There are things that can be explained about Famosa Tile in Costa Mesa — the selection, the sourcing, the team, the showroom experience. There are things that can only be understood by walking in.
The designers who walk in for the first time almost always say the same thing, in some form: I did not know this was here.
That is not a complaint about the marketing. It is a comment about the expectation. When most people think “tile showroom in Orange County,” they picture fluorescent-lit display walls, catalog binders, sample chips arranged by color family, and a sales approach designed to move the most inventory rather than find the right material.
Famosa is built to be the opposite of that. It has been, since the day it opened 18 years ago.
“I always wanted the anti-tile store,” says Josiah Lilly, Famosa’s founder. “Somewhere you would actually want to spend time somewhere that would inspire you, not just show you what was available. An art gallery, not a supply house.”
Interior designers who work at the highest level in Southern California understand the difference immediately — and keep coming back.
A Selection That Cannot Be Found Anywhere Else in Orange County
The most fundamental distinction between Famosa and every other tile showroom in Orange County is not the showroom. It is the inventory — and specifically, how it is assembled.
Most tile showrooms carry what their vendor agreements allow them to carry. They represent specific brands, which represent specific product lines, which are available to any showroom with the same vendor relationship. What one showroom carries, another showroom often carries. The designer who visits multiple showrooms in search of something genuinely different frequently ends up seeing the same materials in different lighting.
Famosa does not operate this way.
“We are not bound by a catalog,” says Vanessa Becking, Famosa’s Managing Partner and day-to-day lead. “If a designer comes in and says ‘I need something that does not exist in Orange County,’ we go find it. We source from producers in Morocco, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, France, Turkey, and beyond. We receive new samples every two weeks. When you find something at Famosa, you know it is not going to be in the home next door.”
This sourcing independence has produced a collection of materials — handmade Zellige from selected Moroccan producers, artisanal terracotta from Spanish and Mexican kilns, dimensional tile from small European manufacturers, natural stone in formats not available through standard distribution — that no catalog showroom in the region can match.
Josiah has personally flown to Israel to inspect a limestone floor for a client. That level of sourcing commitment is part of what Famosa is.
The Showroom Itself: A Fully Functioning Design Environment
The Famosa showroom in Costa Mesa was designed personally by Josiah — not as a retail floor, but as a series of fully functioning environments that allow designers and their clients to see exactly how materials perform in the contexts where they will actually live.
The kitchen in the showroom works. The bar — complete with beer on tap — works. The showers function. The bath environments are operational. This is not a backdrop. It is a demonstration.
“I want every designer who brings a client into Famosa to be able to say: here is exactly what this tile looks like in a real kitchen, at real scale, in real light. Not a photograph. Not a sample card. The actual material, in a context that resembles the home they are designing for.”
The experience of walking through a showroom where the materials are installed — where you can stand at the distance from which a tile will be viewed from across a room, where you can see how the light from a window changes what a Zellige wall looks like from 9am to 3pm — is qualitatively different from anything a catalog or a website can provide.
For designers who work in Orange County, this showroom is the resource that makes that experience available without getting on a plane.
The Team: Vanessa Becking, Angela, and 30+ Combined Years of Expertise
The showroom is only as good as the people in it. Famosa’s team is the reason designers who visit once become clients who return for every significant project.
Vanessa Becking brings deep industry experience to every client interaction — beginning her tile and stone career as a top-performing sales representative for lines that Famosa’s founder worked with through his fabrication business, before joining Famosa and ultimately becoming Josiah’s business partner. Her knowledge of material sourcing, specification logistics, and designer relationships is the operational core of what Famosa is.
Angela, who has been with the Famosa team for ten years, is the other pillar of the designer relationship side of the business. The designers who have worked with Famosa through multiple projects have built their most trusted material relationships with Vanessa and Angela — people who know their aesthetic, know their projects, and know their clients.
“What makes a great showroom is not just what you carry,” Vanessa says. “It is the quality of listening. Understanding what a designer is actually trying to achieve — not just what they say they want, but what they are trying to create for their client. When we get that right, we do not need to show them everything in the showroom. We show them three things, and one of them is exactly right.”
What Keeps Designers Coming Back
The designers who have worked with Famosa for years describe the relationship in a specific way: not as a vendor relationship, but as a resource. Famosa is the place they call when they cannot find what they need anywhere else. The place they bring clients who need to see something in person to understand it. The place where a material discovery can change the direction of a project.
“Our best designers come in for one thing and leave having discovered three things they did not know existed,” Vanessa says. “That is the Famosa experience we work to create. Not a transaction — a discovery.”
For designers who are new to Famosa, the invitation is simple: come in. The showroom does the rest.
| Famosa Tile is Orange County’s most distinctive tile and stone showroom, located in Costa Mesa. To schedule a design appointment or explore the collection, visit famosatile.com or follow @famosatile. |
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