The location of this 1931 California Spanish style home is quite unusual. It sits on the shoreline overlooking Carmen Bay on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.

The current owners decided to increase the size of the home to accommodate their growing family and hired historic renovation specialist Rob Whittlef of Historic Studio to take on the challenge. Native Tile was brought on to create tile that would satisfy the clients tastes and compliment the historic fabric that was already existing. We happily discovered that the home had pristine historic Batchelder Tile installed throughout the original property. We incorporated patterns inspired by a smaller series of more colorful tiles made by the historic Batchelder Tile Co. Expressing the need for a soft and warm palette we created historically accurate patterns in a glaze color pallet that thrilled the clients. We created tile for several bathrooms, the kitchen backsplash, laundry room, and custom terracotta flooring throughout the new spaces. One interesting challenge was a request to create a small mural for one of the guest bathrooms that included reference to the land’s previous use as an apple orchard and the house showing its lake front location. For the large great-room floor we created a border in various sizes of terracotta tile consistent with historic Batchelder flooring installations. Within the border we included a series of 4”x4” Mayan themed carved tiles similar to existing tiles. For these paver tiles we adjusted our firing temperatures slightly from batch to batch to intentionally create a variation in color from burnt red brown to rich dark brown creating a warm inviting space. As you view the completed home you walk away with a sense of the rich history in combination with touches that definitely tell the story of the current owners.

Photos by Brica Wilcox