Herringbone Mosaics

How a herringbone is put together

Each rectangle sits at ninety degrees to its neighbor. The short end of one butts against the long side of the other, that pair is repeated, and the offset between rows is what produces the broken diagonal the pattern is known for.

The proportion of the piece is what makes it work. A rectangle twice as long as it is wide interlocks exactly, with no gap and no cut anywhere in the field, which is why the classic herringbone piece is a one to two.

Why it arrives on mesh

Laid piece by piece a herringbone is slow work, because every unit has to be set at a right angle to the last and any drift compounds across the floor.

On a mesh sheet the angles are already fixed by the maker and the whole figure lands in one movement. That is the entire reason herringbone mosaic exists as a product: it turns a pattern that takes skill into one that takes measuring.

Sheet shape and direction

Sheet sizes in this range include 12 1/8x13 3/8, 12 7/8x8 9/16, 12 7/8x9 11/32, 11x11 and 10x13, and that untidiness is inherent to the pattern.

A herringbone lays out as a parallelogram, so a square sheet has to be trimmed out of it and the edges come away toothed. The sheets then have to run in one consistent direction, since a sheet turned the wrong way puts the zigzag out of step with its neighbor.

A herringbone at forty five degrees

The same sheet can be set square to the walls or turned to forty five degrees, and the two produce different rooms.

Square, the zigzag runs parallel to the walls and the pattern reads as a texture. Turned, the points run into the corners and the pattern reads as a direction, which lengthens a narrow room and is the version most often seen on a hall floor.

What happens at the wall

A herringbone field does not end cleanly. Where the pattern runs into a straight wall the zigzag leaves a row of triangular gaps, because the last piece in every second course is cut off halfway through its own diagonal.

The traditional answer is a border: a plain band of one or two courses run around the field, which gives the zigzag a straight edge to stop against and gathers every partial piece into a single line. It is why so many herringbone floors have a frame around them, and it is worth settling before the quantity is.

The stones in this range

Gray leads the color list, then white and multicolor, on honed, polished, fine textured and matte faces. The series names are marbles: the gray Bardiglio, a green, and white ranges alongside them.

Finish matters more here than on a plain sheet, because a herringbone has a great deal of cut edge in it. Polished pieces catch light at two angles at once and the surface glitters; honed pieces let the pattern read as shape alone.

Where a herringbone mosaic goes

A backsplash, a shower wall, a niche, a floor border and a small floor where the pattern is meant to be the subject. It also does well as a panel inside a plain field, which is the traditional use.

Marble mosaics holds the cut stone sheets in other shapes, and mosaic tile the full range.