The tale of tile tribulations- One room challenge 2021 Week 4 (Ok I missed posting this last week!)

I missed the deadline for posting on week 4. It was because there were a couple of crises on the project- more about that next week!

I think we should take a break from all the construction talk – and I wish I could get a break from the construction mess. SO . MUCH . DUST..everywhere. Let’s talk about tile instead.

This project has 4 tiles in the bathroom and 2 in the bedroom.

We had installed wood look tile in the rest of the downstairs when we did some work a couple of years ago. The wood look tile is a great solution for a lake home. I selected some with a good amount of texture so it is very slip resistant if we have people running in with wet swimsuits. We have dogs and kids and adults that are pretty rough on the flooring so we needed something that would stand up to all this and not even flinch. I wanted a lighter color than the wood floors in our main home but not too light. I found this MSI tile and think it was perfect.

We have a fireplace in the bedroom and I wanted a bit of color and texture. I fell in love with these classic Z ellige tiles. Zellige tiles – also called Zilij or Zelij- are Moroccan tiles. They are hand crafted from a  non-refined natural clay. Glass enamel is applied on top of the raw tiles in multiple semi-transparent shades which creates beautiful finishes that can take on a pearlescent finish. They are traditionally characterized by variations in shine and depth of glazing. The rustic texture adds to the charm of these tiles. I selected a soft blue that compliments the door to the bathroom which is painted SW Aqua Sphere.

The bathroom flooring also needed to be easy to care for and slip resistant. (The grands always want to bathe in my tub!). I wanted a floor that would be timeless yet still feel modern. There is nothing more classic in bathroom tile than small hexagonal tiles. I think as long as there has been indoor plumbing hex tiles have been used in bathrooms. They have been used to create so many different patterns in almost every color you can imagine. I found this tiny hex at Ann Sacks but I wanted  larger scale so I decided to create my own pattern from 1” matte hex tiles.  I am sure there are many ways to do this but I decided to use Photoshop to work out my pattern. I set up a base of white tiles, “cut out” some black tiles and started placing them until I worked out my proportions. The next step was creating a mock up to show my tile contractor so I set up a 6 square foot section and started popping the white tiles out and putting in black ones. I was really happy with the pattern so I had my tile contractor look at it and tell me how it would be best for him to translate it to the floor. He said I should lay the entire floor out …so…. I did. I laid out 12’ x 12’ of white tiles on the living room floor. Luckily we do not have anyone else living here and we are also not staying in the house so I could do this without causing any problems for anyone- well everyone except the dog. I then used a sharpie to mark off the tiles that would be replaced with black tiles and started popping them out. Then the black ones were put in. I was a little slow to figure out that cutting them in strips instead of individual tiles was going to make my life much easier. It all seemed to be going pretty well … until it wasn’t going well. Our dog and guest dogs from my son and from my daughter caused some shifting of my carefully laid pattern. I was not in town when the tile guy decided to tackle the floor. He thought the pattern was evenly spaced on the sheets of tiles- it wasn’t. He thought he could start in the center and keep it all straight.. he couldn’t. So I get a call from my husband that my tile guy is literally having a melt down- we are talking crying and throwing up melt down-and he is a tough guy with a rough past. I drove down after a meeting and spent until 3 in the morning setting the tile back together this time in the bathroom. I could not get it completely straight because some were already set incorrectly. I stayed the next day and worked with him to get the pattern laid. It did eventually get finished!

The walls of the shower and behind the tub will be covered with an elongated matte white subway tile set vertically in a stacked pattern. This will give it a more modern look while keeping classic materials as the base.

I knew I wanted a linear soap niche and something interesting in it. I thought about using a textured white tile with a fun pattern. These from Walker Zanger would have been so much fun. I liked the idea of bringing the blue Zellige into the bathroom but the thickness of these would not leave enough space to store shampoo and such. I found these glass 2” hex that were perfect.

Are you following the other projects from featured and guest particpants? You can check them out here. The official media sponsor Better Homes and Gardens also has so many inspirational projects!