Welcome, I’m glad you’ve stopped by again. 

Autumn has been setting in here in Coventry. The leaves are lining the streets with an array of colours, and the morning frost is reminding us of what is to come. Wherever you are, I hope the weather is good.

This week it’s Pinterest Tile Painting. You’ve probably seen that Mediterranean tiles are on trend. I wanted to buy some for my kitchen, but the tiles that I have were in pretty good condition when I moved in. As you probably know patterned tiles can be quite pricey. 

Whilst adding to my Pinterest boards I found this Pin. When I saw it, it was one of those moments when you think to yourself, ‘Why did I not think of this myself?’ It is genius, honestly. Why buy new tiles, when I can just paint over them? All I had to do was buy the paint and a stencil. If you know me, I’m quite indecisive when buying things. It took me a while to buy the stencil, but it was a bargain. 99p from eBay. I also bought some Tile paints, which were £3.99 each. The colour scheme for my kitchen is Saffron yellow, grey and white. As my appliances are grey, I bought yellow, grey paint and a clear lacquer. The lacquer is to seal the paint.

This project is very simple, but I went through a lot of trial and error. Here were the problems I faced:

1. The paint kept bleeding. Even though I had a stencil, the paint would bleed under the stencil and would not maintain the shape of the pattern. I tried painting with artists paint brushes, by doing strokes. I tried dabbing the paint against the tiles, it didn’t work. I then made my own stencil and applied the paint to the stencil to then transfer it on the tile. This one wasn’t brilliant, it kept the shape but the paint was rather translucent. Which lead to problem number 2.
2. The paint was translucent. Using the stencil was hard enough already, but to have to paint over and try to put the stencil back in the exact same spot, was going to be tricky. I gave this project a rest for a few weeks whilst trying to wrack my brains on how to make it work. 

Weeks later I resolved the problem. I think I was watching an episode of Mr.Kate and she used a sponge to do some painting. So I went to my cleaning cupboard and got a household sponge. I also bought a small sample tub of grey emulsion paint (£1.) I mixed the emulsion paint with the tile paint to thicken it so that it would lose its transparency. After prepping the wall (cleaning the tiles with anti-bacterial and sticking the stencil on,) I dabbed the paint onto the tiles with the sponge. There was less bleeding and less transparency. I was, and I mean it; streaking with joy. 

 

I worked along the bottom row of tiles, painting them alternately, and then did the same to the top row. As mentioned before the plan was to also use yellow paint, which would have been for the middle row but I abandoned this. I would have been too busy. 

I tried to paint behind one of the electrical points in my kitchen, and then struggled to get the fixture back in place. This was another abandoned mission. I let the paint dry for a day or two and then painted over with the lacquer so that when regularly wiping the tiles down, it wouldn’t cause the paint to chip or rub off. This week’s project cost me £9.97 (minus the yellow paint.) I don’t know how much I would have spent on Tiles, but this was less expensive.

I hope you like the tiles, let me if you have tried something similar or going to try it. Next time I’ll be showing you my idea’s for my new kitchen. See you soon!

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’