If you (or your handyman) can install a few ceramic tiles, you can just as easily go for an upscale natural stone mosaic. All you need is some pre-made mosaic tiles — a bit like the mesh sheets of one-inch tiles that pop up now and then on bathroom walls and floors, only made of real natural stone — plus a bed of cement spread evenly over your subfloor, and a touch of grout to finish off.
No, really, it’s nowhere as hard as you’d think to lay a tile floor — my back porch is proof of that, self-installed (super-affordably) with a collection of “demonstrator model” ceramic tiles, showroom samples of discontinued lines, that were just headed for the DIY store’s dumpster at the end of season…
Anyway, the secret of success lies partly in having a solid subfloor, because ceramic tiles are not exactly lightweight or flexible, and absolutely in not skimping on the cement you lay the tiles into. You don’t want air pockets trapped beneath the tiles, believe me. And that’s one area where I think something like a StrataStone mosaic tile floor (or wall) would be even easier to install than ordinary ceramic, since you’re not dealing with big flat surfaces to try to set on the level.
So I’m looking at these stone mosaic tiles, available in all manner of lovely colours of stone, and a choice of cut stone or pebble styles… What’s particularly clever here is that the 12-inch tiles are made to interlock with each other, so you’re not butting one straight edge against another, which means that the final look is surprisingly natural.
Too bad that the StrataStone people put “call for pricing” all over their product page — I do like to know whether or not my daydreams are remotely affordable! — but it’s an option I plan to keep in mind for when my big mudroom-to-sunroom reno starts… next spring, with any luck!
[Hat tip to Furniture Fashion for this one!]
I need help. We built a cinderblock retaining wall and I would like to make a stone mosaic on it. I am also going to lay stone in the cement stairs which I have found out how to do.
My problem is how to do this on the cinderblock wall. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you in advance for any help anyone can offer.
Wow, you’ve been busy! Well, yeah, adopting is going to guarantee a busy time, even if you hasn’t been doing all the transAtlantic travel leading up to it… but the master bath alone: wow, that’s about as big a change in decor as you could get! Must feel good to get it done, eh?
Our perpetually-delayed master bath project finally happened! We’re down to just a couple of finishing touches – most notably, we’re waiting on the shower door to arrive & be installed.
For good & bad, this was one of our least hands-on projects we’ve done around the house – we just couldn’t juggle handling the new kiddo and being knee-deep in renovation stuff at the same time, so we let our trusty contractor Truitt handle almost all of it – even the painting, which I never mind doing.
Anyway, here’s what our nearly-completed new master bath looks like.
Btw, Truitt said the pebble tiles were not as easy to lay as we were led to believe, but we sure do like the end result.
Good tip, Rob, thanks. Be sure to come back and drop a link when you get your project photos online — I’m looking at a mudroom makeover in the spring, when we put on the new back porch, and thinking of something like that… would welcome the inspiration!
We just bought some stone mosiac tiles from Natural Stone Outlet out of San Diego, California for an upcoming master bath redo. The 1 ft sq sheets are notched like puzzle pieces to make them easy to fit together seamlessly and look awesome! The price was incredible – even with shipping, this product was a fraction of the cost of any remotely similar mosiac tiles that we found locally.
Once our contractor starts the project, I’ll post some in-progress photos of this pebble mosiac tile product.