How I made a custom Italian-style tile floor mosaic!
Click here for a free guide on how to make the mosaic from this article!
My husband and I finally took a trip to Italy this past summer. Although I was nervous to leave the U.S. for the first time EVER, my husband was adamant about taking me to meet his extended family there!
We stayed at a couple of Airbnbs which, let me tell you, were incredible for the price. It is so cheap to stay in Italy!
The first was in an amazing and charming town called Sant’Agata de’ Goti. This village is situated on a cliff, and our ‘bnb was right at the edge so we had the most incredible view.
Italy, the land of tile…
And let me tell you, one of the first things I noticed about Italy was the insane amount of tile there! ALL of the floors are tile. I didn’t see even one hardwood floor while I was there, and definitely not any cheap plastic floors or wall-to-wall carpeting. Nope, all tile. It was pretty cool to see, especially after we had done so much of our own tile work in the previous year.
The entrance to this Airbnb especially caught my eye. Right at the top of the stairs in front of the door was this beautiful mosaic. I couldn’t help but snap a picture. I thought to myself, “How cool would it be to do something like this in our house?” It would be truly Italy-inspired!
Inspiration hits!
Well, our trip was last July and it took me until October for the idea to germinate. As my husband and I were laying out the tile for our downstairs pantry floor, we thought it’d be a great idea to do a special design on the middle tile of the room. Then I remembered this beautiful design from Italy!
I decided to go for it. But first, I needed to find an appropriate contrasting tile. Our tile was a very inexpensive stone-look matte porcelain from Floor and Decor. I thought finding the same type of tile but of a different shade would be ideal. Thankfully, Lowes had a nice white tile which fit the bill!
Planning the design
Since the design I saw in Italy was diagonally-oriented and it took the place of four tiles, I had to slightly reinvent it. This was because ours would be rectangularly-oriented and in the space of only one tile. This was my first drawing, hah!
I then took one of our 13″ square tiles and started drawing the design. I measured carefully to ensure symmetry. Here’s how it looked…
The main thing was creating the different shapes I’d need to cut and also including the necessary allowance for grout lines. Of course, as you can tell from the pictures above, I forgot about the grout lines along the X in the middle of the drawing. I needed to go back and fix that!
I made the following templates for the two different shapes in the star, which would be cut from the white tiles.
With a pencil, I traced around these templates to transfer their shapes onto the tiles. Afterwards, I followed up with painter’s tape to mark the shapes so I could see better at the tile saw. I also taped the big tile above to get the shapes I needed from it.
After designing the mosaic as shown here, I decided to make a printable guide and template so anyone could imitate this design without all the planning.
Tile saw time!
Then, it was just a ton of work at the tile saw! It took forever to make all the cuts. Plus, I went very slowly to try to get as smooth an edge as possible. But it was so exciting to put it together when all the pieces were done!!!
Now, just to set the tile! Here was the finished result after we installed the floor!
Conclusion
Adding a custom detail to your renovation projects often seems daunting and maybe even expensive. But the truth is, with just a little creativity, you can add personal touches without breaking the bank! The white tiles cost me a few extra dollars, and we got the brown tiles on clearance. The tile for the room ended up costing roughly $25! And it’s all porcelain and highly durable.
I hope I’ve inspired you all to try your own custom projects at home! Let me know in the comments what your experiences are, or if you have any questions! Happy tiling! 🙂
