In May of this year, I had the opportunity to visit Artistic Tile, the Secaucus, N.J.-based importer of stone and supplier of select tile, at two of its locations. First was a tour through the company’s inaugural showroom, now relocated in the Design Center across the street from its original Paramus locale. It’s a true showcase for the company’s impressive collection of unique and exclusive stone and tile offerings that has exploded from when Nancy Epstein began the company in 1987. The following week I took a journey through the 25,000-sq.-ft. Secaucus slab yard, a spin through the water-jet process by which exotic stones and tiles are transformed into stunning mosaics for walls and floors, and a peek at the design department.
The showroom
Maya Ahluwalia, Director of Marketing, Sharon Green, Showroom Manager, and Vice President of Design Jill Cohen guided me through the sumptuous offerings in Paramus, that joins eight other company showrooms in Shrewsbury, N.J., New York City, White Plains, N.Y., Chicago, Nashville, Dallas and San Francisco. Artistic Tile serves over 200 dealers, primarily in the U.S., but also with representation in England, China, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.
The 2,600-sq.-ft. Paramus site opened in January 2024, with an April grand opening. Artistic Tile designed the space in-house, complete with custom, purposeful fixturing that reflects the company branding. Adding to the space’s appeal is a profusion of light streaming through an abundance of windows, and a variety of vignettes. “We serve a lot of homeowners here,” Green said. “Vignettes help them see and visualize.”
“Serve” is a key term at Artistic Tile, and commitment to its customers is evident not only in the careful curation of the space and the products, but the warm, inviting atmosphere crafted by showroom staff. The company prides itself on personalized service that offers exquisite product and customer support. That starts with rigid quality control on every shipment to ensure consistency. “Personal attention is needed because these are natural materials,” Cohen said. “We can tell customers where the stone comes from, range, how it is installed, and what it should be installed with. Real stone slabs are ART.”
Green added, “Each showroom has a list of preferred installers.” To support the technical aspects of the products before they are even purchased – and their installation – Tom Hardy was recently brought on as Technical Director.
Cohen explained that much of product design is done in N.J. – as well as testing and customization – and then stocked with overseas-made products.
But an array of designs are produced in N.J., too, at the Secaucus facility. Ahluwalia explained that the company’s Moon Jazz Glass and Moon Cosmati patterns in the Made in America line were both developed during COVID, in response to supply chain disruptions. “We wanted to emphasize in-house capability and show Artistic Tile could make and stock in N.J.,” she said. They originally were made-to-order designs, but due to popularity, are now stocked items in the line.
4K screens show installations and renderings “that create an immersive experience for clients,” said Ahluwalia. Displays of tile garments from the company’s Bringing Art to Life ad campaign punctuate the space. The campaign featured performers in 2021, and this year celebrates craftspeople and artisans, all clothed in stunning creations of stone and glass.
The showroom has a mini slab area, a workshop area with a range of Calacatta Gold to help clients visualize the range of the product, and designer concept boards that adorn the walls. The “Walk of Calmness,” as coined by Green, is a section of the floor set with laser-cut field tiles of quartzite and limestone, showing how they can be cut to align veins. Calacatta Macheveccia – a stone that used to be spurned but is now prized for its warm, aged rust tones – is featured in the kitchen area, with quartzite on the counter, and luscious lilac marble in the working bathroom.
Signature lines throughout the showroom from designers like Ali Budd, Alison Rose, Lori Weitzner and Michelle Gerson are featured in vignettes and concept boards.
Ceramic tiles are also part of Artistic Tile’s stable of products – Pratt and Larson handmade American ceramics, Encore and Quemere – but the focus is on stone. “We have a curated selection of porcelain, some wood look as well as durable and specialty finishes like metal and plaster,” Cohen said.
