Hello AT,
We are looking to start our kitchen renovation in 2 weeks and are having trouble finding the right backsplash.
We were at Nemo Tiles last week and found a really great, natural looking and eco-friendly tile made from coconut shells.
It seems like a wonderful way to break the texture in the kitchen.
We have a silestone countertop, steel appliances, a mud-washed- looking stone floor tile and medium brown cabinets.
The coconut tiles seem to complement the "contemporary-earthy-natural" look (is there such a thing?) we want in our kitchen (except we have a steel backsplash behind the cooktop to keep away the grease)...
Nemo claims it works well in dry areas, but I'm skeptical about the durability. (P.S. The service at Nemo is terrible, I wish some other place would carry this tile).
Have you heard of this coconut tile before? Any reviews on how good it works as a kitchen backsplash?
Would love to hear what you think of this?
Thanks! Vidula
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Comments (11)
From the photo, it looks like it would be very difficult to clean.
I'd lean towards recycled glass...
It's pretty in a Gilligan's Island kind of way, but I just don't think I could do it.
Blech.
Actually its a really neat and truly green product. It also comes in tons of finishes. Coconuts are seriously watertight and have a natural resin in them that is resistant to insects, decomposition and makes them so hard. Having seen it in person, I think its a really great product. Some of it doesn't look like coconut at all, more like fossilized stone.
Check the maker's website for a full rundown:
http://www.ekobebrasil.com/site_en/
Interesting, but not for me. It looks like it would be too difficult to keep clean.
I agree.. even if you are sure that it is watertight I still would be concerned about dust and grime building up on the textured surface. Especially within a kitchen.
thanks for the link to that site, CarlW, i really liked several of the featured coconut treatments.
i just hope the material has been garnered from places like restaurants and food-processing plants which utilized the meat and milk and opted to donate the husks.
i'd hate for yet another ecosystem and/or native community to be disrupted just to make way for acres of coconut farms per the trend of the moment.
I don't like the picture that's included, but the stuff on Ekobe's site looks really nice, or at least some of them do. The picture at the top looks like they're three-dimensional, but the Ekobe ones make it look like the tiles are pretty flat. As far as clean-up, how many people actually clean the walls of their kitchen regularly, or even on a every-few-years basis? I don't think I'd worry about it unless I was a person who cooked with grease or fried things a lot. For what it's worth, I liked PCRH-30 best, followed by MR-30.
can you mount a layer of glass over it, maybe with a 1/4" spacer so it looks "on purpose" (i.e. like a design element). that way you'd get ease of wipe-down, but still get your natural/neutral with a little modernized touch.
Ehhh, this looks about as lovely as the "peach pit" floors that were shown a week ago.
With all that natural stuff in the kitchen, go for something a little sleeker on the walls. Find a good green or goldish tile, or something.
I've seen these in person and I agree with CarlW. The photo you showed are tiles from the inside of the coconut. There are others where the exterior is exposed. They can be wiped down either way. The website has lots of info on the product.
Also, you don't have to get them from Nemo, since you've had a bad experience. Ekobe can be purchased at www.wholesaletile.biz. They have excellent customer service!