Two small, artisan-made brands that keep showing up in the same rooms: Riad Tile's zellige and cement tile, and Insideast's unlacquered brass.
Insideast brass has a way of turning up in the same rooms, again and again, alongside one particular tile maker: Riad Tile. Designers and homeowners who choose our handcrafted unlacquered brass for a kitchen or bathroom keep reaching for Riad Tile's zellige and cement tile to go with it, project after project, without either company orchestrating it. That is the kind of validation that matters more than a marketing campaign, and it is worth telling properly.
- Four documented projects below show Insideast fixtures installed alongside Riad Tile's zellige or cement tile.
- Riad Tile has featured an Insideast faucet on its own account, naming it directly in the caption.
- No cross-promotion agreement exists between the two companies. Every appearance here came from a designer's or homeowner's own choice.
- Both brands sell direct: Insideast from its Marrakech workshop, Riad Tile from its own supply chain and Dallas showroom.
- The rooms span a shower, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a laundry room, not just one typical use case.
This is Insideast's look at that partnership, told through the projects where our brass has been the fixture designers chose to finish a room built around Riad Tile's tile. It is also a chance to put our own work in front of the wider design community our brass keeps ending up in, the same audience behind our features on Lone Fox and Cove House.
- The Partnership
- Our Exposed Shower System, Against Merlot Zellige
- Our Faucet, Styled by Riad Tile Itself
- Our Bridge Faucet, Anchoring a Kitchen Renovation
- Our Faucet and Strainer, in an Unexpected Room
- Why Insideast Brass Keeps Getting Chosen Alongside Riad Tile
- How to Source Insideast Brass for Your Own Project
- FAQ
The partnership
Every piece Insideast makes is handcrafted in our own workshop in Marrakech, in solid unlacquered brass and copper, sold direct with no distributor in between. That commitment to small-batch, artisan production is what put us in front of the same kind of buyer Riad Tile attracts with its handmade zellige and cement tile: someone renovating a kitchen or bathroom who wants a fixture with real weight and a story behind it, not a uniform finish off a factory line.
That shared audience is why our brass keeps landing in the same projects as Riad Tile's tile, again and again, without either of us planning it that way. It says something about how Insideast is chosen, not just what it looks like next to a particular tile. If you're comparing us to other options, our guide to choosing an unlacquered brass brand and our honest breakdown of handmade brass vs factory-made cover exactly what that direct-from-workshop model means for you.
Our exposed shower system, against Merlot zellige
Showcase 1 · Shower
Insideast brass holding its own against a bold color
The Heritage Unlacquered Brass Exposed Shower System was the fixture designer @brookemtinteriors chose to finish this shower, built around Riad Tile's Merlot 4x4 zellige. Most bathrooms are kept neutral. This one wasn't, and our exposed pipe columns, visible against the tile rather than hidden in the wall, were what carried the fixture side of that decision. The warm brass reads confidently next to the red without competing for attention, which is exactly the job an exposed system is meant to do.
Fixture: Insideast Heritage Unlacquered Brass Exposed Shower System · Tile: Riad Tile, Merlot 4x4 Zellige · Design: @brookemtinteriors
If you're weighing an exposed system of your own, our guide to shower water pressure covers what to check before you buy, and our full breakdown of unlacquered brass in a shower covers exactly how the finish performs in daily water contact.
Our faucet, styled by Riad Tile itself
Showcase 2 · Bathroom
Riad Tile chose to feature our faucet by name
Riad Tile's own account has shared an Insideast faucet styled with its White 2x8 Solid Cement Tile more than once, calling the faucet out by name in the caption. That is Riad Tile choosing to put our brass in front of its own audience, not the other way around. The pairing itself is straightforward: a larger-format cement tile with a smooth, matte surface, set against the warm shine of our unlacquered brass, neither one trying to be the loudest thing in the room.
Faucet: @insideastdesigns · Tile: @riadtile, White 2x8 Solid Cement Tile
Our bridge faucet, anchoring a kitchen renovation
Showcase 3 · Kitchen
The finishing piece in a sun-drenched kitchen
In this kitchen renovation, our Heritage Unlacquered Brass Kitchen Bridge Faucet was the fixture chosen to finish a space tiled in Riad Tile's zellige. The bridge style, with its exposed cross handles and central spout, is one of the more traditional silhouettes we make, and it was selected specifically to sit comfortably next to zellige's handmade irregularity rather than compete with it. It's a classic choice on our part that holds up well past the renovation itself.
