To tile or not to tile? That was the question!

Re-tiling our kitchen has been a long time coming! We’ve been making slight improvements to the kitchen each year.

When we first moved into our home the kitchen was dirty and unloved, the floor had holes in and the walls were almost black with dirt!

We started the transformation by laying new flooring which you can read about here, to freshening up the walls with a new lick of bright paint and adding a few accessories to create that cosy, country kitchen feel.

One of the smallest things that made such a difference was changing over the cupboard door knobs! I opted for a smaller knob in chrome which instantly made the kitchen feel more modern.

Apart from our garden (which is getting there) we’ve now completed all the renovations we set out to do in our home. Well I say all, the kitchen was always a bit of a grey area. It wasn’t in desperate need of anything, but it wasn’t quite to our taste, the tiles that is!

We’d always dreamed of having sleek, stylish subways tiles that in my opinion are timeless. I love the modern edge they give to a room, and feel they would still be in keeping with the “Country Kitchen” look that we are going for.

Photo sourced from Pinterest

I knew for sure that by just doing this subtle update it will make a massive difference to the whole feel of the room!

Our plan was to begin this project in the New Year but we just couldn’t find the right tile colour.

We wanted a light grey, creamy almost mushroom coloured tile to compliment the other light and pastel shades we have running throughout the house, but it was impossible to find!

How gorgeous is this! *Image sourced from Pinterest

We tried every well known brand of tile company we could think of, but found their collections of subway tiles very limited. One shop we went into only had one option of grey tile, talk about spoilt for choice!

Filled with disappointment and almost ready to give up I decided to give our search one last try and began browsing online. There was actually quite a lot more tile companies on there than I thought, but still none had the colour we were looking for. I then thought to myself where do I go to get my daily dose of inspiration? Instagram!

Yes you guessed it, as if by magic I found a very professional looking tile company called Tons Of Tiles. I began browsing through their seamless grid of gorgeously routed tiles and instantly loved the look and feel of this smaller tile company.

It wasn’t long before I found the exact colour we were looking for! I ordered my sample of their Light Grey subway tile which looked so perfect online. It arrived the very next day and to our amazement it was the exact colour we had been looking for!!

Head over heels in love and so excited we set about starting our long-awaited kitchen renovation!

I was called by one of the Tons of Tiles team who was so helpful. Absolutely nothing was too much trouble and she even gave me advice on which colour grout to go for as well as guiding me on which size spacers to use to create our desired look!

Their customer service was impeccable and so personal, something I don’t think we would of received had we’d of gone with a larger brand.

They made me feel so well looked after and in such good hands!

Our plan was for my Father in law to remove the existing tiles, but to our horror the walls underneath were in such bad condition.

We had no choice but to tile over the existing tiles. Lucky enough there was the perfect amount of room for the new subway tiles to lay straight on top. Unless we told you, you would have absolutely no idea there were tiles underneath!

I’ve had so many people ask me about how this was achieved, to be honest I’d never actually heard of this being done before either! So I’ve asked my Father in Law to share his ’Top Tips’ on tiling over tiles!

Tiling over tiles:

• Be well prepared before starting!

• Measure up and make sure you buy enough tiles for the area to be covered. Your supplier can advise you on that, usually with some quite simple calculations.

• Make sure the new tiles and grout are suitable for the area you are tiling. You can get flexible, water/stain/mould resistant adhesive and grout etc. Choose the right materials for damp areas or places that might get splashed with oil (as behind a cooker)

• Make sure you buy the right spacers to match your chosen tiles. They come in many different sizes. Your supplier will be able to recommend them but sometimes it’s a personal thing on how wide you’d like the joint between the tiles to be.

• Have the right tools to hand. I’d recommend an electric wet tile saw which makes life very easy for cutting odd shapes and thin slices. You can use a regular cutter and hand saw etc but its much harder and often the finish can be inferior. Also, you may need a spirit level to ensure your new tiles are nice and level.

• Have suitable bowls/bucket, sponges and cloths etc for mixing and cleaning.

• Plan the tile layout first. Don’t just dive in and start tiling from the most convenient corner. I personally try to work from the centre of a feature out so everything looks symmetrical when finished

• Surface has to be reasonably smooth

• Doesn’t have to be perfect. You can adjust the depth of adhesive to achieve a nice smooth finish on your new tiles

• If you have a few badly uneven tiles you can remove them or carefully chip off the worst part and fill them before applying new tiles

• Remove and replace any cracked or loose tiles or smoothly fill holes

• Make sure the old tiles are super clean. I use spirits liberally on a micro fibre cloth to make sure all grease and mess is removed before applying new tiles.

• You don’t have to prime the surface if you use a self-priming adhesive.

• Then go! Apply the adhesive using the tile trowel sometimes provided with the adhesive or buy one.

• Put the tiles up and use a sprit or laser level to ensure you have a nice straight line on which to build…

Once the tiles were laid it was onto the grout!

Amelie enjoying her new kitchen pre-grout!

The finished project!

We had originally opted for white, but I loved the contrast the gap between the tiles were giving so we went for grey instead! I’m so glad we did as I love this looks, I feel it gives it more of a retro feel, plus is going to save me so much time on cleaning!

Before

After

We are absolutely over the moon with our new kitchen tiles! They have honestly made us feel like we have a completely new kitchen!

Such a simple change has made the biggest difference!

If you’re looking to transform your own kitchen with new stunning tiles we couldn’t recommend Tons Of Tiles highly enough! Why not take advantage of Tons Of Tile’s Black Friday Sale and take 10% off your purchases when using code BF10! Offer ends on Monday 26th 2018.

The pictures honestly don’t do it justice but I’m going to leave you with a few more shots of our new beautiful space made so utterly gorgeous by Tons of Tiles!

Love,

The biggest thanks goes to Tons of Tiles and to my father in law who helped us achieve our dream kitchen!

*This is a sponsored post.