Big tiles = Big problem
When my boyfriend and I moved into our house, the living room was over-taken by a large floor to ceiling gas fireplace surrounded with tile. Now, in a 11'-6" x 16'-0" space this was very overwhelming and made the space seem just tiny!
- People need to understand that sometimes the colour isn't what needs to be changed - A LIGHTER COLOUR DOES NOT ALWAYS MAKE A SPACE LOOK LARGER - Sorry for the caps but people tend to never realize this.
For instance, the fireplace was covered with a light travertine tile with light yellow walls around it. Once I finished with the space I cut the fireplace down half and darkened the walls (not to mention the fireplace as well) and the space has never looked more spacious.
The simplest part of this reno was deciding that the fireplace was to be cut in half and have a granite top. Since I work at a tile and granite shop I had the access to many different options.... of course this can also be a bad thing.
We went through a bit of a roller coaster with the granite to begin with - I had fallen in love with a stone called "titanium" (which may or may not have something to do with the fact that I am equipped with titanium myself). However, the stone was sold to a job and the job was taking forever! Now, usually with granite there is always a leftover piece of what was cut, whether it be small or huge. I knew there would be some leftover but the size was the problem (I needed a whole 6'-0" x 18"). I soon realized that I worked at the store and mentioned to my granite guy that I was in love with the stone for my fireplace... I simply asked him to try to make sure there was a piece big enough for what I needed and VOILA!
The tile is a whole other thing... I of course sit among hundreds of tiles a day and I always have a few favourites which makes decisions a hair-pulling experience for me! I had chosen a tile (which was 9.95 / sq. ft.) and a mosaic tile to surround just the fireplace. Well, mosaic doesn't go well with my boyfriend so I went through about 20 different designs to try to choose one we both wanted... This took maybe 3 months?
Anyway I finally went with what he liked better (no mosaic) since I was getting my titanium granite.
We invited a friend over for demo day and found out some really bad construction don'ts (the insulation around the fireplace was not fire rated and there wasn't nearly enough). Now normally you would want to use either a fiberboard or cement board as a tiling surface, however, we were trying to cut costs since the tile was a good chunk of our budget and we ended up going over existing plywood that was there before.
With the framing done, I was left to tile the fireplace. The funny thing is, having the know-how and actually doing it are two completely different things. It's my job to know how to tile properly and what is needed.... however, I have never tiled a wall in my life.
- By the way, if you plan on tiling a wall with a large tile or a full bodied porcelain tile, realize that you will need help or prepare to roll a few heads! -
So after a lot of swearing at inanimate objects the tiling came together... and then the stupid part....
Sure we can lift a 6'x18"x1-1/4" piece of granite from my car up into the house and ABOVE MY HEAD onto the fireplace... Ya... sure... this is a job for like 3 men not me frail little lady! However, I did it anyway and after a lot of screaming and grunting it got done! Here's the finished product --
Also I should also mention that this fireplace is straight from the 80s and had those annoying brass strips on the face of the fireplace... Easy fix - Spray paint the colour you want!
We are very proud of the focal point of our home and are very happy that it is the first thing people see when they enter! It's a wonderful piece and we get a lot of complements on it.
To recap;
Do - Find remnant granite
Do - Spend a lot of time thinking about the tile design
Do - Make sure you have a tiling partner
Do - Make sure you have 3 strapping young lads to move the granite for you
Don't - Complicate things by stressing too much over price (it's small)
Don't - Look at tiles for too long (the first one you love will be the one)
Don't - Try to pull off tiles that are already set in mortar
Don't - Over extend yourself
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