San Diego’s finest resource for premium tile and stone for homeowners, architects, designers, and trade professionals

When you’re looking for San Diego’s widest selection of interior and exterior premium tile and stone products, we invite you to step into our luxurious Mission Hills showroom.

We bring you the world’s newest and finest trends in tile and stone surfaces. We have everything from the most basic to the most exotic, so you can certainly find the right type of tile for your project, whatever your budget might be.

With thousands of in-stock possibilities and custom options, we’ll guide you toward design excellence for your home or commercial space, as well as for pools, spas, and outdoor spaces.

We’re more than just a tile store. We’re your best resource for thoughtful, elevated, and innovative designs.

From initial concept to final tile selection, we’re a true partner in bringing your project to life without compromise, supported by a cleverly curated selection that fits into your budget. Here in our Mission Hills showroom, there is something for every person, every style, and every budget.

Industry-leading customer service isn’t just a rumor; it’s how we do business every day.

With a one-on-one approach to every project, our knowledgeable, highly trained team will guide you to achieve all your goals and dreams.

We’re also known as San Diego’s best source for top-quality engineered hardwood flooring and other natural surface materials, including shell stone, coral stone, and premium stone cladding.

We’re proud to showcase an extensive range of product types:

• Porcelain
• Ceramic
• Terracotta
• Terrazzo
• Marble
• Limestone
• Travertine
• Quartzite
• Glass
• Concrete
• Coral & Shell Stone
• Zellige
• Travertine
• Dolomite
• Slate
• Basalt

With so many types of tiles available, it can be hard to figure out which material is best suited for your project. To highlight the unique architectural materials available at BDG, below is a brief overview of the most common tile and stone usage recommendations for timeless beauty, as well as functionality, durability, and longevity.

You’ll find more details in our Surface Guide, and you can contact us with questions anytime.

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Porcelain Tile

Porcelain tile has many advantages, making it the overall favorite choice among designers and homeowners.

Durability: Porcelain tile is durable and highly resistant, making it the best choice for high-traffic and heavy-use areas in both residential and commercial applications. It’s compressed under extreme pressure and then kiln-fired at temperatures up to 2,500°F, a process called vitrification.

This process transforms it into a non-porous, glass-like material. Because it defends effortlessly against scratching, staining, and fading, its premium look remains pristine over time.

Moisture resistance: With less than 0.5% water absorption, porcelain tile is an excellent choice for wet areas and places that are prone to spills and heavy use. It’s perfect for bathrooms, kitchens, or swimming pools. The water-resistant quality means it doesn’t absorb dirt or moisture, so it’s easy to clean and maintain.

Low maintenance: One of the most significant advantages of porcelain tile is maintenance – or should we say, lack thereof? Compared with other types of hard surface materials, porcelain requires very little maintenance. In addition, it’s resistant to mold and mildew and easy to clean.

Design versatility: Porcelain tile is available in a wide variety of colors, textures, finishes, and sizes that allow for endless design possibilities. Whether your design calls for a sleek, modern appearance or a rustic, traditional look, porcelain tile offers excellent choices. It’s one of the very few materials suitable for floor and wall installations, both inside and outside.

Eco-friendliness: Porcelain tiles are made from natural materials like clay, sand, and feldspar. Since they’re often manufactured using sustainable methods, porcelain tiles are usually an eco-friendly choice.

Porcelain tiles can be used in an almost unlimited number of ways—

Flooring: A durable and water-resistant flooring option, porcelain’s resistance to moisture, frost, and fading makes it an excellent choice for both indoor and outdoor uses. We offer porcelain tiles with large formats featuring patterned and textured surfaces, so they can be used to mimic the appearance of expensive materials while providing better durability.

Backsplashes: Since they’re available in so many colors, patterns, and finishes, porcelain backsplash options are nearly endless. Backsplashes are exposed to food, grease, and other messes in kitchens and bathrooms, so it’s especially important to select a material that’s easy to clean. Unlike natural stone and other porous materials, porcelain doesn’t require sealing, and it can be wiped clean with a damp cloth.

Walls: Porcelain is an excellent choice for creating accent designs on walls, whether subtle or bold. And we have products that can give your walls a 3D effect or even incorporate real gold or silver for an unforgettable appearance.

