We are very excited to share our story with you! We’ll be using our blog to communicate frequent tile updates and all the happenings at the store. Be sure to bookmark this page and check back often.
A few acknowledgments,
I’d like to thank Jessamyn at Dingo Creative for designing a fantastic website! She made the process fun and thoroughly enjoyable. To my business partner and great friend, Jerry McGinn. Jerry is married to my sister, Angie, who I idolized growing up and very much still do. They are the coolest and nicest people in the world with an amazing family. All their children have played a big part in the Tile By Design story. To my wife Kate, {it’s us against our two lunatic dogs, babe} and my adorable buckeroos that are “almost” too old to be called adorable. To our wonderful staff, who make everyday fun and always work up a storm and keep our customers happy and coming back for more.
For 34 years we’ve provided tiles for nearly one million projects. All of them unique and tailored specific to each person’s home or business. Even the same material can look entirely different after a personalized touch. It’s what keeps us excited and eager to begin the next project with you.
Blog #1 features a bunch of “vintage” photos from our very first location in 1988, on Sylvan Street in Peabody, and how our present location originally looked {1995-1997}. The outside was painted by the wonderful artisan, Franja Lakatos. Unfortunately, shortly after he finished, the block facade developed several fractures that, after it rained, would funnel copious amounts of water into the showroom. The solution was to cement waterproof panels over the blocks, thus covering Franja’s original work, and then have him come back to paint another inimitable work of art. I’ve included both renditions for you to see. The last photo in the gallery is how our store looks now.
Over the past two decades the inside of the store has been through several major renovation and color changes. It looks totally different than these photos. The showroom is constantly evolving and undergoing some type of transformation to better display our tiles.
Other happenings: On Halloween night, Doug and his wife, Mary, saw the musical, “Jagged Little Pill”, at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City. Jerry and Angie are back walking their dogs on Crane’s Beach. I just read, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, and loved it a lot.
Well, that’s it for now. We love seeing our tiles installed so please share a photo if you have one {or a few}. And let us know what you think of our new website.
Thanks for reading!
Joe Renda
