At Not Quite Past, we’ve spent the past year reviving the ancient magic of Delft tiles through AI-powered design and modern ceramics. Now, we’re bringing that same visual power to your walls with no grout required.
Read more...We’ve just launched a new tool to gently remove chips and cracks from our tile images. Since we train on historic ceramics, the originals are often a little worse for wear: charming in person and for many projects, but not always ideal when going for a more contemporary look. Edit any existing tile to "remove blemishes" and make an old, battered tile look brand new.
We’ve heard your feedback: social sign-ons aren’t for everyone. That’s why today we’re rolling out email login in addition to Facebook and Google. No more hunting for your social-media account. Just enter your email and you'll get a link and code to log you in. Easy!
Introducing our new 13 x 13 cm rustic tile base. A handcrafted ceramic perfect for a more antique look. With its gently uneven surface and traditional character, it brings warmth and texture to both classic and contemporary spaces. Each tile is artisan-made, which means no two are exactly alike.
Being able to harness technology has allowed two makers in Brockley, London, to continue the story of delftware.
Read more..."Not Quite Past, a company founded in London last year, offers perhaps the most accessible bespoke Delft. It lets customers use its online AI model to design their own motifs."
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We’re delighted to be featured as No.8 in Grazia Casa’s “What’s New Now!”, amongst such a gorgeous array of things.
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We're thrilled to unveil the next chapter in AI interior design: Art Nouveau wallpaper. Designed by you, rooted in history, and powered by AI.
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Historically, Delft tiles weren't always square! The Dutch tradition included wider, shorter border tiles called randtegels. We're honouring that legacy with our new 20cm x 6.5cm format.
Read more...We are happy to be able to lower our minimum order size from 10 tiles to 6 tiles. Our goal has always been to make custom and bespoke Delft tiles more accessible, and we're happy that production advances have meant that we can now offer smaller minimum order quantities.
Scott Alexander is an American writer. It was great to be featured on his February 2025 round-up of links.
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Introducing our newest feature: image-guided Delft tile design. You are no longer limited to using just a text prompt with our historically-informed Delft AI models. Now, you can guide the process with an image of your choice.
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Convert any custom Delft tile design on our website from the traditional cobalt blue and manganese purple to a range of gorgeous new colours.
Read more...You can now design a wall of tiles with a single word or phrase!
Read more...Transform your gift-giving with our unique ceramic gift cards. Each piece features traditional Delft corner motifs, a unique QR code, and personalised redemption code. Perfect for weddings, birthdays, or any special occasion.
We typically use a 132mm square glazed ceramic tile. It has a lovely uneven surface, but it's not suitable for outdoor use or for every arrangement. We're therefore delighted to offer two new surfaces, both made of harder-wearing porcelain and coming in two sizes: 10cm and 15cm.
We introduce you to the famous and fabulously rare 'spijkertegel' made with our AI... Spijkertegel is Dutch for 'nail tile', and it is one of the most sought after Delft tiles.
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One of the most popular requests we have received from customers is for very small, very minimalist designs. They are really charming and full of miniature details - a tiny boat sailing past, a small bird in flight, or a delicate flower. These designs work particularly well in modern spaces where traditional Delftware might feel too ornate. Without the classic corner motifs, these tiles have a contemporary feel while maintaining the timeless blue-and-white aesthetic that makes Delftware special.
Announcing our Pattern Workshop: three classic Delftware styles reimagined through AI. Alongside our scenic designs, you can now generate tiles featuring gevlamd (flamed) patterns—the mesmerising marbled effects pioneered in the seventeenth century where no two pieces are alike—plus classic Dutch stippling with its subtle depth, and endless variations on traditional tulip motifs. Each style draws from authentic ceramic techniques while offering new possibilities for unique and custom designs.
We're introducing two more styles of Delft tiles today. One is incredibly common: the ox-head (ossenkop) corner motif. This is a minimalist, spare one which is visually similar to our web corner motif styles. At the same time, we're also releasing a more specialised style which is based on eighteenth century polychromatic Baroque tiles. Try them out today!
We've added three new highly traditional styles of Delft tile today. Two are roundels, particularly common when showing landscapes, with ox-head (ossenkop) and carnation corner motifs. We also released one with vine-leaf corner motifs, showing the exchange between traditional Delft artisans and the forms of nature.
Many Delft tiles have big, expansive scenes that stretch from one side of the tile to the other. That's especially true for some of our more minimal styles, like the one without any corner motifs at all. However, very commonly, historic artisans would wrap what they were depicting in some kind of frame. Two especially popular ones were circular roundels and Renaissance balusters. We are introducing today two styles on our AI workshop that feature these two frames.
We've just launched a new Pinterest profile to share our designs over there. Check us out!
Create subtle shifts in any design while keeping its Delft spirit. Whatever the subject, no tile ever needs to be the same again with our new variations feature. Vary a tile design of your choice either a little or a lot in our AI workshop today.
Give the gift of creativity with a Not Quite Past gift voucher, now available for sale on our website. We deliver them by email, they do not expire, and they can be filled with any value you'd like. Perfect for the holiday season!
