea of using those reclaimed from a crumbling finca, farmhouse or railway station.'
 
Apart from answering the fireplace tile dilemma he also suggests odd tiles used propped up as decoration or colourful saucers for pot plants.
 
Luke worked for architectural and interior designer, Ben Pentreath. Luke now gives interior design and stylish living advice: follow him on Instagram @lukeedwardhall or email [email protected].
 
So inspired by Luke, I have chosen just a few of the beautiful antique and reclaimed tiles for sale on the Salvo online marketplace. Tiles can also be sourced from one of the many architectural salvage and antiques dealers listed in the Salvo directory. We would especially recommend looking out for the Crane logo, showing Salvo members, who follow the Salvo Code. A voluntary code for good practice in buying and selling architectural salvage, antique garden ornament and reclaimed building materials. The Salvo Code aims to give customers greater confidence.
 
Do a general 'tiles' search to find what is available and be surprised what you find when rummaging around the Salvo website. The last tile Salvo advert image, placed on the Salvo marketplace in 2017 are a batch of reclaimed geometric blue and white tiles from English Salvage but they are all still current and available for sale. The Salvo website is not like eBay, where adverts only last for a few days or weeks. the Salvo online marketplace sells unique salvaged items which can sometimes take a while to match to a buyer so it is quite normal for stocks to be available for years.
 
Another beautiful reclaimed tile choice is mosaic. The Romans use of mosaic tiles is well known. They were made by reusing old broken pieces of pottery and clay. Panels made in a workshop would then transported and fitted onsite. This made it possible for an expensive mosaic floor to be transported again onto a new location if you moved house. A good modern example of mosaic recrafted from antique tiles, marble and Murano glass tesserae are for sale from LaFleche Design, based in Italy, as shown.
 
Statement features using geometric, asymmetrical shapes, mosaic tile using bright colour or neutrals, ceramic or natural stone contrasted with wood tiles can all be used on a wall or floor. Alternatively just use antique and reclaimed tiles as a simple style feature on their own to bring colour and interest into a room.
 
All the tiles shown are currently for sale on the Salvo online marketplace and some come with fireplaces.