Reno Tips

As you can see, tile has been laid down in our main bathroom by my dad. The tile is actually a peel and stick product that we picked up at Home Depot. What was unique about it was 1) Thickness: The tile was a fairly thick peel and stick with flexibility 2) you could grout between the tiles which helps with the seal.

So the old linoleum was torn out and then my daughters painted the floor to give it a smoother finish. There will usually be glue segments left behind by linoleum so dad did some sanding before it was painted with a hand held sander. For peel and stick you want the floor as smooth/clean as possible. The paint was to make sure the dust was seeled in FOREVER!!

We separated the tiles with 1/16 spacers - just enough for a fine line of grout - you could do it larger if you wanted to see more grout.

Dad used a pre-mixed grout and filled in the spaces and let dry overnight.

Sunday I took the TileLab product for sealing grout and applied it using a syringe that my dad had for refilling ink cartridges. I didn't want to get the sealer over all the tiles - primarily the grout. I did a stretch of about three tiles - let dry for about 4 minutes, wipe off excess and buff - then did another application on same tiles and let sit for 4 minutes and wipe off and buff. I continued this process down the tiles to the door.

IT LOOKED FANTASTIC! Very very pleased. (I can't believe I used peel and stick!! Especially after peeling it off the bedroom floors in the basement - although those were thin linoleum peel and stick.)

The price was right and fit into our budget and the outcome looks like real tiles!

Another price saving tip: Make your old plain doors look like expensive shaker doors!

The upstairs doors were plain white and had a few chips and scrapes. The plan was to paint them Espresso coloured like the trims - but sometimes painting darker can help show up the imperfections. So I decided to trick the eye by creating doors that looked like nice shaker doors. See video for details.

I think to do six doors (two closet, four room) with the fake strips cost me about $8.00. Keep in mind that my dad ripped a 1/4" board into strips for me. If you don't have access to someone who does this, then buying trim will cost you more $. I still think it would be cheaper than brand new doors - but worth pricing out before going to the work involved.

For me - $8 very very well spent!! Thanks dad!! You got my idea bang on! And thanks PINTEREST for posting all those fabulous ideas!