Countertops: We all know about natural stone slab options for countertops. However, porcelain countertops are increasingly popular because of their inherent benefits. Offered in large-format stone, wood, or concrete looks, porcelain tile mimics those expensive materials and doesn’t require any sealing or maintenance. Also, these products don’t become stained, so the dreaded red wine stains are a thing of the past!

Showers: Choosing the right tile for your shower is crucial because not all products are suitable for this application. Fortunately, porcelain tile is extremely durable, versatile, and water-resistant, so it’s an exceptional choice for your shower walls and floors.

Outdoors: Since people want to bring the outdoors in, porcelain is a great way to create cohesion in your space from the inside out. Because of its resistance to moisture, frost, stains, and fading, most porcelain tiles are rated for outdoor applications, including patios, walkways, and pool areas. If you’re unsure whether the tile you’re dreaming of suits a particular job, just ask our team!

Pools: Porcelain tiles are highly resilient to water and chemicals, making them an excellent option for pool coping, decks, and interiors. The added benefit of slip resistance for safety in wet areas makes them a win-win.

Porcelain tiles provide a comfortable and slip-resistant edge for pool copings, and they can withstand foot traffic, pool furniture, and outdoor elements on pool decks. For pool interiors, porcelain tiles offer endless design possibilities, with stunning patterns and colors that resist fading, stains, and chemicals and provide a long-lasting and low-maintenance option.

Ceramic Tile

Always a popular choice, ceramic tiles are made from pressed clay that’s fired in a kiln at high temperatures, making them very resilient. At BDG, you’ll find ceramic tiles and mosaics in practically any shape you can think of, including squares, rectangles, penny rounds, fish scales, pickets, diamonds, hexagons, and more.

These modern surfaces can show appearances ranging from leather to linen to raked sand, all with the durability and low maintenance that ceramic tile is lauded for. Unlike the materials they mimic, these ceramic tiles won’t stain, warp, fade, or require special cleaning.

Ceramic tile finishes can be glazed, embossed, hand-painted, crackled, 3D, leathered, striated, or textured. Adding glaze helps add color and aesthetics, yet it also increases the practicality—glazed tiles are harder and more resistant to water and moisture, which reduces the possibility of mildew.

Of course, if you’re looking for a more rustic and casual effect, you can opt for unglazed (matte) tiles—we’re big fans of matte tiles.

Ceramic tiles are very easy to work with. They’re perfect for bathrooms, walls, and other vertical applications and light-traffic floors. They’re best for indoor use and not recommended for outdoor use or high-impact areas.

Explore BDG’s fully customizable capability, where you can imagine and create custom designs with your own choices of colors and finishes.

Terracotta Tile

At BDG, we offer the region’s widest selection of terracotta and terracotta-look tiles. Your options range from unique artisanal handcrafted clay tiles to manufactured ceramic and porcelain products with modern terracotta looks.

Terracotta tiles give your space a warm, rich, earthy appeal. Once installed, they’re very durable, and they’re perfect for most outdoor and indoor surfaces.

We can also provide Saltillo tiles, which are made of an exceptionally hard type of terracotta clay. Saltillo and other types of terracotta tiles are especially popular in high-end architectural applications for California-coastal and Spanish-revival homes when you want to express quiet, understated luxury with a hint of rustic appeal.

Terrazzo Tile

Terrazzo tile and mosaics give your space a multi-layered visual appeal. Terrazzo tiles are made from a blend containing chips of stone such as marble, quartz, granite, and even glass, all set in a fine-quality cement or resin binder.

They offer a stunning variety of design options, ranging from conservative speckles with understated colors to bold, expressive hues that can add great depth and texture to any space. Terrazzo tiles are suitable for high-traffic floors and walls, and they’re extremely durable for both inside and outside residential and commercial applications.

At BDG, you’ll find a large variety of colors and sizes, including 24×24”, 12×24”, 12×12”, and mosaics.

Marble Tile

Incorporate the enduring elegance of marble and natural stone tile and slabs into your next project. These surfaces can give any space a timeless beauty that outlasts trends, and they’re perfect for indoor and outdoor applications alike.

