Warm, moody colors dominated the bustling aisles of Cersaie 2026 and the windows of almost every storefront in Bologna, notes Danielle McWilliams, principal at Novità, the communications agency for Ceramics of Italy. Just like in fashion, Italian tile manufacturers debuted collections in deep burgundy, luxurious browns, earthy terracottas, and vibrant reds and yellows.
Besides color, large-format tiles, texture and dimension, intricate digital printing, and natural material effects stood out as top trends at the 43rd edition of Cersaie, which was held for five days at the end of September in Bologna, Italy. The annual international trade show brings together manufacturers, architects, and designers from around the globe to explore the latest innovations in ceramic tile, architectural surfaces, and bathroom furnishings. This year’s landmark event drew more than 90,000 visitors to view ceramic and porcelain surfacing materials presented by 600 exhibitors hailing from 24 countries.
There was a palpable, vibrant energy to this year’s fair, stretching far beyond the sheer volume of the bustling crowds. That infectious buzz was clearly reflected in the elaborate temporary showrooms constructed across the exhibition grounds, where companies displayed bold, exciting products that pushed the boundaries of traditional surface design.
1. Color Makes a Comeback
While stark white and neutral tiles will always maintain a foundational place in interior fashion, ceramic makers did not shy away from richer, more saturated hues this year. Industry leaders note that the shift marks a distinct departure from the ultra-minimalist palettes that have dominated the market for over a decade.
We are certainly seeing a renewed confidence in color, says Benedetta Borghi of external affairs at Atlas Concorde. There is a much greater willingness to use stronger colors as part of the architectural palette.
Combining bright, bold hues with neutral and warm white tiles offers a refreshed aesthetic that balances drama with livability. Atlas Concorde’s Boost Hux pairs warm natural tones with dynamic accents of green, red, blue, and ember, while its Vivia collection features vivid glazed colors inspired by classic Italian ceramics. For us, color is increasingly becoming a design tool rather than simply a decorative accent, Borghi explains.
Cristina Faedi, a renowned tile trend expert, consultant to Confindustria Ceramica, and founder and art director of Infinite Possibilità, echoes this sentiment. There are Italian companies that have even doubled the colors in their range, and others have made three densities of the same color, she observes.
2. Green Takes Root
Could the sudden popularity of rich-colored tiles simply be the design pendulum swinging back after years of muted tones and understated neutrals? Perhaps, but Faedi also points to the broader, chaotic state of the global landscape as an underlying influence on contemporary tile palettes. She draws a parallel to the seven traditional chakras, which correspond to the vibrant colors of the rainbow, noting that green, for instance, universally represents empathy and emotional healing.
It is therefore fitting that green is experiencing a major moment in surface design. It is a color that clearly gives a lot of calm and is inspired by nature, Faedi notes. It is a narrative of landscapes, of places, of wild herbs, but also of thermal waters and even of oceans. Alongside shades ranging from deep forest pine to pale sage, grounded earthy palettes of terracotta and other natural organic tones stood out prominently across the exhibition.
Glossy finishes further amplify these rich colors, catching the light and making them pop within a space. Plinth, a collection from Sartoria—part of the Terratinta Group—comes in two distinct shades of green, Moss and Stone Green, and features a three-dimensional surface that introduces tactile depth and dimension to vertical walls.
3. Playing with Perception
Ceramic is no longer simply reproducing a material: the surface itself is becoming an architectural element, Borghi says. That’s an interesting evolution.
Marca Corona’s Multiforme Mira wall tiles beautifully complement the brand’s concrete-effect porcelain floor tiles. The collection’s Tassello decorative variant features small, three-dimensional tesserae arranged meticulously to create the appearance of a continuous, seamless mosaic, with glossy and luster-glazed details set in deliberate contrast against a matte background.
As part of The Nesting Room collection, Moooi Ceramic Surfaces, in collaboration with ABK, designed Hypnotic Owl, an innovative floor and wall tile featuring a tactile three-dimensional relief surface. This intricate texture is achieved using ABK’s proprietary 3DTECH technology, a specialized process that digitally applies glazes and structural textures directly to porcelain stoneware.
Meanwhile, Gruppo Bardelli brand Appiani introduced Lamiere as part of its Pastelli Strutture collection. Inspired by industrial sheet metal, these through-body ceramic tiles utilize a sophisticated chiaroscuro effect to create the visual illusion of a fully three-dimensional surface. The resulting interplay of light and reflectivity is remarkably impressive and almost mind-bending, as the tiles appear heavily dimensional yet remain completely flat to the touch.
4. Nature, Reimagined
When real stone or marble lacks the necessary durability for a high-traffic project, or simply commands an unfeasible budget, architectural ceramics offer the luxurious aesthetics of natural materials combined with the high-performance benefits of porcelain. While this approach has been a reigning trend for years, rapid technological advancements continue to make these natural effects increasingly indistinguishable from the real thing.
We are talking about controlled chaos, Faedi says of tiles that successfully mimic natural stone. Technology can create this apparently chaotic mix of colors, hues, and shapes, but with a great visual impact, thanks precisely to modern techniques.
Gruppo Romani brand Verde introduced Essenziale, a glazed porcelain stoneware line that captures the rich materiality of natural limestone. Its proprietary Contour Tech 3D printing process colors the ceramic body at varying depths to authentically reflect the subtle irregularities and strata of sedimentary stone.
Similarly, the Marble Boutique collection from Del Conca successfully blurs the line between manufactured porcelain and genuine marble or onyx. The extensive line includes three distinct finishes—Shine, Natural, and Structured—alongside six new material options featuring enhanced colors and intricate veining. Its expansive large-format slabs, measuring an impressive 48 by 110 inches, fit squarely into the ongoing industry push for larger surface units.
5. Sizing Up
Large-format tile continued to command significant attention at Cersaie, even though the category has been steadily expanding in physical scale for years. We see large slabs as a way to create greater continuity across different elements of a space, from floors and walls to kitchen countertops, islands, and furniture, Borghi points out.
European manufacturers, particularly production centers in Italy and Spain, originally pioneered oversized formats back in 2001 by utilizing advanced pressing techniques that moved the industry far beyond traditional 12-by-12-inch dimensions.
In the United States, the American National Standards Institute officially defined large-format tile in January 2025 as any tile featuring a facial dimension of 23 inches or larger. Numerous exhibitors at Cersaie showcased extra-large formats that far exceed this baseline. Solaris by Cotto D’Este exemplifies this trajectory, with formats stretching up to an impressive 24 by 128 inches.
6. From Paint to Pixels
Among the products that left the strongest impression were colorful, highly intricate decorative tiles produced through a fascinating juxtaposition of high-tech digital processes and traditional hand-painting. The deliberate blending of cutting-edge manufacturing techniques with age-old artisan methods highlighted the industry’s versatile capabilities.
Ceramica Bardelli’s Tulipani collection, designed by Ronald van der Hilst, features delicate floral decorations rendered in three distinct patterns created using a range of technologies, from cold digital printing to precise laser engraving. The brand also introduced the eye-catching Searcus line, designed by Riccardo Capuzzo, which features two playful patterns inspired by the sea and the circus, realized entirely through cold digital printing.
In direct contrast to these high-tech applications, Ceramica Francesco De Maio’s Three Elements, One Matter collection was designed and meticulously hand-painted by acclaimed architect Kengo Kuma. I sought to let nature emerge through the hand, where each tile carries a continuous human gesture, sometimes as light as rain, sometimes as soft as mist, sometimes as grounded as earth, Kuma reflects. Material, movement, and landscape quietly become one.
