Pages

April 12, 2012

#186- Bathroom Backsplash Tile

Now that the shower is tiled, we headed back out to the main sink area to get our tile on.  If you remember, instead of drywalling this area, we put cement board here for tile.


 We followed the same technique as tiling the shower.  Here's the stud I left you all with yesterday:

 

But we thought we'd add a little sumpin'-sumpin' to this wall for sparkle.  Cue some really cool recycled glass circular tiles we found at Lowes.

These tiles had a slightly different install technique than we've done before.  Instead of being attached together with mesh that gets pushed into the thin-set, they had a clear sticker like backing.  The plan is to install them with the sticker facing out, and once the thin-set sets, peel of the sticker backing to reveal your pretty tiles.  To do this right we had to make sure the thin-set underneath them was smooth, not notched.  Like this.


It was a little tricky, too much thin-set and it would seep through the seams (where we couldn't reach it thanks to the backing sticker), and not enough and the tile wouldn't hang securely.  And just to kick us in the shins, the sticker backer had solid instructions covering most of it, so we couldn't even see if the thin-set was coming through.  Thanks for that.



All in all it went up pretty quickly though, and we left it overnight to set.


 PS- the green tape on the paint just above the tile is there to help us remember where the studs are so we can find them easily when we hang the vanity.  Score 1 point for the DIYers.

So sure enough, the next morning when I took the stickers off the back of my tiles, they were a little rough.  In some areas I had a little too much thin-set poking through.


 And in others, there wasn't enough thin-set and my tiles fell right off.  Boo.


So while drinking my coffee and lounging in my PJs on Saturday morning, I took a little time digging out thin-set with a tiny screwdriver and a rough bristle brush.  Then I went back and put back in the handful of tiles that fell out.  It was extra work, but all in it wasn't so bad, and I didn't even need to get out of my slippers.  Here's how it turned out:




Its coming together, but I'm really excited to get bright white grout in all these joints to see those little round circles really stand out.  Pretty crazy how well these tiles match the paint huh?  That was sort of intentional, but I can't believe how well it turned out.  We're so close to finishing up the tile and then its time to put this baby back together.  I need a second wind.


As a reminder, here's what we've done so far:

1 comment:

  1. This was an interesting change for your bathroom. With that two layer of tiles, your bathroom wall will be strong as it is.

    ReplyDelete