How I Made Faux Delft Tiles

3 Materials
$20
2 Hours
Easy

Hi, I'm Liz from the DIY & decorating blog Simple Decorating Tips!

Before I even tell you how I made faux Delft tiles, I’ll tell you why…

Check out the  YouTube video where I make a practice board of tiles for ‘How I Made Faux Delft Tiles’.


A few years, and a couple house renovations ago... (check out my blog for the latest renovation!) This was the antique corner cupboard we had in the breakfast room of our 100 year old house:100 year old house:

One Christmas, I showed you how I made this super easy DIY Alpine Garland (pop over to my blog to see that post) to cover the cords from the Christmas village I put in the corner cupboard:

But alas, when Christmas was over and it’s a lot of work setting up that village scene, so instead of packing it all up… I decided to cheat and leave it all in the corner cupboard.

I just removed the alpine garland from the front, to use next year, tucked the cords back in the cupboard, remounted the door and it was all was good…

Well, actually, not so much.

First, the color of the cupboard has been bugging me for a while… There’s just too many warm tones in that room. Several pieces of wood furniture along with the wide plank laminate floor that is a warm wood tone too.

AND…

The biggest issue of all is that the village, frozen in its winter state was visible through the large front glass door as well as the windows on each side of the corner cupboard:

Well, that wasn’t going to work. I started to brain storm. I considered both fabric and paper to line the insides of the glass with during the months the view of the winter village scene wouldn’t be welcome.

 also took key inspiration from the antique cook stove I re-did for the kitchen:

I love the blue and white tile surrounded by the black frame.

So that was it, I’d paint the antique cupboard black and find some wallpaper or wrapping paper that was faux delft tile. Easier said than done. Oh painting the cupboard was easy enough…

But I couldn’t find a paper version of delft tile that I liked…

So I decided I could make them.

That’s the ‘why’, here’s the how I made faux delft tiles:

I created a new Pinterest board and started a new board saving all the delft tile designs I liked to use for inspiration when I went to create my own.

Then I went shopping… I only needed a few ingredients for my project:

These markers are amazing and so fun to use on this foam core board. I tested different blues and decided the indigo blue was closest to the other delft blue items I have. The large brush like tip totally lends itself to make the art look just like brush strokes on a delft tile.

The foam core board is available online in a couple of different sizes, large sheets 10 pack or small sheets foam core in a 4 pack.

Some other tools I needed were an X-Acto knife, a ruler and pencil and a worn out grey marker.

With all my ingredients, I started to sketch out some designs and see what I could successfully make:

For the large door I cut the foam core board to fit, then divided up the ’tiles’ on it, using one of the grandkid’s worn out grey marker to draw the dividing lines, representing a grout look.

Most of the delft tile I liked have little designs in the corners. I decided on a pattern I liked and drew all those on before I started drawing the main pictures on the tiles. I many it all free hand directly with the marker. I just felt that delft tiles look very organic like that, with the designs made of free-flowing blue glaze. I was concerned that if I used a pencil first, it’d start to look too precise and thus lose it’s flowing look that I love with that kind of pottery.

That’s why I did lots of practice tiles on the scraps beforehand. I needed to get my hand comfortable with how the brush marker flowed and be able to visualize the designs I was trying to ‘paint’. (you can see how the markers work like paint brushes in the video practice board )

On the side windows of the corner cupboard, I decided to make 1 individual tile for each pane of glass. Below you can see how I held the kid’s grey marker on the side and quickly brushed it along the edges creating a bit of depth to the tiles:

Here you can see the with and without grey edge:

It’s very subtle and mostly unnoticeable, but I do think it makes a little bit of a difference.

The foam core works perfectly for this application. I could cut the pieces to be a snug fit inside each pane of glass and just friction holds the lightweight yet sturdy foam core in place.

Here is a close up of the front door now:


Inside, the village scene is still frozen in it’s winter scenes, but out of site, out of mind, until next Christmas and I reverse the look.

But for now and the next several months, I have this fun interpretation of my version of a delft tiled cupboard:

m actually really pleased with the finished look, I like this corner cupboard more now than I ever have. That’s how it is sometimes, you have a problem that arises, but the resolve winds up better than even before the problem. I was never thrilled with how this corner cupboard looked. The glassware in it always looked kinda busy and lost inside it. So once I decided to remove all that and install the village scene, this resolve of the delft tile is my favorite so far!!


Be sure to stop by my DIY & decorating blog Simple Decorating Tips to see more tutorials, before and after whole rooms and full house renovations!

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Liz at Simple Decorating Tips
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  • Anne Anne on Oct 05, 2018

    I have delft patterned valances in my living room, but they are on a very creamy off white background....do you think I could paint the foam board to match the background, before using the markers...any other suggestions welcome....thanks!

  • Pat carlin Pat carlin on Oct 29, 2018

    I have white square tiles for backsplash. If I use permanent blue market to make delft-like tiles will it last? What if I try to wash it?

  • Jeanie Copple Jeanie Copple on Oct 30, 2018

    Would you be able to use these as back splashing?

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