MAKING A MOSAIC

Piece by piece, tiles that speak of the sea pave the way for one family's dream.

Lane and Tom Meehan liked to vacation on Cape Cod. They never planned to move there. But that was before their 1994 visit when they spotted the dilapidated old building in Harwich. The classic Victorian (circa 1850) on Main Street was home to a decrepit video shop. Fake wood paneling split its dreary rooms into warrens. And it was badly in need of repair.

They bought it on the spot.

"Who would put a tile shop here?" people asked. Neighbors were skeptical. The couple's friends were flabbergasted. But the Meehans, who owned a tile store in Connecticut, knew this seaside town was just right for their growing family and business. 

Now, the neatly painted painted gray clapboard house trimmed in white is the home of Cape Cod Tileworks. Clients come from near and far for its wares, displayed on the walls like paintings in a gallery.
 
Their customers choose tile because it suits the carefree lifestyle at a summer house on the shore. It can be elegant but also casual, making it a natural for Cape Cod's informal and often artistic interiors. 

Lane, whose selections for the store are influenced by her study of Asian art, favors tile designs that come from nature.  "The things that draw people to this area are the things they want around them [inside their house]," she says. On Cape Cod, that means motifs of striped bass, catboats, piping plovers, ruddy turnstones, or herring gulls. But pick one focus, Lane suggests - if you choose fish, go with fish. Don't also use lobsters and lighthouses.  And don't mix saltwater and freshwater motifs.

With such down-to-earth advice, the Meehans have loyal customers, and they've drawn on local and regional artists who work in a variety of style to give clients what they want.

"We take a generic idea and make it personal - creating a scene of what's important to their family," Lane says. It's not unusual for a client to come into the shop for a simple ceramic or limestone floors and end up with hand-glazed ceramic sand dollars or baby sea turtles interested into a mosaic floor.

In their own kitchen, Tom and Lane, like many of their customers, were inspired by their children. The couple incorporated pebbles the three boys picked from the beach, along with shells and fossils. The mix is scribed, free-form, into a field of slate as if the water had just washed it up.

What's the rule of thumb when selecting tile for a coastal home? In two words, "low maintenance," says Lane. Sand is abrasive, but the right tile can stand up to it. Whether it's natural stone or ceramic or porcelain tile, she recommends neutral colors so sand doesn't show. "Rather than cleaning your floor, you have time to entertain guests, or just relax" - why the Meehans visited Cape Cod in the first place.