We are really getting down to the wire with the bathroom renovation! Here is your Week 5 Update! And remember to click here to seee all of the
Conceptually, tiling is simple: lay down mortar, lay the tile on the mortar, let it dry, and then grout it all. Boom, done, simple.
However, things get a lot more complicated when you add things in like built-in shelves, the desire to have things “straight” and/or “level,” the fact that your house is over 100 years old and no floor or wall is “straight” or “level,” that fact that I take perfectionism to a crazy level – I could go on and on.
With all of these little bits of “character” in my bathroom, I had to accept that perfection was not going to the possible with this bathroom.
So, the most crucial part of all of this was planning the layout of the tiles. Here is the approach I took:
First, I decided which parts of the bathroom I wanted everything to be “relative to.” In other words, did I want things to be “level” as the traditional term is defined (i.e., level per the Earth’s gravity) or “level” relative to any specific line in the bathroom (the ceiling, the floor, a side wall, the tub, etc.).
I picked the back right corner where the tub meets the wall because the tub was guaranteed to be as close to a right angle as possible and I knew that the top rim of the tub would at least be a guaranteed straight line. So, I made this the “focal” point for where the pattern would be based. I drilled a board in the distance of the height of one tile plus a little bit for the spacer and to caulk between the tiles and tub (I’ll do that last tile row later).
I worked out from here, row by row, prioritizing keeping things level and straight relative to the tiles so those lines would be the “perfect” lines. The end tiles had to but cut at angles and were not uniform with each other, since the walls up the sides aren’t straight or even. The actual corners will be hidden by caulk, so that won’t be noticed.
Tiling around where my gorgeous Mr. Direct rainhead shower head and tub faucet / handle will be was easy because the plate will cover most of that area (and the area needs to be big enough to get to the actual plumbing controls behind it, anyway).
It was also surprisingly easy to saw “free-hand” with my tile saw. I drew the circle on the tiles and just went slowly (and carefully).
With the floor tiles, I decided to go with the line of the tub since that is the first thing you’d see when you walked in to the bathroom, and then as a secondary point of alignment, the right wall (since most of the left wall will be covered with the toilet and vanity).
Once I had the “starting” point for my floor tiles figured out, I had to figure out what I wanted that area to look like. With hexagon tiles, there are lots of different ways I could start. If I aligned the edge of one hexagon on any part, there would be little slivers on the edges. I wanted fuller tiles on the edges. So, what I did was lay out a bunch of the tiles and then figured out where a right angle would look best. I decided that each side would be a half tile (one would be half the middle of the sides and the other would be cut in half “diagonally” or point-to-point).
I can’t wait to show you all the final reveal! My wide-set vanity has arrived and I can’t wait to have everything put together with my wide-set Mr. Direct faucet. I’m so obsessed with the antique bronze metal that I’ve chosen for the bathroom.
Check back next week for the final reveal!