Di Lorenzo Tiles vs Beaumont Tiles

Posted by Yvonne August 09, 2014

Di Lorenzo Tiles vs Beaumont Tiles

Di Lorenzo Tiles vs Beaumont Tiles and Power to the People!

So although there has been little communication from Sekisui I received two phones calls this week about building stuff from the suppliers.

The first phone call was from some energy company to hook us up to electricity and gas. Seems strange to do it this early but it is one less thing to think about down the track. It was by default to Origin Energy which I don't mind since I feel obliged to go with since I have a small parcel of Origin shares (seriously small parcel!) It doesn't lock us into any contract and we can change when we move if we need to. I gave them my Origin account details so I think that's all set up.

The second phone call was from Di Lorenzo to make our tile selection appointment. Whaaaaa? So early? I thought the whole point was to wait till they are almost ready to tile so they can guarantee stock. The lady made it a point to ask if the house had been started yet... to which I had to answer no... (I don't even have a start date yet!) Right off the bat they had provided a Saturday appointment time so it was very good and it's scheduled for next week.

I had to admit that we had gone to Beaumont for our preview. This is the whole problem with Sekisui... we were given brochures for Beaumont and were verbally told that Di Lorenzo are also a supplier and we could choose either. I was under the impression Beaumont was their preferred. Anyway the (DLT) lady was lovely and said that if we decide that we are going with Beaumont to let them know so they can give he appointment to someone else.

Anyway we decide we should check out the tile selection at Di Lorenzo this week as our appointment if we decide to keep it is next weekend. I'm so glad we did! It was so different to the Beaumont Tiles experience.

At Beaumont Tiles we were greeted by friendly people and provided a bit of a run down on the process and provided a sheet to jot down notes and a pen and clipboard which was very handy. You get to mix and match yourself based on the green stickers indicating what is included and that the red stickers are upgrades (as they cost more to lay). Something like that. We selected a set of tiles which I had put in a previous post but it was a lot of back and forth and a fairly 'basic' sort of experience. Very warehousey.

Di Lorenzo was different. Firstly the showroom is carpeted. They have some gorgeous displays. They have a reception area. No one greeted us but it wasn't difficult to go and ask at the counter that we were there for a preview and that we wanted to know what we needed to preview as Sekisui House buyers.

We were shown a wall of tiles 'compilation' for wet areas:

And an area for 'upgrades' which for our builder was included as they include the labour:

We're also told we can mix and match the tiles and can pick up the floor tiles and 'match' the schemes as we need to. Here are some of extra tiles we can choose from:

And some more floor tiles to choose from. I like the larger form factor and it seems as if Sekisui includes the laying of these larger tiles.

Since we had been to Beaumont Tiles we had changed our Caesarstone benchtop colour and we had selected a cabinet colour for the bathrooms so it was a good thing to go and do this preview anyway. So what have we ended up with? We actually really liked one of the upgrade schemes except for the feature tiles. Mainly because it was too modern. So we'll have to choose a feature tile. Here are some options...

Sorry if they make you dizzy. Google decided to make them into a movie/gif so it was easier for me to add anyway :)

In this second one you'll see an appearance of our paint colour popping up on the right hand side!

Our current 'favourite' is this one:

Or this one:

There are some gorgeous tiles which look like timber floorboards. I would say the selection there is a lot larger or better displayed than in Beaumonts. None of these are within the Sekisui range. But then we didn't get floor tiles for the main area so didn't really get shown or find out about them.

Oh and Di Lorenzo have a small selection of carpet and floorboards there too! Here are some of the floorboards I hadn't seen before. They are in the Godfrey Hirst brand:

We also did a visit to Clarendon homes (for some research and colour ideas) and again I'm glad we did as their colours are very similar in choice to what we have opted for (which is Reiki and Flokati).

Here are some interior shots I took today of things which were of interest to us.

Love this idea for sock storage. It's a shallow wall organiser in squares which allow for socks and ties.

Something cosy like this for the library area? Not super keen on the lamp but the chairs and tables seem to work well together. Needs ottomans and the seats aren't that comfy!

Colours are similar. I think we have agreed on black frames with white mats for pictures.

More black frames with white mats and a reiki-esque wall colour (it's unlikely to be Reiki but the right tone for us to visualise what our walls will look like)