Tiling A Bathroom Vanity
In this tutorial we will learn how to tile a vanity. Things we will need:
1. Tile of your choice.
2. Tile adhesive.
3. Grout
4. Box cutter or a knife
5. Spackle knife
6.
Trowel
Let's turn this cheap looking unattractive vanity into something more appealing.
Let's start by drawing a line around the sink and then taking the sink out. Don't forget to shut off the water.
Take you tile and arrange it around the sink hole making sure you are going over the line that we drew earlier.
I picked marble mosaic because it is easier to position around the hole without cutting. To be honest, I'm just too lazy to cut the regular tile. Take your layout and place it on the floor exactly as you had it on the sink.
Score the vanity top with a box cutter or a knife. The reason we do this is so that the glue will have something to grab onto. I sanded it a little too with very course sand paper.
By now your bathroom should be a complete mess :-)
Apply the glue like shown below and lay down the peices. Press them firmly into place.
Continue doing the whole vanity. For the sides where the regular tile won't fit, I bought strips of similar tile at home depot, cut them up and arranged them into places.
Let it dry for 24 hours (I waited 3 days) and grout it. I couldn't really snap pictures of the grouting process because it is messy :-). You basicaly mix the grout with water to a consistensy of peanutbutter and apply it to all the gaps and crevices making sure the grout in to every gap. Wipe it with slightly damp sponge and wait a few hours. Then wipe it again in order to get the haze off the tile. In some spots I had to scrape the grout off. Wait a few days and then seal the grout with an environmentally safe grout and tile sealer. Put the sink back on. I also bought a new faucet. Seal the gap between the tile and the sink with specialy made grout sealer. It is different from the grout sealer that you used to seal the grout. This looks more like caulk and you can find it in the tile section of homedepot.
Now let's move on to the doors. Take them off and paint it in the color of your choice. Mine are orange.
Now, what I did was apply a cracking tecknique to the edges of the door. A quick tip for crackling teqnique: don't spend the money on those crackling kits. Buy regular clear glue for crafts. Apply the glue with a brush to a dry painted surface. In my case I am applying it onto the orange. The thiner the glue - the smaller the cracks. The thicker - the wider. Don't wait for the glue to dry, and apply a coat of paint on top. Try not to go over the same spot twice. Grab a hair dryer and dry the patch. You will see cracks appear right away. Experiment with it. You'll get it right after a couple of times. The idea of crackling is that the coat of media underneath dries slower than the coat on top thereby creating cracks in the top coat.
Now what I did was take regular wall paper glue (clear one) and apply it to the surface. Then I took wrapping tissue paper that they wrap dishes in when you buy something in Home Goods for example :-)) I crumbled the tissue paper and layed it over the glue and rolled it with a roller. Don't be stingy with the glue. Continue doing that in a random fashion layering paper on top of another. Don't forget the glue. Slapp in right on top of the paper that has already been glued. Overlap peices.
Wait untill everything dryes. I used the hear dryer again. I hate waiting. Now, I applied a coat of water based sealer (craft store). Dry it. Then I took regular waterbased wood stain which I found in the garage. The color was a little bright but I decided to use it anyway. After dishing out $150 for the new faucet and $ 70 on tile, I didn't want to spend anymore money so everything came from what I could find in the garage. Anyway, take a sponge and apply the stain right to the tissue paper. Not to much not too little. Play with it. See what looks good to you. Seal the whole door with mod pudge (craft store) or another sealer of your choice. One of the things that I found in the garage was 4 old metal handles and 2 appliques. I painted the handles dark cooper and put it onto the doors long with the appliques. Seal everything again with mod pudge.
That's pretty much it. I did my wife's bathroom as well using the same techniques but different colors and different tiles like so:
Hope you have fun with this. If you have any questions, suggestions, feedback, do not hesitate to email me. If you like me to do a tutorial that is not listed here, do contact me as well. If I can, I will post one.
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