Walk into a room with Paula Purroy tiles and the surface is only the start. Behind each design is a designer who thinks about how people live in a space, and who has spent most of her career gathering ideas from landscape, travel, and materials.
Purroy, raised in Spain and based in the US for most of her career, founded Paula Purroy Collections, a decorative tile brand. The tiles use a fourth firing process and fine materials. The brand also makes hand-painted terracottas with experimental colour, finished with mother-of-pearl inlays and fine glazing. She works with artisanal factories and artists across Europe.
Tiles are her main medium, but the thinking goes well beyond the surface.
Paula Purroy and How She Works
“My collections are born from the relationship between landscape, travel, memory, culture, and materiality: the Mediterranean, the Atacama, different geographies, vegetation, cultures, and experiences. I translate it all into the world of surface, while pushing the boundaries of some of the most exclusive production techniques available within the European artisanal world, honouring our heritage and values at the same time.”
Her background explains the work. She trained as a landscape architect, which taught her how materials shape the experience of a space, and she has travelled across four continents. Her ceramic roots go back to her childhood in Spain. The brand isn’t a change of direction. It’s where those interests end up.
Where the Work Stands Out
Her collections keep coming back to nature. Art Gallery and Amber Field & Banana Bloom use organic shapes and botanical motifs. Precious Stones draws on mineral formations, with textures that come from mixing fine materials.
Her work resists easy categorisation. It is decorative without being ornamental, technically sophisticated without being cold. These are surfaces that carry the weight of craft and the lightness of genuine artistic intent. They are designs that understand proportion and restraint, that use colour and material with architectural rigour, that carry a sense of permanence across styles and design trends.
Every collection begins with a graphic concept and raw material experimentation, developed through a close study of manufacturing techniques and how they can be combined. Central to Purroy’s practice is the recovery of European artisanal traditions and material processes: traditional techniques in ceramic firing, gilding and surface craft, combined with contemporary technology.
This mix of artisanal and industrial, ancient and contemporary is what gives the brand its character. All of her collections are made in Italy, where she has found her creative home, working closely with specialist manufacturers who push material research and technique. This choice reflects her commitment to tradition and novelty.
“While creating the digital concept, I aim to build a language between the stone and the graphic,” she explains. “Once that is complete, the real craftsmanship begins. We apply special metals (real gold and fine granules) through a multi-firing process. This allows us to elevate the design, create movement and give space for light to interact with the surface, reflecting the pure gold. It is art. Everyone involved, and every step of the journey, counts.”
The recognition backs it up: a 2024 NYCxDESIGN Award and Best of BDNY 2025. Her tiles now sit in private homes and hospitality projects across the US, with European markets next.
The Bigger Picture
Purroy’s work matters because it doesn’t choose between old and new. She works across disciplines and keeps ceramic skill in conversation with digital tools. For her, luxury means care, not cost, and that shows in every surface that leaves her studio.
Tile is rarely the thing people talk about in a luxury interior. With Purroy, it should be.
Find out more on Paula Purroy website.
Read more:
- Designing Dreams: A Glimpse into the Creative Mind of Cristina Celestino
- Inside Dorothee Schumacher’s World – An Interview with the Iconic German Designer
Last Updated on October 20, 2026 by Editorial Team
