Home Theater Bath – Part 3

My last post concluded with the new countertop in place, but not glued down.  We hooked up the plumbing and glued the granite to the vanity.  Next, I painted the base wall color along the backsplash and along the edge of the mirror space.  I didn’t want the old tan color to show thru the tile.

Since I was doing such a small area, I wasn’t crazy about messing with mortar for the tile.  Instead, I used adhesive tile mats.  It was much easier, faster and less messy.  I just cut it to size, peeled off the backing and applied it to the wall.

Below is a close up showing with and without the tile mat in place.

All done!  I smoothed it down multiple times to make sure it was going to adhere.

I then cut down my tile sheets to the correct height.  I just had to remove the protective sheet from the tile mat, then attach the tile.  Super easy!  I just had to make sure I kept the tile spacing and top line even.  (You can see where I drew a line on the wall for the top and side edges of the tile.)

Cutting the small tiles for the two ends was a challenge, but there was only 10 pieces.

Next came grout.  I picked up some crystal grout so that it would be semi-transparent like some of the tiles.  I was concerned because reviews said it was very hard to work with, but it wasn’t as bad as I feared.  It was runnier than normal grout, but I got it done.  As you can see, I taped and covered everything to make clean up easier.  VERY glad I did that.

The grout is full of tiny glass beads and they went everywhere when dry.  You can see where I got some on my arm below.

Once done, I cleaned the excess off and used a plastic bag to pipe a finished edge along the top and sides since there isn’t a caulk to match this grout.

Meanwhile, I bought an inexpensive shower/tub faucet on eBay.  Turned out to not be the easy swap I thought it would be, so I probably would have been better off spending some more money.  The valve cartridges didn’t match the old faucet, so David had to redo the plumbing and switch everything out.  Fortunately, it is all easily accessible from the attic space on the other side of the wall.  That is the main reason these final posts are so late.

I also bought some trim to finish off the existing plain slab mirror.  I painted it black, then glued it to the mirror.  Stay tuned to see it all finished!