January Projects
As we say goodby to January I wanted to share the January Projects that we completed. In my first blog post of the new year, I showed you a picture of the shelves that John built on either side of the fireplace. Here’s that post. After my Christmas village was taken down we both agreed that we needed a little more color around the fireplace itself.
Researching Tile
We started researching tile as a nice way to add color and wouldn’t be too costly. They are so many kinds and sizes of tile that it’s good to have somewhat of an idea before you buy them online or at your local tile shop.
We measured the area & figured out that we needed only 7 square feet, just a couple of boxes. Here’s a great article by no other than Bob Villa himself on how many tiles you need for a job! Check out the article here
Types of Tile
Many of you have probably seen the basic 4×4 squares of tile that are used a lot in bathrooms and kitchens as well as subway tiles that are a more rectangular shape. We had to keep in mind the area we wanted to cover in the tile so we would have little waste and save on cutting the tile down to fit.
After looking on Wayfair where there are pages and pages of tile colors and designs we decided we would rather go to a tile shop and see what they had in stock. We are fortunate there is a very nice tile shop only about 45 minutes from us; Christiansburg, Virginia if there are any locals reading this!!
If any of you have looked for the tile you know that many are displayed on backsplashes & racks of all different designs and colors. We knew we wanted something in the green family which did narrow down our search somewhat. To be honest I really thought when I walked in that we would be deciding on basic subway tile or 4×4 squares. But as I looked around I spotted one that just might work! It was a small 2×2 square laid out on a 12 x 12 mesh backing. Read a little about that type of backing HERE
As you can see from the picture below it was a nice mix of colors and design. The nice part about this tile we could pick out the ones we wanted to use; if we spotted a color we just didn’t like it could easily be cut out or removed.
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We had all intentions of installing the tile ourselves ( John would be doing the job) but we soon realized the saw he was planning to use just didn’t have the right blade for cutting this type of tile. We made a quick call to the tile shop and they were kind enough to give us the name of one of their guys who might be able to help us out! We were surprised when he said he could be at our house the following week and look at that job and we wanted to have him install it he would!
He arrived and gave us a very reasonable bid for the entire job and got started immediately. That’s one nice thing about hiring someone, they have all the right tools needed for the job.
He laid the tile around the fireplace in no time. The grout did have to be applied the next day so a trip back the following day finished the job up! Here’s a picture of the finished project!! I’m really pleased with how much color this adds to the fireplace area. of course, we still hadn’t completely cleaned up the area when I snapped the picture but you can see the “finished job”! We are planning to look around for a round mirror for above the fireplace to finish this off!
Looks great Rose! I have been threatening to do a similar project. Thanks for the motivation. Take care!