From the soft, luminous white of classic Carrara and the opulent golden veining of Calacatta Gold to the dramatic, commanding depth of Nero Marquina, each variety of marble possesses its own unique artistry. These natural variations do more than captivate the eye; they define the spirit of a room, surrounding it in a warm, sophisticated ambiance that synthetic alternatives simply cannot replicate. To suit any aesthetic, marble transitions seamlessly across an array of tactile finishes and intricate patterns, from gleaming polished and velvet-soft honed to textured raked, antiqued, precision waterjet, and artistic mosaic designs.

At BDG, we offer an extensive range of marble tiles and mosaics from around the globe. Explore the region’s largest collection and find the perfect match for your space.

Limestone Tile

Limestone tiles are a great choice when you want surfaces that are warm and beautiful with understated elegance. They’re strong and very resistant to wear, making them an exceptionally good choice for indoor and outdoor areas with high traffic.

Limestone is often available with colors and patterns like those found in marble, and it sometimes shows traces of the fossils and sandy sediments from which it was formed millions of years ago.

We offer limestone tiles in a wide range of types and finishes, including honed, brushed, tumbled, and matte finishes for extra texture.

Travertine Tile

Are you thinking about giving your home a natural stone surface with classic simplicity and elegance? Our travertine tiles are an excellent choice.

Travertine tile has been used for interior and exterior floors, walls, patios, walkways, pool decks, and pool copings ever since the days of ancient Rome. It has a porous yet durable surface that’s perfect for indoor and outdoor use.

BDG offers travertine tiles in a wide variety of neutral and earthy colors, with finishes including honed, polished, tumbled, and natural cleft stone.

Slate Tile

Slate is often the best choice for natural stone tiles because it splits cleanly into flat pieces that are perfect for making tiles, and it’s extremely weather-resistant and durable. Slate tiles are an excellent choice for any high-traffic outdoor or indoor space, with a look that’s both rustic and modern at the same time.

Slate tiles offer great traction, so they’re generally an excellent choice for floors, walkways, and patios. We offer top-quality slate in the widest range of colors, including the usual gray and black, yet we can also provide unusual tones such as blue, brown, green, and rust colors.

Glass Tile

Glass tiles and mosaics embody sophistication and elegant style. The reflective surface of glass adds brightness and depth to any space, creating a luminous effect that other materials can’t match. Whether it’s used in a shower or as an accent detail, glass heightens the overall aesthetic, making your spaces feel more open and airy.

Glass tiles have a unique ability to refract and reflect light rays and brighten the darkest spaces. This characteristic makes glass ideal for small rooms with dim lighting. Designers use glass tiles to amplify the effects of limited natural light and enhance the ambiance of spaces that would otherwise seem dark.

In spite of having a delicate appearance, glass tiles are extremely durable. Since these tiles resist stains, mold, and mildew, they’re a great choice for moist areas such as bathrooms and kitchens.

Glass tiles are both functional and beautiful. They’re non-porous, so they won’t absorb moisture or stains. Just wiping them with a damp cloth is usually enough to keep them clean.

Ease of maintenance is a great selling point for anyone who wants stunning results with very little upkeep. They’re perfect for pools, spas, walls, backsplashes, kitchens, bathrooms, showers, and other surfaces where you want beautiful special effects.

At BDG, we invite you to view the region’s largest selection of glass tiles, including colors ranging from soft and neutral to bold and eye-catching. To help make the perfect statement for your home or commercial space, we can also create custom glass-tile mosaics with glossy, polished, crackled, frosted, iridescent, or mirror finishes.

Stone Cladding

Stone cladding consists of a relatively thin layer of natural stone that is adhered to a wall. It offers a practical way to give your indoor and outdoor walls an appearance of all-stone construction, while also adding a protective and decorative layer to any surface.

Stone cladding is a great way to add a stone finish to any surface. Other benefits include increased durability and weather resistance, low maintenance, improved energy efficiency, and cost-effective curb appeal.

We have natural stone cladding in a wide range of materials, including granite, sandstone, limestone, marble, and slate. Of course, we can also provide cladding manufactured from cement-based compounds that look exactly like stone.

Shell Stone

When it comes to natural stone flooring and wall cladding, materials like marble, travertine, and limestone often dominate the conversation. But there is a hidden gem in the world of premium architectural surfaces that brings an entirely unique, prehistoric charm to modern spaces: shell stone.

Whether you are looking to design a breathtaking pool deck or an elegant, coastal-inspired interior accent wall, shell stone offers an unbeatable blend of durability and organic artistry.

