Tiling Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment

One night in late winter 2023, a message request popped up in our Instagram inbox.

Hi Katy,

I’m working on the TV Show “And Just Like That” and need tile for a large fireplace in Carrie’s new apartment.

I’m sorry, what?

I didn’t know it was a dream of mine to tile Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment, but as soon as this message came through, I realized it was!

But first, we need to back up to December 18, 2022.

We’d heard about a house in Anderson, Indiana with two gorgeous fireplaces soon to be ripped out. The owner agreed to let us purchase salvage rights for the two fireplaces, so we made the three-hour drive up I-65 to bring them home.

These tiles were produced by the American Encaustic Tile Company out of Zanesville, Ohio and New York City. In addition to a maker’s mark on the back of each tile, we found these tiles in the company’s 1902 catalogue as listing number 686.

We knew from the start that these were special tiles, but couldn’t imagine how special their second home would be! But for now, back to our original story…

Alyssa, who worked in set design for the Sex & The City spinoff show, quickly sent over dimensions to help ascertain what may work from our collection, as well as a few of their favorites from our shop.

They knew they wanted something quite neutral for the Gramercy Park brownstone set, but also a tile authentic to the era of the apartment.

With a short timeline, we set to work pulling options and creating layouts that fit the brief. Fewer than 24 hours after our initial call, we sent five concepts:

If you’ve watched the show, you probably already know which option they chose, but even after deciding on the right tile for Carrie’s apartment, we tried three different layouts before landing on the winner.

In the end, Alyssa and her team decided to bring in some of the larger border tiles originally used in the hearth, creating more dimension in the breastplate of the surround.

While we wrapped up the design and shipped the design to New York less than a week after Alyssa first reached out, it would be months before they made their debut. But we think the wait was worthwhile.

Storied Salvage provides a range of finding services and custom design for projects of all types and sizes. If you’ve got a project in mind, reach out and let’s talk.