Jet Black Skirting Tile 152x152mm

Yes. Artworks Jet Black is rated for internal walls, wet and dry, which takes in a shower enclosure, wet room walls, the wall behind a bath and a splashback. The glaze is non-porous and needs no sealing, and ordinary cleaning is warm water and a mild detergent.

One thing to know before you commit: a mirror-gloss black shows water marks and limescale more readily than a pale glaze does, because every deposit interrupts the reflection. It wipes off easily enough, but in a hard water area a shower wall in this colour wants a squeegee kept beside it. What the range is not rated for is a floor — Artworks is a wall glaze throughout.

No. Artworks is a wall range and a gloss wall glaze is not made to be walked on: underfoot it scuffs, loses its shine and becomes slippery when wet. That applies to all thirty-two shapes stocked in Jet Black, from the field tile to the 12mm Omega bead.

It need not limit the scheme at all — a black wall above a patterned floor is one of the most reliable pairings in period decoration. Tell us the room and we will put a proper floor tile beside it. Call 01344 620211, or come to 67 High Street, Ascot, and we will lay the two together.

Very little, and less than on almost anything else in the range. A dense opaque black has nowhere to vary in hue, so what differs between production batches is really the level of gloss rather than the colour. It is slight, but on a surface whose whole business is reflection even a small difference in sheen can be picked up across one wall.

Order the whole job in one go and ask us to confirm the batch when we book it. Keep a spare box from that batch too: a replacement drawn from it will disappear into the wall in a way that one ordered three years later may not.

Fix with a white flexible adhesive. The grout is the decision that shapes the whole result, and on this glaze it settles one question: whether you want a reflective plane or a black grid. Both are proper finishes and the choice is yours.

A dark grout pitched close to the tile lets the wall read as one unbroken sheet, and that is what makes the reflection work — an uninterrupted gloss surface returns the window, the lamp and the metalwork, and the mouldings then do all the drawing. A brilliant white grout gives the opposite and equally traditional result: the hard graphic black-and-white, every tile a separate square. Choose white deliberately, and only if the setting-out is accurate, because nothing hides. A mid grey is the one tone to leave alone — too light to disappear, too dark to read as a drawn line.

One practical point whichever you pick: grout haze and smears show more on a deep gloss black than on anything else we sell. Sponge off thoroughly while the grout is still damp, and go back over the wall once more before it dries.

Jet Black is usually in stock across all thirty-two shapes we hold, which is the fullest list we carry in any single Artworks colour. Send your quantities over and we will confirm availability and a delivery date before anything is committed, so the tiling can be booked into the programme with confidence.

Delivery is free on UK orders over £1,000. You are very welcome at our family-run showroom at 67 High Street, Ascot, where the Original Style range can be seen in person, or speak to the team on 01344 620211.

Jet Black is the darkest glaze Original Style make, and the thing that distinguishes it is not simply that it is dark but that it is opaque and mirror-glossy. It reflects. A high-gloss black wall returns the window, the lamp and the metalwork in the room, and on a moulded profile what you see travelling along the section is a highlight rather than a change in the colour of the glaze. Original Style put it well: the planes and contours are brought to life by deep reflections, in a constant dance of light and shade.

The nearest neighbour in the range is Charcoal Grey, which is a touch lighter and, more to the point, semi-opaque — so on a moulding its glaze varies in tone rather than throwing a moving highlight. If you want the profile softened, Charcoal Grey; if you want it lit, Jet Black. Artworks runs to six greys and neutrals in all: Chancel Grey, Westminster Grey, London Stone, Charcoal Grey, Jet Black and Platinum.

A gloss black is the hardest surface of all to judge from a photograph, because what a camera records is mostly whatever the studio lighting happened to be. Order a sample and stand it against the actual wall, in daylight and again under the lamps you use at night. Cut samples are free to collect from our Ascot showroom, or posted to you for the cost of postage.

Thirty-two, which is the fullest list of any Artworks colour we stock. The flat formats are the Field Tile 152x152mm, the Half Tile 152x76mm, the Large Brick 228x75mm, the Metro Bevelled tiles in 150x75mm and 75x75mm, and the Rectangle slip at 152x25mm. The trims and edges are the Skirting Tile, the Plain Cornice, an External and an Internal Corner Trim, and the Rounded Edge Long and Short.

Then ten mouldings — Victoria, Egg & Dart, Dentil, Rope, Albert, Hogarth, Scroll, Sigma, Astragal and Omega — six handed corner pieces for the Albert, Victoria and Skirting in both left and right hands, and four wrapping pieces, internal and external, for both full-tile and half-tile coursing. The practical upshot is that a scheme can turn every corner and close every edge in this one glaze without a single mitre or cut edge showing.

Two things we do not keep on the shelf. Original Style make the Round Edge External in Jet Black to order only, subject to a minimum quantity and a manufacturing lead time. They also list a Metro Bevelled Corner in this colour which we do not stock, though we can order it in. Tell us early which of them your setting-out needs and we will price them and give you a realistic date. Call the team on 01344 620211.

Yes. Cut samples are free to collect from our Ascot showroom, or we can post one to you for the cost of postage. Seeing the glaze in your own light is the surest way to judge how it will sit against your paint, stone and metalwork.

As a guide, add around 10% to your measured area for cuts and breakages, and nearer 15% for a herringbone, diagonal or brick-bond layout. It is also worth keeping a few spare tiles from the same batch in case a repair is ever needed.

Almost anything, which is the practical advantage of a true black: it has no undertone to clash with. The pairings that work hardest are metal and glass, because the glaze reflects them — unlacquered brass and aged gold sit beautifully against it, as do polished chrome and nickel for a cooler reading, and mirror and cut glass double the effect.

Beyond that: white sanitaryware for relief, cream or off-white paintwork above a tiled band, mahogany and other dark timbers, marble, and a black-and-white geometric floor beneath. The one thing worth thinking about is where the light comes from, since a reflective wall is only as interesting as what there is to reflect — a window, a mirror opposite, or a good wall light will all repay the choice.

Original Style named this glaze after jet, the fossilised wood worked at Whitby and the black material of choice in Victorian jewellery. That is why a black tile of this kind reads as period-correct in a nineteenth-century scheme rather than as a modern minimalist choice.