Featured Article:
[Posted on July 12, 2011]
Limestone Tiles: Excellent Renovation Tools!
When you think about renovating your kitchen, bathroom, or outdoor living space, there are many great options in terms of masonry materials. You can add a limestone tile backsplash above your oven. Or you can use thin brick for covering the base of a kitchen island or even an entire wall. Concrete can also be used on floors (with a nice finish to add color and texture), countertops, and in other places throughout your home.
While brick and concrete offer much versatility, a material that is sometimes overlooked is limestone. This is unfortunate because limestone is equally as versatile as brick and concrete. It is also durable enough to withstand normal wear and tear in a home and it offers an interesting color palate, which can really make your renovations stand out.
Limestone comes in shades of gray, blue, and sandier colors. It is usually cut into tiles, which can be installed like normal ceramic tiles. While it is always smart to consult with a professional for any renovation, it is possible to install limestone tiles on your own. Simple clean the area you want to place the tiles on (be sure to replace any old or water damaged surfaces beneath the tiles). Then, affix the tiles to the surface and grout in between them. Be sure to thoroughly clean the grout off of each tile and then seal the tiles to protect them from water. This process is simple, quick, and useful in many places.
Limestone tiles can be placed inside and outside your house. Try them for bathroom floors, inside showers, and on bathroom countertops. They look especially nice when accented with a few ceramic tiles in a design. Mixing colors and textures of limestone and then combining this with a stand-alone, glass panel shower configuration can also create a unique bathroom look. In the kitchen, limestone tiles can cover floors and countertops. They are also nice accents to backsplash (as mentioned before) and wainscoting. Beyond the bathroom and kitchen, take limestone outside for more interesting options.
Outdoors, you can use limestone tiles to build patios, accent outdoor kitchens, and to cover the superficial surfaces of cooking islands, grill platforms, fountains bases, and raised flower beds. As in the bathroom, the advantage of using limestone lies in the way you can combine colors and mix and match with other materials like ceramic tiles, concrete, and brick. Limestone is also nice outside because it is an all-natural material. It will blend in with both the blues of pools and water features, or in more gray or beige tones it can complement flowers, shrubs, and trees. It is also more sustainable than some other masonry materials, and can help you build a particularly green outdoor space.
Since they are so lovely, versatile, and easy to install, head on down to your local masonry materials store so you can explore the possibilities of limestone tiles in your next renovation project!
[Posted on November 18, 2010]
Mosaics: Great for Almost Any Room!
Mosaic art is timeless- it was a huge part of life in Roman times and it looks fantastic in a modern home! It is an especially attractive medium because it allows for a large degree of personal expression. You can choose your own designs and colors and make a really unique piece of art. For great examples of this, search Google Images of classic Roman mosaics. You’ll see that they feature a variety of subjects- birds, flowers, plants, queens, children, sports, horses, geometric designs- and they appear in an array of colors and sizes. If the Romans could do so much with relatively few resources, imagine what sort of mosaics you can make now that we live in an age of global economies and internet shopping!
When you are considering adding a mosaic to your home, you first need to decide where to put it. A bathroom is always a great spot. You can use glass or limestone tile to make large or small designs on the countertop, on the floor, around the bathroom mirror, or you can even decorate the entire shower. The kitchen is also a wonderful place for mosaic designs. Not only can you decorate the countertops or floor, you could also create a mosaic splashback above the stove.
After finding the perfect spot for your mosaic, choose a design you like. Be sure to choose something that complements your general decorative style—don’t put bright pink flowers in an otherwise traditional bathroom for example- and make sure you can live with the design, as mosaics are fairly permanent fixtures. Once you have a design in mind, figure out what colors and types of tiles you would like. Glass tiles offer versatility of color, but they are fragile. Limestone or other stone tiles are more solid than glass, and they can come in some very fine colors depending on where the stone comes from. Deep blues are especially easy to find in stone tiles. If you can’t choose between glass or stone tiles, you can always mix the two mediums to create an interesting texture and style.
Now that you have a spot, design, and materials, it’s time to figure out if you want to create the mosaic yourself or call a professional. For small spaces like mirrors or countertops, you should be able to easily prep the surface, lay the tile, and grout the mosaic. For larger spaces like showers or floors, however, getting professional help is a good idea. Building a mosaic shower includes many steps- taking down old tile, checking the integrity of the plumbing, affixing water-resistant backing to place the new tiles on, making sure water flows correctly, and then putting up the actual new mosaic. It’s a tough job and one that can go very wrong if one of the steps is left out. Check with professionals in your area for estimates and see if it makes sense to have help.
Whether you make it yourself or call in help, one thing is certain: adding a mosaic to any room brings color, style, and personality to your home. So, do like the ancient Romans did and find the mosaic that is right for your space!