Here’s everything you need to know about this remarkable natural stone: Shell stone is a specific, fossil-rich variety of natural limestone. Millions of years ago, marine life, mollusk shells, and coral fragments accumulated at the bottom of ancient seabeds. Over eras of intense geological pressure, these marine elements compressed into a highly durable stone.

What makes shell stone truly spectacular is its visual storytelling… Look closely at a tile or paver, and you will see distinct, fossilized impressions of whole and fragmented seashells—like abalone or scallop shells—swirled into the sediment.

Shellstone is often compared to coral stone. However, they have distinct structural differences:

• Density and strength: Shellstone is composed of highly compressed fossils, making it much stronger and denser than coral stone.
• Surface texture: Coral stone is notoriously porous with large, rugged, pitted holes. Shellstone has minimal surface holes, offering a cleaner, more uniform, and refined appearance while retaining its organic character.

If you want a unique natural look for your walls, floors, countertops, kitchens, bathrooms, patios, or pool decks, shell stone is one of the best options. Shellstone can give your space an eye-catching surface in colors ranging from white to cream or beige, sometimes showing visible seashells, fossils, and natural voids.

Shell stone is often used to create architectural surfaces with a “tropical island” feel. It’s relatively soft and porous, and it tends to retain much less heat than other types of denser stone, so it’s perfect for your sun-soaked outdoor areas such as patios, pool decks, and walkways.

Coral Stone

Coral stone is a natural surface material that’s perfect for home and landscape design. It’s especially beautiful because it shows the remains of ancient coral reefs. Coral stone is a versatile product that can bring the natural beauty of the ocean into your indoor and outdoor spaces.

Coral stone is also known as fossil stone. It’s a sedimentary rock formed from coral, seashells, and other marine life over millions of years. This process gives coral stone its distinctive fossilized look.

Even in hot climates, coral stone stays cool to the touch, making it an exceptionally good choice for your outdoor areas, such as patios and pool decks. Best of all, its naturally rough surface is very slip-resistant, which enhances safety in wet areas. It’s perfect for outdoor flooring, pool decks, water features, and patios.

Here at BDG, we offer coral stone in many different colors and finishes to give you the best options to choose from.

Moroccan Zellige

In a world increasingly dominated by mass production and mechanical perfection, there is a quiet luxury in things made entirely by hand. Few materials embody this sentiment more beautifully than Zellige tiles. Known for their centuries-old Moroccan heritage, these tiles bring an organic, one-of-a-kind appeal to contemporary spaces that machine manufacturing simply cannot replicate.

The history of Zellige begins in faraway Fez, Morocco. It’s a region blessed with a rare type of rich clay. This clay possesses a unique elasticity, which allows skilled local artisans—called maâlems—to form each tile entirely by hand.

The crafting process is steeped in patience and traditional alchemy:

• Sun-drying and shaping: The raw clay is kneaded, shaped into blocks, and left to dry under the intense Moroccan sun.
• Hand-glazing: Master artisans apply mineral-based glazes. Using elements like cobalt, copper, and manganese, they mix a palette of colors ranging from subtle, translucent neutrals to deeply saturated jewel tones.
• The kiln’s touch: The tiles are fired in traditional wood or olive-pit kilns. Because temperatures vary throughout the kiln (typically fluctuating between 900°C and 1,000°C), the glaze reacts dynamically.

This unpredictable firing process is where the true magic happens—it ensures that no two tiles emerge with the exact same shade, thickness, or surface texture.

While individual square or rectangular Zellige tiles offer a stunning rhythmic texture, the artistry reaches its zenith in Zellige mosaics. Dating back to the 10th century, Zellige mosaics were historically used to decorate Moroccan palaces, mosques, and courtyards.

Zellige tile and mosaic work effortlessly bridges the gap between traditional craftsmanship and modern design. Whether you opt for a monochromatic vertical stack to elongate a minimalist space or an intricate geometric mosaic border to frame a focal point, you’re doing more than just choosing tiles: You’re honoring a thousand-year legacy of skilled handicraft and creating a surface that’s authentic and truly unique.

At BDG Design Group, we offer San Diego’s widest range of Zellige colors, shapes, and mosaics.