The slab yard
The following week, I navigated through the labyrinthine tangle of parkways, turnpikes, routes, roads and highways in and around Secaucus to arrive at Artistic Tile’s headquarters. Michael Epstein, Leading IT & Marketing Officer, President & Chief Sales Officer Lauren Cherkas, and Zachary Epstein, President & Chief Product Officer, greeted a group of designers and media visiting from the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in Manhattan. Zachary Epstein led the tour of the 25,000-sq.-ft. slab yard, armed with oodles of knowledge about stone slabs from around the world. He shared information about trends, which have swung from cool tones to warm, satin-feel stones. We toured through brecciated stone, bookmatched slabs, quartzites like Tempest Blue from Brazil, Cristallo White Diamond Slab from Brazil – the #1 quartz this year, Epstein said – Calacatta Turquoise with oyster shells in the veining, stones with leathered finishes that accentuate veining, a translucent Persian Pink Onyx from Iraq, and a Vietnamese green bookmatched collage slab. Epstein noted that quality and popularity of Greek marbles are running neck and neck with Italian marbles right now, and good marbles are also coming out of China.
Next was the production tour. Vice President of Operations Gerard Esmail guided us through the refinishing and mosaic calibration equipment, plus the finishing equipment that provides honed, i-honed (more reflective than honed), polished or leathered finish to the stone, and assortments of grinding pads and brushes. Stones fit into trays and are cut with grinding wheels to create mosaic pieces.
The solar-powered water jet process is a marvel to behold. It uses rainwater collected from the roof that is released into the system and sterilized with light. Slurry goes into a filter press and is used for clean landfill or concrete. Water is pumped at high pressure through stainless steel conduit at Mach3 and 50,000 psi. Garnet grains are introduced into the stream – and that’s what cuts the stone in the desired direction. Artistic Tile uses both 2-head machines and 4-head machines in the Flow waterjet system.
Esmail explained, “Mosaics are designed for durability since they have to be cut and moved and packed and shipped – and dropped on the floor in a pallet.” Acrylic trays hold the cut stone pieces to form the design and facilitate face taping.
The tour wrapped up with a top-secret swing through the design department, with sneak peeks at new products in development. Jill Cohen narrated this part of the tour, noting tumbled designs were gaining ground, as were textile-inspired patterns, and a “tympanic shift” into warm colors, with texturally-rich honed finishes. She also showed us how patterns are initially crafted in foam using a CNC machine and once perfected, are created in stone.
The one-two punch of the Paramus showroom tour and the room where it happens in Secaucus clearly illustrated the vast capabilities offered by Artistic Tile’s impressive and exotic inventory, design excellence and personalized service. The company also provides exclusive pricing and complimentary samples with free expedited shipping options for its trade members. If it’s stone, have confidence that Artistic Tile will rock your project.
Technical tip: safeguarding stone
Zachary Epstein President & Chief Product Officer gave designers and media visiting the company’s slab yard some suggestions for successfully using stone ANYWHERE – yes, even in the kitchen.
“Sometimes customers hear that they can’t use marble
in the kitchen because it stains,” he said. “All natural stones must be sealed to prevent that.” He recommended Aqua Mix Sealers Choice Gold at a minimum of three coats to protect marble and stone. “You can get 7-15 years between sealing,” he said.
“It also protects against stains.
“The enemy of marble is ACID – lemon, vinegar, even milk, will etch the surface to a dull finish,” he continued. This is where watermarks
and rings from coffee cups come from, acid eating into the soft calcium, especially in marble. “Honed surfaces are more forgiving,” he said. “Still, seal three times. Stone will patina over time.”
Calcium is a two-edged sword though, since it also gives marble like Carrara, Calacatta, Statuario, Thassos or Danby marble its distinct white quality and Epstein
said a “true” white can’t be achieved without it. That’s why quartzite, which is devoid of calcium, is a much harder, more durable stone and has a grey or brown background.
Another way to protect that soft marble and other natural stones, Epstein said, is using MORE Anti-Etch – applied by professional applicators. “Even if stone is etched, [the professional applicators] will grind/remove the top layer, add acrylic and cure with UV light and then apply MORE Anti-Etch. There is a guarantee against etching for 7-10 years.”
To demonstrate, red wine was poured on treated and untreated Calacatta and left to sit while the group toured the facility. We got to witness the etching on the untreated sample when we returned at the end of the tour, and the unblemished, pristine treated stone. – Lesley Goddin
Lesley Goddin has been writing and journaling since her first diary at age 11. Her journey has taken her through a career in publishing and publicity, landing her the editor position of TileLetter and its special publications in 2006. Her goal is to educate, inspire, recognize and encourage those in the tile industry -- especially the tile and stone contractor.
