Shelve Up!

My bathroom space is limited - meaning I have a small bathroom with NO storage. Thus I had to bring my own storage opportunities. First obvious place was the unused space above the toilet; storage opportunity #1 - SHELVES. I did not want anything pre-fabricated because they really don't look homey. Is homey a word? Anyway, I bought a piece of wood and cut into three equal pieces with my circular saw, bought shelf brackets and used my drill to install and voila - SHELVES!

Bathroom Completed!

MY BATHROOM BEFORE

ZEE DESIGNER BATHROOM AFTER

Project gone wrong - Tiling the Window Frame

There is a window in the bathtub area that I thought would be cool to cover in mosaic tiles.

Even though I was able to glue the tiles to the window frame, I was not able to place grout neatly between the tiles. And I could not close the window.

Since the tiling did not work I went with painting the frame red. I chose red because it is an unexpected welcome of color.

Tub Hardware problem posted on Apartment Therapy

I submitted my problem about how to tile around the bathtub faucet handles to Apartment Therapy and to my surprise it was posted! I got some really good ideas.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/good-questions/good-questions-how-to-tile-around-tub-hardware-076010

Faucet dilema

Even though I knew I wanted to tile the bathtub walls, I did not know how I was going to tile around the faucet handles. I figured I would deal with it when I got there. I submitted my dilema to ApartmentTherapy.com and got the following advice:

I think you need to take the hardware off, put the tiles on and then put the hardware back on and caulk. You shouldn't try to grout around the handles.

Looking at your photo, it looks like you could just use nippers (to clip small pieces of tile off an edge vs. making a hole in the center) if you removed the half tiles above and below the faucets (which shouldn't be like that anyway).

Forget the nippers. Use a rental tile wet saw for perfect cuts. You need to remove the half tiles you have next to the tile handles now. Take off the escutcheons and mark the tiles where you need to make a slot for the piping. Just saw it out and mastic the tile in place, then grout. Do NOT depend on large grouted areas alone. Water will get in and you'll end up having to replace the drywall.

I did not do any of the above. My philosophy when it comes to this tiling project is K.I.S.S (keep it simple sweetheart). I chose to stick with cutting straight edges and place the tiles as close as possible to the edges of the faucet handles. Next step is grouting.

Bathtub tiling progress

As of today, I am ALMOST finished with tiling the bathtub walls. Going to work, going to the beach, working out or just being plain lazy prevents me from finishing. So far the bathtub walls, the mosaic border and tiling around the faucet handles are finished. I grouted the walls, except for around the faucet handles. Here are some pics of the grouting process.

Bathtub walls - tiling

I tiled the walls with blue ceramic tiles mainly with a few white and yellow tiles mixed in. It came out pretty good except I miscalculated the measurements by an inch; resulting in a space between the top metal border edge

Bathtub walls - stripped clean

Even though I knew I was going to tile the walls, I felt I needed to peel all the layers of paint before placing tiles. Maybe I read somewhere I had to strip the walls. This is how they look after stripping.

Bathtub walls - makeover

Next I started on the walls surrounding the bathtub. I probably started 6-7 months ago and been working on them ever since. I don't know why I chose tiling but most bathtub walls are tiled. So why can't I have mine tiled? Luckily, I was starting with the walls you see here.