Faucet: Insideast Heritage Unlacquered Brass Kitchen Bridge Faucet · Tile: @riadtile · Photo: @this_whole_house
Our faucet and strainer, in an unexpected room
Showcase 4 · Laundry Room
Insideast brass isn't just for bathrooms and kitchens
Not every project featuring our brass is a bathroom or kitchen. Designer Melissa Wilson chose an Insideast faucet and strainer for this laundry room sink, set against Riad Tile's natural white zellige, proof that our fixtures hold up in the smaller, more utilitarian rooms of a home just as well as they do in a primary bath. It's the kind of detail placement that shows how far our brass actually travels across a real renovation, not just the rooms usually photographed for a portfolio.
Faucet and strainer: Insideast · Tile: @riadtile, Natural White Zellige · Design: Melissa Wilson
Why Insideast brass keeps getting chosen alongside Riad Tile
The visual pairing is the obvious reason our brass gets chosen for these projects. The more practical reason is how unlacquered brass behaves over time next to a handmade tile, which is something a designer only notices a year or two after installation.
Our unlacquered brass starts uniform, bright, and consistent, and it is the years of daily use afterward that give each piece its own individual character, the living patina we build every fixture around. Riad Tile's zellige works the opposite way: handmade, glazed and fired individually, so no two tiles are identical from the day they're installed. Our full explainer on how unlacquered brass ages covers exactly how that patina develops.
The result is a room where our brass and Riad Tile's tile arrive at the same place, a surface with visible individuality and history, just from opposite starting points. A polished chrome faucet next to zellige will always look slightly at odds with the tile, because chrome is designed to stay static while the tile is designed to vary. Insideast brass is built to be lived with, which is the actual reason designers keep specifying it for rooms built around Riad Tile's tile rather than defaulting to something mass-produced. Design blogger Lone Fox, who furnished part of a home renovation with our brass, wrote about exactly this kind of material choice in the piece on from Insideast's workshops to Lone Fox's home. Cove House took a similar approach across several projects, detailed in why Cove House chose Insideast.
How to source Insideast brass for your own project
Every fixture shown above is available direct from Insideast's Marrakech workshop, no distributor or markup in between. If you're building a project around Riad Tile's zellige or cement tile the way the designers above did, our kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, and shower systems collections cover the same categories featured across the projects above. Riad Tile sells its own tile directly through riadtile.com, with a showroom in Dallas for anyone able to see samples in person.
For anyone ordering our brass from outside the US, our guide to buying brass fixtures from Morocco walks through what to expect on shipping, customs, and timelines before you order.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you pair zellige with brass fixtures?
Choose an Insideast fixture in an unlacquered finish rather than a lacquered or plated one, since our brass and zellige both age visibly over time and hold color and texture variation as a feature rather than a flaw. Warm, honey-toned zellige colors like natural white, ivory, or Merlot pair especially well with the amber tones our brass develops early on. Cooler zellige colors, like iron grey or deep blues, create more contrast, which also works, but reads as a more dramatic pairing than a tonal one.
What fixtures go with zellige tile?
Faucets, shower systems, and hardware in a living, hand-finished metal tend to suit zellige best, since both materials share an irregular, artisan-made quality. Insideast's unlacquered brass and copper are the most common choice designers make for this, in either bridge-style kitchen faucets, exposed pipe shower systems, or simple cross-handle bathroom faucets. Avoid anything with a uniform, mirror-polished chrome finish in a zellige space, since the contrast between a handmade tile and a machine-perfect fixture tends to undercut the effect zellige is chosen for in the first place.
Is Insideast officially partnered with Riad Tile?
Insideast and Riad Tile are two independently owned companies, not one merged brand. What connects them is a genuine, repeated creative partnership built project by project: designers and homeowners keep specifying Insideast brass in rooms built around Riad Tile's zellige, because our fixtures share the same handcrafted philosophy their tile is known for. This feature is Insideast's way of recognizing that pairing and the artisan values behind it.
Does Insideast's unlacquered brass age well next to zellige tile?
Yes, and this is one of the more practical reasons designers reach for our brass in these projects. Our unlacquered brass starts uniform and develops individual character as it patinas, the same kind of variation zellige has from the day it's installed, just from opposite starting points. Rather than one material staying static while the other changes, both surfaces are designed to look more distinct and more lived-in with age, so the room continues to feel cohesive years into ownership.
If this pairing has you rethinking your own renovation, browse the Insideast shower collection or the kitchen faucets collection to find the piece that will sit alongside your tile for years to come.
