Wender·Vista
Lamu Island
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileKenya
off Kenya's northern coast, north of Mombasa

Lamu Island

— — a town the dhow wind built and never paved.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“An island town off Kenya's northern coast, founded in the twelfth century and continuously inhabited since. There are almost no cars on Lamu. Goods move by donkey through the lanes of the Old Town and by dhow between the islands of the archipelago. The houses are coral rag and lime, carved doors set into white walls, courtyards open to the trade wind that has shaped the Swahili coast for a thousand years.

from the studio
Lamu Island
— bring it home

Lamu Island, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Lamu Island

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Lamu Island sits in the Lamu Archipelago, off the northern coast of Kenya near the Somali border, at roughly two degrees south of the equator. Lamu Old Town, the principal settlement, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 as the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa. The town has been continuously inhabited for at least seven hundred years, and motor vehicles are effectively absent — donkeys remain the primary land transport through its narrow stone lanes.

— informed by UNESCO — Lamu Old Town
— the stone

The Old Town's houses are built of coral rag — blocks cut from fossil reef — bonded with lime mortar and finished in white plaster. The classic Swahili door, carved in heavy hardwood with brass studs and lotus or fish motifs, marks the entry to a courtyard house arranged inward, away from the street. The Lamu Museum, the German Post Office Museum, and the Riyadha Mosque sit within a few minutes' walk of one another along the seafront and through the lanes behind it.

— the air

Lamu's climate is shaped by two monsoon winds. The kaskazi blows from the northeast between November and March, the wind that for centuries carried Arab dhows down the coast from the Persian Gulf. The kusi blows from the southwest from April through October and carried them back. The same winds cool the courtyards at night and lift the dhow sails between the islands. Daytime temperatures stay between 27 and 32 degrees Celsius year-round, with the long rains arriving in April and May.

— where
Kenya · Lamu, Lamu County
— elevation
5 m · 16 ft
— position
-2.2697° S · 40.9020° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
3 km SE
Shela Beach
beach village
1 km E
Manda Island
neighboring island
30 km NE
Pate Island
historic island
340 km S
Mombasa
coastal city
N
Lamu Island
Shela Beach
Manda Island
Pate Island
Mombasa
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Lamu Island — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Lamu lies in the Lamu Archipelago off the northern coast of Kenya, roughly 340 kilometres north of Mombasa and not far from the Somali border. The principal settlement is Lamu Old Town on the western shore of the island.

It was inscribed in 2001 as the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, with continuous coral-rag and lime architecture, traditional courtyard houses, and Swahili urban form intact for several centuries.

Almost none. Lamu Old Town is effectively car-free, and goods move through its narrow lanes by donkey. Travel between islands in the archipelago is by dhow or motor launch.

A heavy hardwood door, carved with geometric, lotus, or fish motifs and studded with brass, set into the front wall of a Swahili courtyard house. Lamu and Zanzibar hold the best surviving examples.

The festival is usually held in late November, running over several days. It includes dhow races, donkey races, traditional Swahili poetry, henna competitions, and dance from across the archipelago and the wider Swahili coast.

Kiswahili, in the Kiamu dialect particular to Lamu. The dialect carries archaic Swahili vocabulary and is recognised as one of the older forms of the language along the East African coast.

— about the piece in your home

Many of our customers have given the Lamu tile to family who grew up on the coast. The white-walled town and dhow-bearing channel read as Lamu itself rather than as a generic seascape. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note travels well.

The piece sits naturally in coastal-modern, warm-minimalist, and Afro-Mediterranean rooms. The white-and-indigo palette also reads cleanly against limewashed walls, rattan, dark hardwood, and woven sisal.

Yes. The whitewashed wall and dhow-sail composition pair with the natural-textile and limewashed-plaster look that has anchored coastal-modern and Mediterranean-modern interiors over the last several seasons.

A single Large covers a standard console or narrow sofa wall. A four-tile Mural fills a longer sofa wall with room around it, and a nine-tile Mural anchors a feature wall in a sitting room or hallway.

Yes, with the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and stable in steam, so a Medium or Mural will hold in a bathroom, a kitchen splash, or a covered outdoor room.

A microfibre cloth and clean water are enough. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure and lives beneath a thin glossy finish, so it will not lift with normal cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. Reid Wender curates the atlas and the work is hand-finished in-house. There is no licensing.

— if this one stayed with you

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