Color Collection

Red Tile

Red tile, in the three reds that actually suit a handmade glaze. Oxblood is the deepest — closer to dried blood or aged leather than to a bright pillar-box red. Maroon is the burgundy: a wine red with more purple in it. Rose Clay is the softest, a dusty terracotta-pink red. All three are hand-glazed in Fez, and all three change noticeably through the day, which is the single most important thing to know before ordering a whole wall of one.

Oxblood, maroon and rose clay — how they differ

Oxblood reads almost brown under a warm bulb and pulls the red forward in daylight, with the glaze pooling near-black at the hand-cut edges. It is our best-selling red and the one people mean when they search for oxblood tile.

Maroon is the burgundy of the three — a wine red with a purple undertone that reads cooler than Oxblood and slightly brighter. If you searched for burgundy zellige tile, this is the one.

Rose Clay is much softer: a dusty, muted red-pink with more clay in it than wine. It behaves like a warm neutral at scale, where the other two behave like a colour.

Using a dark red without the room closing in

Dark reds absorb light. A full oxblood or maroon wall works best where the depth of the glaze can be read close up — a fireplace surround, a bar back, a powder room, a backsplash under good task lighting — rather than across a large, dim floor.

A dark grout keeps a red wall reading as one surface; a pale grout turns it into a grid and lifts the whole thing considerably. Because these three shift so much between daylight and bulb light, order a sample and look at it in the actual room at both times of day before committing.

Common Questions

What is oxblood tile?

Oxblood is a very dark, slightly brown red glaze — named for the colour of dried blood rather than fresh. On handmade zellige the glaze pools at the hand-cut edges and fires near-black there, which is what gives an oxblood wall its depth.

What is the difference between oxblood and burgundy zellige?

Oxblood is darker and browner; our Maroon is the burgundy — a wine red with a purple undertone that reads cooler and slightly brighter. Side by side the difference is obvious; in a photograph it often is not, which is why we send free samples.

Does red zellige tile fade?

No. The colour is in a fired glaze, not a surface dye, so it does not fade with light or cleaning. What changes is how it looks through the day as the light in the room changes.

Is red tile too bold for a small bathroom?

A small room is often where these work best — the depth of the glaze is readable at close range. Rose Clay is the safest of the three at scale; Oxblood and Maroon in a powder room read as considered rather than overwhelming.

Keep Looking

Red Tile — Oxblood, Maroon & Burgundy Zellige | Zellaro Tile