We did it, all the walls are tiled, hooray!!! That doesn’t mean the tiling is done because we still have a little bit here and there, but the fact that all 4 walls are tiled at least 5 ft up on the wall (and to the ceiling in the shower) is a HUGE motivator. It’s a big, giant item checked off the list, and it feels so good.
There was just this little wall left
And yesterday Chris spent a little over 2 hours getting it done. I wasn’t much help because 1) he didn’t really need any and 2) my legs and knees were really achy. I already have bad knees (knee surgery at 19) and apparently crouching down all weekend helping Chris tile and running up and down the stairs as I cut all tile down this past weekend is still making my legs feel not so great, so I’ve been taking it easy the last couple of days. Apparently carrying an extra 25 pounds of pregnancy weight starts to take its toll a bit 🙂 I’ve had a lot of work lately, so I retreated to my office to make some dolla dolla bills.
It was easy going for the tile because we started with a half piece alternating with a full piece on the right (I set up the fence and cut a bunch down) and the wall is less than 3 feet wide. The last level line was made and I sliced half an inch or so off the bottom row of tiles to make the first row level
And then it was tile tile tile tile
We used our gray thinset this time
We used it because this thinset is flexible so because it’s going on the wall that the pocket door sits inside when it’s open we want it to have some wiggle (despite all of Chris’ efforts to stabilize the pocket door as much as possible)
I came in every 15 or 20 minutes to see how things were going and make cuts, mix up more thinset, lay out more tile, etc. But for the most part, it was just the Chris show and it went really fast
Beautiful! We wanted this corner to have two half pieces and 2 full pieces butting into each other because the sink will be mounted under the medicine cabinet so we’ll be staring at this corner a lot while brushing our teeth, washing our hands, washing our faces, etc.
Similarly, we have the 1/2 tile/full tile going on in the corner of the shower because we’ll be staring at that corner a lot too
Now that the walls are done what do we have left to tile? There’s the sides of the cubby (we’ve already done the top and bottom)
And the curb
Both will be a bit of an adventure, but knowing that those are the last two tiling tasks left to do is really nice motivation to get it done. Then it’ll be time to grout. Ugh.
Cheryl says
The bathroom looks fabulous – wish all tiling professionals took the care that you two obviously do!
What are you using around the cubby? I'm assuming some sort of trim tile that matches the subway tile but it is hard to tell.
And will the curb be tiled in white subway tile? Does it get some sort of trim tile on the top edges? Looks like you will be doing lots of cutting no matter what you do!
Did you do anything different where the white subway tile meets the painted wall? I remember you used that special metal edge with the glass tile.
I'm full of tiling questions today – almost wish I had a project to use all the info from you guys!
meryl rose says
I love questions 🙂
1. The trim around the cubby is Dal -Tile's brightest white quarter round. The Tile Shop (where we got the wall tile) didn't have quarter round in the same kind of tile so I went on a man hunt to find the closest match of white I could (holy crap allllll the shades of white).
2. The curb will in fact be tiled in the same white beveled subway tile that all the walls will, and the outside and inside corner will also have the quarter round to help ease the transition. And yes, there will be LOTS of cutting involved. Boo.
3. We will in fact have a piece of trim where the tile and wall meet each other. We used schluter trim in the main bathroom and had intended on using tile trim in here but holy crap it was SO EXPENSIVE, so we're just going to use wood trim painted white 🙂
lvnmt says
Can you share what kind of thinset you used for the walls, shower, and floors? We are doing a very similar bathroom remodel that was inspired by your room. Thank you,
aptpupil says
We used flexbond from custom building products. It's not technically rated for use over Kerdi, but I know of many people who have used this and versabond over Kerdi without problems. Flexbond allows for a little movement as well.
lvnmt says
Sorry to be a pest about this project, could you also share what type of grout you used on the walls and shower. I know you used the Quartzlock on the floors but mentioned you used a different kind for the walls. Is this still holding up a year later?
Thanks again!
Angela
aptpupil says
Polyblend sanded grout by CBP. We used this in both bathrooms and it's holding up just fine on the walls. Just make sure you don't get too much water in the mix. Cememtitious grout gets too porous when you mix it too wet.
The floor is subject to more staining and none of the sealers are actually very good which is why we went with urethane grout on the floors this time.