The Easiest Way to Tile [Perfect for Beginner DIYers]

9 Materials
$175
8 Hours
Easy
Hi, I'm Brittany! I am passionate about sharing time saving projects around the house for other busy families.

Today I want to show you how an easy way to apply tile—even if you haven’t felt brave enough to try it out.

Tiling make such an impact on a room’s décor—but for us, it always felt a little overwhelming. Since we had 6 weeks to renovate our powder room, we wanted tile--- but with less mess and less overwhelm.

Goal: Complete our first tile project. You can see the room fully updated on my blog here.

This is our newly painted bathroom with a board & batten bottom. In the few days prior to installing tile, we added the board & batten and installed a new pedestal sink.


We chose mosaic tile from Lowe’s. Since the tile is square foot in size, we decided to make our mosaic border 6” tall to utilize all the tile. To give you an idea of space, the powder room is 6’ square. We used 11 sheets of tile for this project.
We cut the tile in half. We matched all bottom halves together, then the top halves. Since they are all together, you’ll only need one mosaic transition between bottom and top.


To start the project, we used a wet tile saw to create one flush edge of tile. We kept any leftover mosaic pieces to form the transition from bottom halves to top halves.
Once the tile pieces were cut, we rolled out (aff. Link) MusselBound adhesive. We were a little nervous to use something non-traditional, but it made the job so much easier! Even when we were done, my husband said how much he liked using it and how easy it was to apply and clean up.


Once the adhesive was applied, I used a tile float to firmly press it against the wall. Then, we placed the tile onto the adhesive. Again, I used the float. We used 1/8” tile spacers as we moved along the wall.
To act as a rail around the tile, we added a 1”x2” select pine across the top. We then applied a bright white grout, washed it off with a tile sponge, and we were done!
The very last piece was filing in the nail holes along the top piece of wood and painting it with 2 coats of paint to match the board & batten.
 
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Brittany | Our Home Made Easy
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  • Nancy Gamble Nancy Gamble on Mar 15, 2019

    Just love the transformation. Can you tell me what color you used on your walls... Just perfect!

  • P P on Nov 03, 2019

    Seal the grout? It doesn't take long to do but keeps the grout clean.

  • Sandra Shea Sandra Shea on Dec 29, 2021

    What are the steps to create your bottom section of the walls (board & batten)?

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