When we bought a house last year with a few ratty carpeting in the living area, we started wondering, what is stopping us from recreating that here: At first we were Looking at terra cotta colored ceramic tiles, with the notion of bringing our honeymoon into our house in as exact a replica as you can. Honestly, I think we would have loved this, too. These were the most romantic days of our lives, after all. But we live in Portland, Oregon, in which the rain drops and the grass grows green, and it seemed a little out of place. We wanted a tile floor that referenced Mexico, but also honored Portland. Then we happened upon natural stone tiles, and we fell in love all over again. We picked a random sized mosaic of sliced pebbles in a color of green called Taipei after the capital of Taiwan that reminded us for all of the area of creek beds on hikes we take in the Oregon Mountains.
Here’s a little Tutorial on DIY tile flooring, according to our expertise. We have been walking across our pebbled living area for six months now, and I swear I have never felt so much peace at a non-vacation home. A little of both, if we do say so ourselves:
- Make sure the floor is clean. Get on your hands and knees and scrub, essentially. Dust, wax, oil or grease will prevent the tile glue from functioning properly.
- Work from the Centre as you plan your design. You need any cut tiles in the wall edges. Ideally you want the cut tiles at each end of the space to be the identical size, but with our pebble mosaics, we did not need to think about this.
- Lay the whole tiles first. When you are ready to do all of the cut tile go and hire a professional tile cutter. Seriously. I would not name names, but a certain someone I have pledged to love sickness and health, etc. believed he could cut the tiles himself with his circular saw, and essentially, long story short, we needed to order another batch of tiles. Live and learn!
- Grouting pebble mosaics is time consuming, I would not lie. Additionally, it is a little tricky. This tip is very important: SEAL THE PEBBLE TILE BEFORE YOU GROUT. Since the pebbles have a natural end, they consume the grout. Insert face here. But if you seal the tiles after the glue dries, voila, no absorption. Insert happy face.
- Cover the entire tile with grout. Gulp. Wait 20 minutes. Wipe with a damp sponge until it is pretty again. Hey perfectionist, do not wipe so tough that the grout between the pebbles disappears!
- Allow the grouted tile york pa flooring to dry for 24 hours. For the first few of the hours, go out for a drink, you two. You deserve it. Seal it.