There are a million and one tutorials online for how to install subway tile. Literally. Pretty sure that every blogger who has ever existed has posted a tutorial on subway tile. This is not that. Well, I guess it sort of is but here at VR I feel really strongly about sharing the things that I did wrong, just so you guys can 1. not repeat the same mistake and 2. know you are not alone in your DIY frustrations and suffering. Lets get this pity party started.
First things first, the tile that we used is Merola Soho Subway tile. The challenge was to take something very mainstream and make it my own, because I’m me and thinking outside of the box makes my heart happy. I contemplated installing it at complete random but after I thought about it for a minute realized that I still wanted it to look nice. So complete random was out. The look I realized was going for was planned randomness., the kind of randomness that doesn’t make you develop a twitch. There are about a million different ways to install subway tile but in the general style that I was going for, it seemed like there were 2 options. An Offset pattern aka Running Bond (which is what 99% of people do). Which is basically offsetting the tile above at the 1/2 way point from the previous row.
While I LOVE this pattern, its everywhere and wanted something new.
Option 2: A 1/3 Step pattern. Which is dividing the tile into thirds and setting the rows at the 1/3 mark and the 2/3 mark.
The problem that I had with this pattern is all I can see are diagonal lines, which I don’t love.
So in an effort to create controlled randomness I decided to install them in a 1/4 Step pattern. I have no idea if its a thing, I maybe just made the name up but I feel like we should just go with it.
Once I’d decided on a pattern, it was time to get to work.
We installed concrete board on the wall before we started tiling. If you have an exposed edge (that doesn’t end on a corner) backer board can make the tile really thick (because you have to grout over the edge of it and it can look pretty wonkfest. But because all of the edges of our tile ended against something, and because I wanted to ensure maximum protection against any washer/dryer vibrations, we spent the extra $15.
The next step was to start. We had to work really fast because my cute husband put a massive amount of thinset on and getting in the zone and working fast was pretty critical.
When you are installing a pattern like this, making sure that it is level is make or break. Because we’d just installed the countertop (and knew that it was perfectly level) our job was a little easier. But I still checked everything with a level every 2 rows.
We started the tile directly against the countertop (with a spacer between them) and that was perfect…until we realized that you cant tile down a wall, only up a wall. Such a forehead slap. So we had to install a ledger board that was level with the countertop to finish the section…and scrape off all of the thinset below that point. DANG IT. #pregnancybrain #gravity
Once this section of tile was set, I did some math and by adding the width of the tile + the spacers came up with the thickness that the first tile against the baseboard needed to be cut to.
Then we removed the ledger board and tiled up the wall.
Unfortunately (seriously this is like the song that never ends!) I overlooked putting a spacer against the baseboard and had added that 1/8” into my math, which meant that we had to move the entire section of tiles up 1/8” to meet the upper section and not have a big fat grout line.
Insert slasher movie music.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Mind you, this was all while I was literally a week away from giving birth. There was a lot of swearing.
Buuuuut dun dun dun dunnnnn! by some miracle it turned out absolutely perfect. Seriously. I dare you to find one spot on this wall that isn’t perfection. Man alive I’m pretty sure that this perfect tile job saved my sanity because had it have turned out wonky I would have lost it in the truest sense of the word.
So. don’t do what we did ok? Especially if you’re working with your spouse because people have been known to divorce over lesser things.
For our grout we used Fusion Pro in Charcoal. If you hear nothing else I say today, hear this. IT IS WORTH THE MONEY! Grout can be hard (you’ve got to have the perfect consistency, you’ve got to seal it, you’ve got to hope that it turns out true to the color etc.) This makes everything SO MUCH EASIER!!
A tip that I have when you’re using Fusion Pro is to wipe down your tile right before you spread it. This makes it so that it doesn’t stick to the tile surface as much and is easier to clean up. We used an epoxy float to lay the grout vs. a foam float and it was fantastic. You can get like 90% of the grout off of the tile before you even start washing.
See how the tiles look random but aren’t? Awwww yeah.
Check out the other projects from the laundry room here!
via Mandi at Lessons Learned While Installing Subway Tile
