Design Tips: Why I Used to Agree with the ‘No Fakes’ Rule in Interior Design

If there’s one thing I’m quite sure of, it’s that a lot of what I’m about to write about is rooted in elitism and snobbery. My good friend Lisa Dawson often passionately talks about the fact that social media has democratised design, and she’s right, it absolutely has. To a point at least. Lisa, much like myself, is very rarely wrong. Ha! It could also be argued that some people don’t like that one little bit, and whether they’re aware of that or not is a whole other conversation. And yes I am talking about both the democratisation and always being right.

Hilarious jokes aside, I cautiously admitted to our architect a few months back when we were discussing a few materials, that I used to have an issue with with ‘things pretending to be something they’re not’, but that my stance had changed in some instances, and she said she felt the same. I was slightly nervous to hear her opinion on two specific brands, and I definitely felt relieved, and somewhat empowered when she agreed on both.

Technology has come so far that you start to lose the fight against ‘fakes’. Not in a defeatist way, but in a factual, if you can’t tell it’s not the real deal, and there are benefits in the alternative options, then what’s the problem exactly?

I would argue this is the case for several things, whilst in other areas I’m still in the no fakes gang, and then there are the wavering, as yet undecided which side of the fence I stand on ones. And that’s okay, because we’re allowed to change our minds, and move with the times. And the technology.

There is an amazing selection of porcelain tiles that are super hard wearing and low maintenance that don’t require sealing, are totally non-porous, but emulate much higher maintenance products like stones and terracotta. I’m still on the fence about porcelain tiles trying to look like marble and onyx, but I’m very happy to be proven wrong, I just haven’t seen any tiles in the flesh that are particularly convincing.

Not only are these products much lower on the maintenance side, but they’re often easier on the pocket too, which is where my earlier point about these views being rooted in elitism and snobbery comes in. Why shouldn’t someone have the look they want because they can’t afford the real thing? In mimicking Mother Nature, no one is stealing someone’s intellectual property, so I don’t see the problem.

Real hand made Zellige and Bejmat tiles, whilst incredibly beautiful aren’t always within budget and can be trickier to lay as they tend to have more thickness variation, so if you can’t stretch to, or don’t want the real thing, there are so many great look-a-likes on the market, like the Piazza from Otto Tiles (below) who of course also have a beautiful collection of the real deal.