Cement has definitely come a long way. In fact, if your most recent experience with Cement involves lugging dusty, 80 lb. bags of the stuff from Home Depot to your car, I’d suggest you have a look at some of the new deluxe design products, like the Portland Cement Co.’s amazing line of Profiled Tiles.

Button 88 Profiled Cement Tile. Manufactured by Portland Cement Co.

Portland Cement’s Profiled Tiles Bring Timeless Exterior Styles Indoors

Not to say that there’s anything wrong with the traditional use of the ubiquitous Portland Cement. Indeed, the product remains the go-to choice for footers and slabs, and will remain so well into the future. But it’s just nice to see a stylish cement product with a primarily aesthetic orientation. The Profiled Tile line consists of ten complex tile designs that duplicate the look of everything from exterior stone facades to interior bamboo paneling.

Koi Scale offers a fish scale profile of sweeping, abutting arcs: “a textural, oceanic statement and an exceptional, touchable option.” Tiki Modern evokes a Polynesian theme. These half-round tiles can be installed either vertically or horizontally to create interesting lighting effects or to create the appearance of a higher ceiling.

Then there’s Button 88. Comprised of offset rectangular tiles containing a circle and intersecting line, Button 88 is a terrific choice for fans of Scandinavian design or Danish Modern Art: “this playful experience of circles and squares can be combined into geometric installations of scooped squares and mod buttons that beg to be pushed.”

Other choices include the linear Camaro with its “strong geometric display,”  the great variety of colors and layout configurations of 312 Shake, and the bold Arabic elegance of Alcazar.

About the Manufacturer: In 2006, Rude Graves and Todd Robinett started Portland Cement Co. to “fill a void in the concrete tile industry and add a third dimension to a world of flat squares and rectangles.” The company’s line of flat and profiled cement tiles does indeed add that third dimension, and a fourth, fifth, and sixth besides. Styles of tiles extend from facsimiles of Mid Century Modern brick to recreations of the exteriors of Moorish palaces.