WHEN TALENTED PROFESSIONALS TALK, WE LISTEN.
Tile shown Top Left: Emil-Sixty Timbro – Salvia | Top Right: Emil-Sixty Talco Minibrick in Fango
Admit it, you have an inquiring mind, and you want to know about the team designing your Park City dream home. We understand so we decided to bring you conversations with the talented people designing, building, and outfitting your homes.
Inside Out Architecturals is a decorative tile showroom specializing in custom-order products and tile layout design. IOA strives to provide unique products that provide a variety of tile objectives including functional and aesthetic uses, primarily for walls and floors for interior and exterior spaces.
Inside Out Architecturals
Leah J. Wynn, Owner
When did you know that you wanted to go into this field and what motivates you?
A telltale sign that I was interested in spacial recognition and how things looked was when my mother would arrange the furniture in the living room, constantly playing with the space when she worked as a designer in the retail furniture trade. She began to work a busy schedule and would come home to her living room totally rearranged by me. When I was a senior in high school I decided that I would either go to school for photography or interior design. I have a design degree from Weber State University.
I have always been intrigued by architectural fine details. I was lucky while attending university to be involved in a group that was able to tour one of Utah’s Frank Lloyd Wright homes. My father had noticed that the group had left me behind and came back to find me. I was sitting on one of the built-in cement seating areas deep in thought looking up at the house. He asked me where I was in thought and I said, “The ceiling joists line up with the window seams that line up with the flooring joints.” I was in total awe.
Do you have favorite products you prefer or are known for?
I have an addiction to decorative ceramic tile, that is why I chose to specialize in it. Ceramic and/or porcelain tile is a very special art. Becoming an artisan in this field requires a lot of math, and an artistic eye. It also intriguingly enough involves chemistry. There are so many elements at play with tile, even the weather affects how the clay or the glaze fires and reacts. It truly is more complicated than the average person thinks. There are so many different things that make decorative tile intriguing, and so many diverse ways to use it.
In addition to my fascination with what goes into making tile, style and trends with tile throughout the ages is also something I have interest in. I have studied and learned many things about tile and its history in the United States and beyond. I am known locally for my knowledge of historical tile. I kind of geek out on that. If you get me started I have the tendency to go on and on about it. Did you know that one of the first female-owned manufacturers in the United States was Rookwood Pottery? Fascinating,right?
What inspires you?
I really enjoy working with others, whether they be professionals or homeowners. I love to have the opportunity to see their vision of what they desire and bring them my expertise and help them achieve their creative desires with tile and anything you can stick to the building really.
What music do you listen to when you work?
I’m an ‘80s New Wave fan. We generally have those modern ‘80s tunes going while at work. But truthfully, I am a moody music listener. If I want to concentrate on calculations for orders I will sometimes go to some of the old classical orchestration pieces. Then again I clean house to Aerosmith.
Favorite Season?
I was lucky to be born and raised In Utah and experience all four seasons. I like variety. I guess I would lean toward the fall as a favorite, with sweaters and crisp mornings. I definitely prefer snow to heat. However, give me the dry heat over humidity any day!
TILE SHOWN
Upper Left: Country Floors Black & terracotta Honed Emna Marble Mosaic
Upper Right: Marble Systems Calacatta Green Honed Fluted Trim Marble Tile 6×24
Middle Left: New Ravenna’s Birds & Branches hand cut mosaic
Middle Right: New Ravenna’s Calamus Hand-chopped stone mosaic.
Bottom Left: Original Style Living Canopy Pine w/ Winchester’s Sloe Field Tile
Bottom Right: Country Floors Cotto Med Terracotta Tile 8”
“I have an addiction to decorative ceramic tile, that is why I chose to specialize in it. Ceramic and/or porcelain tile is a very special art.”
-Leah J. Wynn
What’s on the top of your list as a great getaway?
I love to be anywhere I can put a kayak in the water. It can be a secluded quiet lake you have snuck away to all quiet and serene. But to be fair, there is nothing quite like the rush of avoiding those eddies and rocks in a raucous river too!
What do you enjoy most about your line of work?
We have the opportunity to work with so many fascinating people who have different tastes and desires in the tile surfaces that they request. This, in a way, gives me the opportunity to vicariously live through them, and gives me the chance to see and become aware of different perspectives, styles, and environments that I might not have otherwise gotten the occasion to experience.
What do you enjoy most about living and working here?
Utah is a beautiful place and so many people are discovering it and its beauty and moving here. I am so lucky to be at the right place at the right time to help it grow. Twenty years ago I discovered that Utah did not have anyone representing the decorative/boutique tile market and I have been privileged to grow with the state and be a part of bringing these beautiful things to our market. I truly feel blessed to be one of those people who loves what I do.
Exciting new product or development?
Modernization has brought us amazing print quality so we see this in replicated stone and wood surfaces on porcelain and even a discerning eye can be fooled as to its true orgins. This same technology brings whimsy and elegance to do things that can be printed on stone and ceramic alike. Other tools like waterjet cutters bring us advancement in improving the mosaic arts of the past. And 3D printers give us the opportunity to repair and improve historical pieces being lost to age. We are truly lucky to live in this ever-evolving time.
