Update: World of Tile closed in 2014. See our story on the liquidation sale (now completed) here.
Announcing the single most exciting discovery on the blog yet: World of Tile — a tile store that opened in Springfield, New Jersey, in 1957 and which is still open today. A lovely story of same-family-ownership small business longevity. But, the big news is that this tile store is chock full of new old stock NOS mint in box MIB vintage tile from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. GORGEOUS tile, and at what I consider very fair prices. You read it first here… !!!GeT Y@Ur T!Le FaSt!!!! — because once the fancy shmancy hotsy totsy New York interior design crowd finds out about this place (that is: starting NOW), they are going to rush on over to New Jersey and, I fear, wipe the place out.
My great big fat World of Tile story is so fantabulous, that I am dedicating the next several days to rolling the story out.
How we discovered World of Tile
First, I want to extend a huge THANK YOU to Jason and Nicky — who discovered World of Tile. Nicky, in particular. As you may recall, Jason and Nicky are intrepid renovators and they made a trek a few months back to Emily’s big stash of NOS tile in West Virginia, which I had discovered via the Forum.
As Jason explained to me by phone: After their trek to West Virginia, where they did buy some fab tile, they still needed some specific, mint-colored tile that they had in mind for a bathroom renovation. Nicky would NOT give up, and kept searching and searching online, following up on any little tidbit of information about a possible source that she could get. World of Tile was just one such tidbit. She saw it mentioned in a discussion forum somewhere, and with little expectation of success, she called World of Tile. Yes, World of Tile said, they had mint green tile. Old stuff. Vintage stuff. New old stock stuff. From the 1960s or so.
Pronto, Jason and Nicky drove three hours north to World of Tile, and it was then they discovered they had hit a motherlode. Now, “motherlode” is a quite a cliched term, but in this case, it really fits. When Jason and Nicky arrived home, Jason wrote me a long email and send lots of cameraphone photos. Here is an excerpt from Jason that pretty much sums up my feelings, too:
I expected to find a few varieties of vintage tile, but I never expected an entire store of vintage tile. I was speechless; I was actually incoherent. My wife found this greatly amusing, as I pretty much could only say ‘Wow’
Looking at all of Jason’s photos, I knew this place was going to be good, so as quickly as I could, I arranged my schedule to get down to World of Tile to see for myself. The place is about three hours south from my house. It did not disappoint. The owner Chippy — as in “little chip off the old block” — was very very gracious and kind. She gave me a tour of the 5 showrooms upstairs… I also toured the downstairs, where they store all the tile… I took hundreds of photos… and even made a video walking through the entire store so that you can see for yourself what a retro wonderland it is.
World of Tile, we loved you so
Again, update: World of Tile has now closed. See our story on the liquidation sale (now completed) here.
Meanwhile, here are 100+ photos from my trip to BLOW YOUR MIND. Note, I am showing all these photos, so you — Retro Renovation readers — can get a jump start going after any tile you need. You can get both replacement tile, and full orders.
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See all our stories on World of Tile by clicking here.
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Oh and howdy hudee, The New York Times came with me on this visit — read the story they did on the blog (and World of Tile)!
To play slide show: Click on an image… it will enlarge… use arrows below image to move forward or back… you can start at any image.
Annie B. says
Talk about a time capsule! Thanks for the wonderful photos.
Bird says
Pam, in the second to last photo, it looks like there is a seahorse mosaic in the bottom left corner. Do you happen to have a photo of that?
pam kueber says
I think you are right, Bird. I’m not sure if I have a complete photo. I’ll continue to be showcasing closeups – watch the blog. If you’re interested – reach out to World of Tile directly.
Jen in Chicago says
It’s a retro wonderland!! Amazing!
Bird says
This store is incredible! What a find. I think a road trip may be in order…
Guy H. says
Wow! I wish i knew about this when I replaced my bathroom tile in March. I will definitely use them next time! I may have to dream up some projects too!
Barbara says
Just a big sigh and smile> Thanx for this find 🙂
Em says
WOW! My head hurts in a good way…
Dot says
Oh my!! That’s all I can say, everyone else has said it all! Good thing I live in MI and not closer, I would be a goner as soon as I walked in the door. Thanks.
monogirl says
Thanks for the recon trip and photos Pam. WOT’s stock is truly amazing, but how could it not be? Look at that sign and that building!
brneyedgrl80 says
I will most definitely be contacting them for some price quotes.
Currently getting underway to redo the bathroom. Was going to go with some of the Dal-tile mosaic flooring, but now I may have to check out this place instead. Why buy new replicated flooring when I can buy NOS actual vintage? lol
Some of their other tile gave me an awesome idea for trim pieces in the bathroom. Very excited.