Hurrah! The tiling is very nearly done apart from a bit of scrubbing needed to finish off. *big sigh of relief* I did the tiling all by myself. Yes, indeedy! I taught myself when we renovated the bathroom in our last flat.
The walls here made it difficult at times because they're not very even. Each tile needs a different amount of adhesive to bring the front of the tiles to a constant height. It took a lot of thought to get a good, even finish, with no gaps or oddly placed half tiles as the ends of rows, but I'm really, really pleased with the results, even though I say so myself!
I used cream grout between the tiles, rather than white, because, according to the tile shop, white tends to show the dirt and grease quickly in a kitchen, and discolours to dingy grey. Not nice.
I used wide spacers, rather than teeny narrow ones because the edges of the tiles are uneven. It gives them space to shine. ;-)
My top tiling tip is DON'T use adhesive and grout all in one, no matter what the adverts say. It's a TOTAL nightmare to clean off the tiles when you've finished. I was sucked in last time and so was dreading the cleaning part here but this lovely grout can almost be brushed off, which was a VERY pleasant surprise!
Our back doorstep used to be two badly fitted rectangles of mdf leaning against a makeshift cement step. SO not pretty. I asked our brilliant carpenter to make a proper wooden step for the back door and he came up with the fab idea of tiling it instead. Much more hardwearing, he said. Consequently, I have also been busy tiling that too....
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So....it's now (or it will be when it's dried!) all covered up with smart charcoal grey slate tiles. Yummy. It was, indeed, an excellent idea so thank you, Mr Carpenter!
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Now, on with fun part.....painting!