TREND USA
Where: 2700 Biscayne Blvd., MiamiHours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.Contact: 305-593-6072; tollfree 866-508-7363; www.trendgroup-usa.comImagine a ''rug'' that never needs to be sent out for cleaning. Or walls that will never require paint. Stairs that will never need resurfacing.
Such innovations come from Trend USA through its creative use of mosaic tile, stone and engineered terrazzo.
Company founder Andrea Di Giuseppe says his goal is to ''reconstruct historical movements in contemporary ways.'' He pledges that the products he sells will be environmentally friendly and made from partially recycled materials.
Trend recently introduced a collection of glass mosaic tile called LIBERTY at its showroom on Biscayne Boulevard. Designed by artist Giulio Candussio, the small glass tiles can create shimmering walls or be applied on fireplace mantels and bathroom vanities.
Candussio, who created Iridescent Lightning, the fiery bolt of mosaic energy installed at the temporary World Trade Center subway station in New York, says the tiles' transparent quality ''creates a balance of essential shapes, modular rhythms and color'' resulting in continuous ``bright and chromatic vibration that comes from the surface itself.''
Glass mosaic tile can also be playful. Two emperor penguin statues glittering in thousands of red glass tiles stand in the center of a room, showing how mosaics can be applied to round objects, explains Daniela Di Giuseppe, showroom manager and sister to Andrea.
''Everything is made by hand,'' says Daniela, who demonstrated how people can create their own mosaic patterns by selecting tiny tiles from a wall of plastic boxes containing every imaginable color and then fitting them into a plastic grid. When the assembler has a design he likes, a transparent plastic backing is applied so that the mosaic tile can be peeled off and taken home to try it out.
Glass mosaic tiles start at $5.39 per square foot and go up to $20 per square foot for iridescent tiles. For a glamorous touch, Swarovski crystals -- $16 per crystal -- can be inserted. Leather tiles, $150 per square foot, would make a statement in a study.
The showroom displays a variety of applications, including ''an indestructible rug that you never have to send out for cleaning,'' points out sales representative Giovanni Bocchieri. The ''rug'' is made of copper-toned tiles edged in a scroll design.
''Engineered'' stone is used on stairs, each step a different shade of brown or gray. Kitchen and bath vignettes use tiles manufactured in Italy and assembled for the company in plants in Doral, Sebring and Los Angeles.
If the showroom has a bit of a religious air, it's because it was once a chapel. Stained glass windows remain from the time many years ago when 2700 Biscayne Blvd. was the site of a bookstore run by an order of nuns, The Daughters of St. Paul. The main showroom was the bookstore and chapel. The confessional is now a storeroom.
