We’re onto my favorite leg of the race — tiling! It’s so gratifying to see your tile in place. The couple who tiles together smiles together. 🙂
Floor Prep
First, we had to screw down more fiber-cement backer board underlayment on top of the subfloor to prepare for the tile. Not pictured, but basically the same as the walls.
In-floor Heat
We decided to do in-floor heat, which I am really excited about! We’ve never had it before and it seems like the perfect little room to try it out. In our last post, I mentioned we had to reopen a wall – it was to run the thermostat for this.
We bought this 15′ electric pad and this programmable thermostat.
It was really easy to peel and stick to the floor underlayment.
We ran the cords to the wall thermostat junction box.
Then you tile directly over the mat. It is waterproof and crackproof. Still, if there are ever problems with below-floor heat, you’re kind of stuck unless you want to rip up your tile. .
Just tile like normal. We’ll report later on how well it works. So excited!
Initially I got a sample of this tile that I was really excited about, but it looked a little too flat in person, and would have been competing with the rest of the things I have planned. But I did love the hex shape! (Also somebody please use it for a project).
I found a cute round penny tile at Tile Shop that was a caramel color, but it was discontinued! I eventually stumbled on this khaki hex penny tile that was the best of both worlds. I love that it’s a little different than your standard penny tile, but not overly trendy like a larger hexagon pattern. It’s a little more subtle, but something I’ll love for the long run.
Floor Tile
Ta-dah! It actually didn’t take too long since this tile comes in 1′ x 1′ sheets, but the tricky part was clipping all the half pieces around the edges. I got pretty good with the tile nippers. It was definitely an all day project.
Grout
We picked a grout color similar to the floor tile color. Again, keeping the floor subtle because I have plenty of other fun elements in this little space. If you want to go bolder and dramatic with grout, choose high-contrast.
Grouting is my favorite!
We worked our way around the perimeter, Joe applying the grout and me wiping down the tile.
This is what date night looks like
It’s basically a lot of sponging and getting clean water and sponging again.
Almost done
Finally, after it dried, I took the haze off with this acidic cleaner. Then sealed it with that 511 cleaner. It also gives it a nice shine. Wear a mask.
Done!
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