DesignSolutionsProblem: When James Rush's parents, Angela and Bob, decided to move to a modern house in Greystones, Co Dublin, it was natural that they should ask their son to play a part in fitting out their new kitchen - James owns Surface Ceramics in Dún Laoghaire, a specialist tile shop.

The question was this: how to use tiles in a way that would suit his parents' conservative taste but match the contemporary architecture of the house and end up with a kitchen featuring tiles a little more interesting than the run-of-the-mill splashback.

Luckily, coming up with designs that appeal to older people has been a regular request since James opened the shop.

"When we first opened we had an idea that most of our clients would be young people with new homes, but because first-time buyers are so stretched financially, they tend to go for something inexpensive to start with, whereas we get people in their late 50s or 60s who have moved to a smaller house and want to do something special.

"Ten or 15 years ago most people didn't think of tiling anywhere other than their bathrooms, but through travel, Mediterranean ideas of using tiling in different ways have become popular."

Solution: "Where hairdressers might have had people coming to them with magazine pictures of Princess Diana to copy a hairstyle, we have older couples arriving with pictures torn from interiors magazines.

"The rooms they like are contemporary but what appeals to them in the photos is the general mood rather than the colours."

His own parents are retired and favour understated, natural colours as opposed to strong bright shades. "They're traditional in their taste and like the colours of stone and marble. A kitchen is obviously a very practical area so stone isn't really applicable - it's porous and needs to be treated every year.

"When working with mature couples part of the brief usually is to come up with something that doesn't involve a lot of maintenance so porcelain is a better alternative because it doesn't need to be sealed and has a similar appearance to stone as well as the natural, handcrafted look they wanted."

The next problem provided an answer to what type of tile to choose: "The kitchen isn't very large so we used an elongated tile, which tends to trick the eye into thinking the space is bigger.

It's often good to use large tiles in a small wall space because there are fewer lines but although these are small, the horizontal shape works."

The tile is called Ardesia and costs €150 a metre. That might sound expensive but usually only two or three metres are needed for the average kitchen. James used them to cover the splashback and the front of the "peninsula" unit. On the floor, larger porcelain tiles were used, this time at a cost of €75 per square metre. They are jointed in such away that the grouting is very small, making them easier to clean .

Surface Ceramics, 69c Upper George's Street, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin

Tel 01 6638991; www.surface.ie