Let’s talk about tile

Our Sweet Spot project has undergone most of its major transformations over the course of the last three months. The tile work has been finished and every single wall and ceiling surface has been painted. The hardwood floors are refinished and the kitchen completed. We are on to finishing touches and punch list items.

But before showing you more, let’s go back to tile. Whenever the existing tile in one of our project homes is good looking, we work to keep it. We faced a number of conundrums on this house. For example, what do you do when a tile now longer made? How do you keep the old tile, and make the updates look as if they were part of the original design? We presented our installer with these doozies and more this time.

Challenge 1, the existing full bath. The existing shower walls and flooring were from a pre-fab kit. While they looked fine at first glance, upon closer inspection we found that they were awful and had to go. However, the black and white mosaic tile floor, featuring a pattern we had not seen before, was in great shape. A standard white 4” x 4” tile wainscoting covered the walls and complemented the floor.
When we pulled out the old shower floor pan and accompanying vinyl shower surround we were left with a big gap in the flooring. Because the floor pattern was unique, we could not find a matching or complementary tile.
What to do, what to do?
We solved the problem by using oversized, black porcelain tile planks on the shower walls and adding white tile as an accent that picks up the pattern from the floor. Using so much dark tile in a small area is the opposite of my normal design tendencies, but in this case we decided to go bold. The installer cut pieces of the black planks to size to fill in the empty spots in the floor and to create a band at the top of the tile wainscoting. I held my breath during the installation, and breathed a big sigh of relief one the job was done.

Challenge 2, the former full bath turned laundry room. There was an oddly-placed full bath located at the back of the home away from the bedrooms. Really, who wants to run through the house to get to a shower? So we repurposed the space, and it is now a half bath and laundry area. In doing, so we pulled out a tub and once again were left with areas of the tile floor that needed to be patched. We found five pieces of the existing tile, but needed more to complete the patching.
The solution this time was to pop out some of the tiles and add back in a complementary tile to make a checkerboard pattern in the floor. Again, I held my breath until the installation was complete, and we are thrilled with the results.

Challenge 3, the new master bath. We created a new master suite in the back of the home, complete with a walk-in closet and full bath. Early on, I picked a floor tile with a really pretty pattern that would complement the stormy blue vanity we had chosen, but waited to purchase the tile until I could see the vanity in place and confirm the color. Well, everyone else must have thought this tile was pretty too as it was out of stock when we went back to buy it. So, the day before the installers were to begin their work, I was rethinking the bathroom flooring and shower surround.
In the end, we put together a really lovely combination of oversize planks and small hex tiles. By running the shower accent band and the planks vertically, the ceiling appears higher and the shower appears larger.

These low maintenance floors are looking super, even before cleanup.

Challenge 4, the kitchen and back hallway floor. Years ago, a former owner added on to the back of the home, and the floor took a strange and pronounced dip from the kitchen area into the addition. Because of this, before we began working on the home John and an inspector crawled all under the house to make sure that there were no structural issues. There were none; the floor was just wonky.
Our floor plan rework included creating a hallway to the back door so we had to level out the floors before laying the new tile floor. The tile crew added two inches of leveling cement to the floor before laying the tile. Saggy floor solved.
We chose to lay the tile on the diagonal and worked with the crew to make sure the pattern was centered on the doorways. And yes, I held my breath. And yes, once again our installer came through with great looking result.

I am glad we are finished with these installations so that I can get back to regular breathing.