Tile Table

Tiled Table

Here's my first attempt to make a tiled surface. I got a bunch of sample cases of tiles, donated, at work, and I loved the cool, smooth feel of them.

I also really liked the different shades of green and cream in the sample cases, even the names: light aspen, dark aspen, jade, jewel, emerald, woodland. Linen, almond, snowmist, satin... so I picked out my favorite shades and brought them home.

I got some grout, spacers and plywood at Home Depot, and had fun laying out the tiles, deciding on a pattern. I was very limited in color amounts, had to make do with a finite number of each shade. My first design was too geometric, a series of squares. The border looked messy, the adobe tiles were too yellow, and the large emerald green tiles were too bright, next to the woodland, jade, and aspen greens.

All the shades of white didn't look good together. There was just enough difference between white, linen, bone, and ivory to make them look grubby.

So I stacked all my tiles up again, in their little color coded piles, and this time attempted a vaguely circular design, and used 16 large white tiles in the center when I ran out of white. But the big white tiles didn't match the little white tiles - the finish made the large ones glossier, and a true white.

I finally ended up using my quilting program to design my layout. It was easier to switch colors around virtually than with the real tiles! Added the two outer borders later.

I started in the corner, spreading a layer of the grout/adhesive on the plywood, and sticking tiles down. Here's the first 200 or so tiles.

About ¾ finished here. You can see the little spacers I used to line the tiles up. My grout lines are sort of wavery as they are, I'd hate to see what they'd be like without the spacers!

The cats don't seem to like the tile at all. Too cold on their bare little toes, I'd guess!

All glued down!

It took a lot longer than I thought it would, spreading just a small patch of the adhesive, sticking down the tiles, working an hour or so after work each night.

The bottom left corner was finished on Feb. 7, 2006. Now, according to the adhesive instructions, I've got to let it 'cure' for 48 hours before I put the sealer on the tiles then put the grout between the tiles.

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