Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Discount Temple of Tile

Everyone knows about Portland's two temples of tile, Ann Sacks and Pratt & Larson. But those really in the know head straight for Pratt & Larson's seconds room in the back of their Portland showroom. Now, if you need to tile the entire bathroom of your McMansion, this may not be the place to go since they have varying numbers of a variety of tile colors and shapes available. But if you need, say, a backsplash to go with your new cast concrete countertops and are willing to try a more artistic approach, this is perfect.

Very few of the tiles are blemished, and most are there because they didn't match the color of some picky southwest Portland diva's cat. And you can benefit from her distress to the tune of around $1 a pound. Does it get better than that? We say no!

Details: Pratt & Larson Tile, 1201 SE 3rd Ave. Phone 503-231-9464.

3 comments:

Ivy said...

Oh! How I love P and L! Dangerous. At one point, I thought it's be completely doable to tile the entire bathroom in "critter" tiles...racoons, moose, chickens, there were so many to choose from, I figure a zoo theme would never be dated. That's when Mr. Tofu led me away in a straight jacket.

Kathleen Bauer said...

I'm with you…which is why I had a friend with me, to keep me on the straight and narrow. Otherwise I get so overwhelmed with the choices!

Eric said...

Great to hear about P&L's seconds room. We do a similar thing at Fireclay Tile in San Jose, CA and always love when folks just like you discover it and have a positive experience with it. Thanks for the post as I enjoyed reading about what other manufacturers do.