We now offer matching tiles of the same size and glaze as our decorated Delft tiles. They're perfect for making a checkerboard or other geometric pattern, and are available in six colours: rose gold, teal, mint, royal blue, and plain white.
Delft tiles did not exist in separation from the cultural and artistic context of their times. Styles — including the Baroque that gripped Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — profoundly impacted its progress. This style, like our Greek A style, was particularly inspired by the contemporary engravings of Daniel Marot. Each scene is framed neatly in an oval cartouche, and the overall style is playful and classical, while still retaining the classic Delft blue and white.
We have a range of tile styles in our AI Delft Tile workshop. Today, we've added one more style: a minimalist style without any corner motifs (or hoekmotief in Dutch). This is a minimalist, spare look that was present historically and is a perfect match for a more modern and less busy look than some other classic Delft tiles. As part of this update, we've also updated our existing polychromatic Early Delft style to provider richer, deeper colours and more prompt adherance.
We're honored to be featured in The Spectator's issue, where journalist Lara Prendergast explores how our AI technology is creating "uncannily authentic Delftware tiles" and potentially heralding a revival of decorative beauty.
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Delft is deservedly famous for its bright cobalt blue. There's a reason that it is sometimes simply called Delfts blauw after all! But traditional Delft producers used a range of pigments, including manganese which created rich, dark purple hues.
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We've gotten lots of requests over the past few months for Delft tiles that can be used to spell out a message with letters and numbers. We're happy to announce that we've just released a special section of our workshop that makes that easy. As ever at Not Quite Past, we've used AI to bring back some of the beauty of the past, in this case the deliciously wonky variations between every tile, even when depicting the same character. This should help you create something that is both beautiful and utterly unique.
Since starting Not Quite Past, one of the first things that we wanted to release was show-stopping tile murals, traditionally known as tegeltableaus in Dutch. We've released five floral designs that can extended infinitely to any number of tiles.
It was great to be featured on the BBC website for our innovative ceramic manufacturing. They quoted Keith Brymer Jones as liking the idea of printing ceramics, and quoted our Chief Art Officer Jack Marsh on how AI can work with traditional crafts.
Tyler Cowen wrote about us over at his blog, Marginal Revolution.
We were featured in The Knowledge, a British email newsletter on Thursday, September 12. They showed off some of our designs. Love it!
With our tile supplier in Stoke-on-Trent, one of our co-founders Adam Davies sat down for a interview and factory tour with BBC Midlands Today. The segment aired on TV on Thursday, September 12.
Read more...It was great to be interviewed by Phineas Harper over at the Financial Times about our vision for interior design and about our Delft tiles specifically.
Read more...Historic Delftware tiles were inspired by the Italian-Spanish Majolica tradition, and we've added a new style to our AI model that reflects that. This style is characterised by bright colours, ornate patterns, and restricted imagery, and it's perfect for those who want a more old-school or brighter look. The strong corners also create a lovely carpet effect when tiles are arranged together. This also shows the power of AI to precisely map out specific elements of a style and bring them to life.
We've our first tile mural (or tegeltableau) for a client. It was a custom design based on the myth of Orpheus, and the surreal, dreamlike quality of the design was a perfect fit for the subject. It is a square made up of 25 tiles, measuring 66cm x 66cm. We're excited to make more murals in the future and are working on a new feature to make it easier to design them in the workshop.
We've just added a new style to our range, based on the specific web-like corner motifs of some Dutch Delftware. This style is now our default and is more consistent than our old spare default and generates consistently square tile designs.
We added a new style to our AI model: Greek A. This style is inspired by the De Grieksche A factory, which operated in Delft around 1700. The factory was known for its classicising style, often inspired by the engravings of Daniel Marot, and was collected abroad, including at Hampton Court in England under the reign of William and Mary. It's very baroque and symmetrical, with a lot of detail.
Some of our tiles were featured in a post by the Bible of British Taste, an Instagram page that celebrates the best of British craftsmanship and design.
Our co-founder & Chief Art Officer Jack Marsh sat down for an interview with BBC Radio Stoke to talk about AI, the history of ceramics, and Delft specifically.
Our tiles are made in Stoke-on-Trent, and it was great to be featured in an article in a Substack newsletter about good news in Stoke and Staffordshire. The area is the traditional home of British ceramics, and we're proud to be part of that tradition.
Read more...It was great to sit down with Calypso Newman from Rock Badger Agency to talk about the inspiration behind Not Quite Past and what we're all about.
Read more...We're adding two new styles to our AI model: Chinese meander and fleur de lys. These styles are inspired by the influence of Chinese porcelain on Dutch pottery and the French royal symbol, respectively. They're both traditional corner motifs but they retain all the AI-powered versatility of our default style.
We are excited to announce the launch of Not Quite Past, reviving the tradition of Delftware tiles for the 21st century. Our specially trained AI model can generate whatever designs you want, or you can choose from our extensive library of pre-made designs. We can't wait to see what you create!