Concrete Tiles

Concrete tiles are strong, durable, and very long-lasting. We offer San Diego’s largest selection of concrete and concrete-look tiles in a limitless variety of colors, patterns, and textures.

Concrete tiles are perfect for flooring and walls, as well as for roofs, and they’re very affordable. We also offer European-style encaustic tiles with beautiful colors and patterns to complement the décor inside or outside your home or commercial space.

And, if you’re seeking geometric, floral, or fret designs to create a traditional artisanal or retro decorative look, we have the finest cement tiles, which are stoneware porcelain tiles kiln-fired for extra durability.

Pebble Tiles

Across Asia, naturally rounded stones have been used for centuries in Japanese gardens and traditional bathhouses, where they symbolize harmony with nature and provide a relaxing surface underfoot.

Pebble tiles are made from round, smooth stones that have been honed, tumbled, sliced, rounded, or stacked. They’re ideal for giving any indoor or outdoor space a quiet, peaceful sense of watery calmness, much like the feeling of being alongside a natural stream or pond.

At BDG, we can help you create beautiful organic mosaic surfaces with pebble tiles, natural pebble flooring, and river rock tiles. Pebbles make the perfect surface for showers, bathrooms, patios, and anywhere else you’re seeking a calm, natural effect.

Ordinary flat tiles feel cold and harsh underfoot, but our natural pebble tiles offer a relaxing and healing sensation.

With pebble tiles, you’ll have reflexology in every step.

Smooth vs. sculpted: If you prefer a completely level surface without giving up the organic aesthetic, flat-cut or sliced pebble tiles offer a silky-smooth finish that feels effortless and sleek under bare feet.

Warmth & texture: In contrast to cold man-made surfaces, natural stone pebbles readily adjust to ambient temperatures, giving your shower floor a gentle, organic warmth underfoot.

Engineered Hardwood

When it comes to creating an inviting home, few elements have the transformative power of natural wood. Floors are the foundation of your space—not just structurally, but visually and emotionally. They set the tone for every room, grounding your design in organic comfort.

While synthetic flooring options have flooded the market, nothing quite captures the genuine radiance, tactile depth, and soulful ambiance of engineered hardwood flooring. Engineered hardwood is made of real wood. Most importantly, real wood glows with a natural warmth that can soften the effect of sharp architectural lines and hard non-natural surfaces such as machine-made tile and harsh metal surfaces.

Unlike vinyl or laminate tiles that repeat synthetic printed patterns, every single plank of engineered hardwood is one-of-a-kind. Their natural growth rings, unique knots, and streaks of color tell a story that only nature can write.

Modern wire-brushed, hand-scraped, and saw-marked finishes bring out the natural grain, giving your floors a rich, tactile surface that feels luxurious under bare feet. As natural wood ages, it develops a soft, graceful effect. Quality hardwood wears in, not out, growing richer and more characterful with every passing year.

When you want the natural warmth and beauty of a real wood floor, but without worrying about warping, engineered hardwood is your answer. It is made with a layer of beautiful, top-quality hardwood such as European oak, American walnut, hickory, or maple.

The wood is then bonded to the underlying layers of plywood for long-lasting dimensional stability. This layered composition gives engineered hardwood flooring such strength and stability that it can be used as an overlay for concrete floors in basements or for humid spaces. So, you can enjoy the aesthetic warmth of hardwood in areas where solid wood previously struggled, such as basements, over concrete slabs, or above radiant heating systems.

Engineered hardwood gives you an elegant, solid wood surface while resisting the effects of moisture and temperature variation that might warp ordinary wooden floors. Because the engineered core prevents warping and cupping, you can achieve stunning wide-plank and extra-long formats that make spaces feel expansive, grand, and seamlessly connected.

Whether you’re embarking on a full home renovation or updating a single room, engineered hardwood remains the gold standard for bringing true warmth and authentic beauty into modern living.

San Diego’s best selection of stone, tile, and other unique architectural materials

At BDG Design Group, we offer San Diego’s widest range of choices for fine-quality natural stone and tile, and other unique architectural materials to cover any surface in your home or commercial building. Our team works closely with homeowners, architects, interior designers, and trade professionals to help create timeless luxury and elegance for any space.

Do you have questions about how to choose the best architectural surface materials for your project?

We can help. Just contact us now.

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