Inside Distinctive Tile and Design in Kennebunk, art surrounds you on the walls and underfoot. Intricate Escher-esque creations, mandala-inspired squares, jewel-like mosaics, and painted nautical scenes beckon from nearly every surface. There to guide you through the choices are two friendly design experts, Sarah Wormwood and Mary Blum, trained by owner and industry veteran Larry Stoddard. Kennebunk is new territory for Stoddard, who has been laying tile since he was 20 years old and operates showrooms in Portland and Rockland and a flooring store in Yarmouth. The southern location of the new store, which opened in December, puts him in a prime position to compete with not only big-box stores but also Boston design resources.

“I’m honored to be one of the state’s oldest tile suppliers,” says Stoddard, who opened his Yarmouth location in 1989. “And I’m excited to have a larger presence in southern Maine. We used to have clients going to Massachusetts for tiles they couldn’t find here, but that’s all changing now.”

Stoddard sources tile from small Maine companies, such as Antiquity Tile in Hampden, which uses an old-fashioned wood-firing process, and Heirloom Tileworks in Ellsworth, known for its high-relief offerings, as well as industry innovators such as Lunada Bay Tiles, Artistic Tile, Oceanside Glasstile, and New Ravenna. Current trends at Distinctive Tile include natural stone squares in antiqued and carved finishes. Marble, granite, and quartz slab vanity tops are also popular, as are porcelain tiles that resemble wood planks, which the team describe as timeless yet impressively low-maintenance.