Tile selection...

[zzr-matt]

I've got a gloss white kitchen with a block effect worktop and stainless steel appliances but I can't decide on the colour or style of tile for the wall or floor.

The worktop looks like this:


I was thinking a matt white rectangular wall tile in a brick bond pattern but I dont want the place looking too clinical with all the white. No idea for the floor.

Just wondered if you guys had any ideas on what would look good?

[Colour Republic]

Hi Matt,

have you got a picture of the kitchen fitted? I'm a kitchen designer/fitter by trade and could advise you if I could see the whole layout, I have a tile in mind that goes very well with gloss white units and block walnut worktops but need to see your choice of wall colour, taps, sink and door handles to see if you've gone ultra modern or tradtional

BTW: is it a 'Howdens' kitchen that you have had fitted, as it looks like there worktop?

[zzr-matt]

Hi Mate

Its not howdens, White slab was from Trade Depot and worktop was from Wickes.

I haven't got any pics on me but the handles are 22mm keyhole style



There is only a small amount of wall area that is painted around the window and door and that is currently matt white so can easily be changed.

Cooker hood is something like this:

Hob is:


Just finished doing the worktop, first go with the jig and router and no gaps bad cuts which was a releif

[Colour Republic]

ok let me find a link for you, They are made by Vitra... one minute

[Colour Republic]

ok I've found them they are called Vitra Scala 300mmx100mm In your kitchen I would use the Beige Matt but really it is a brown, these give a real modern feel with nice clean lines. I can't find any pictures that really show their colour off, with these I would use a light grey grout.

Below is a link to Vitra's catalougue

VitrA Bathroom Culture

CTD stock these tiles under their G.E.M.I.N.I range so maybe you could pop along to your nearest branch and take a look

PAGE 41 of the CTD catalogue

www.ctdtiles.co.uk/download.aspx?ObjectId=567268&FileName=Gemini-East-Anglia-Brochure.pdf

For your nearest branch see www.ctdtiles.co.uk

[Colour Republic]

ok I've found them they are called Vitra Scala 300mmx100mm In your kitchen I would use the Beige Matt but really it is a brown, these give a real modern feel with nice clean lines. I can't find any pictures that really show their colour off, with these I would use a light grey grout.

Below is a link to Vitra's catalougue

VitrA Bathroom Culture

CTD stock these tiles under their G.E.M.I.N.I range so maybe you could pop along to your nearest branch and take a look

PAGE 41 of the CTD catalogue

www.ctdtiles.co.uk/download.aspx?ObjectId=567268&FileName=Gemini-East-Anglia-Brochure.pdf

For your nearest branch see www.ctdtiles.co.uk

EDIT: oh by the way these are around £25 per square meter

[faithhealer]

Nice response CR, I know where to come when I demolish, sorry refurb my kitchen

[david campbell]

trying to google a chocolate brickbond mosaic for you from cosmo's ceramics to no avail(broken link or something),i used them last year whilst working with a similar worktop and similar farmhouse stove used them with an ivory grout and they looked stunning! try contacting them to send you a picture they are about 500mmX300mm wall tiles!

[Derry]

^^^ Think that sounds nice david.

nice and traditional but modern and fresh looking at the same time, especially in brickbond

[WHID to?]

Need to think about the wall/ceiling paint too as you do not want too many colours on your palette.

I have seen the white brick tiles, white gloss cabinets and wooden top on a display kitchen in IKEA and it looked as cool as you like.

Might be worth taking a look around some high end kitchen showrooms to get some ideas. Or a cheeky flick though the design magazines in Sainsbury's.....

If you are staying in the house - your taste. If you are tarting up to sell keep it simple and non-offensive (if you know what I mean)

[zzr-matt]

Thanks for the replies guys. Went for the CTD Beige style ones in the end. They look good up against the worktop and units etc.

Now on to the floor tiles. We have a bunch of samples laid on the floor at the moment:
600mm x 600mm Polished black porcelain.
300mm x 300mm Polished Granite.
400mm x 400mm Matt Porcelain.

I'm being drawn to the 600 x 600mm polished ones but I'm worried they would scratching easily and end up lookin rough as old boots. Any advice in that area?

[tommyzooom]

Did a kitchen similar to yours today, Tiles all chosen by an Interior Designer. Tiles are 600x600 Polished porcelain on the floor and the same tiles were sent to a water-jet to be cut into 200x100 wall tiles. I thought they would be brick-bond but no, they were laid on their side of course, but one on top of the other.
I had to hand it to her, it looked much more modern than brick bond which can look a bit victorian with certain tiles.
I have photos if someone could explain how to post them

[zzr-matt]

Hey tommy if you bash reply then manage attachments then click on the browse buttons to select the pics you want then bash the upload button the should post the pics up.

[tommyzooom]

Doh simple really, Thanks

[mikethetile]

very nice tommy , i like the black border very effective

[zzr-matt]

Very nice. I'm now torn between a brick bond and non brick bond like you have done.

[tommyzooom]

Black border is a 600 x 10 mm porcelain tile cut with a water jet

[zzr-matt]

Spent the weekend doing missions to the tip and doing a bit of wood work, so next weekend I should be ready to start on the walls...

As you can see below there are a variety of surfaces to tile on, block walls with multifinish plaster which have tile adhesive residue and or emulsion paint on them and the odd bit of plaster board.

Do I need to blow all the paint away of is it just a case of scoring the walls up, priming then getting going?

Currently I it looks like this...

[Dave]

Look forward to the finished job........

[zzr-matt]

Ta dave, any advice on the best way to prep the walls?score,prime then skim with adhesive over the old lumpy bits of adhesive to give a level base?

[Dave]

Try and remove as much paint as you can....sanding it can provide a good key if the paint is well and truly stuck...not like you are hanging mass amount of weight to it..

You can prime with an acrylic primer and skim the walls with patch up one coat plaster or cement based tile adhesive..just depends how deep you have to patch..

[zzr-matt]

I'm back again...

The walls and wood work etc are all done now and I have enough pennies to do the floor...



Originally we were going to use a real wood floor but this clashed with the rest of the kitchen and we also worried about trashing it if the washing machine leaked etc. This leaves a slight issue with there being 20mm from the bottom of the plinth to the current floor which is leveled with an SLC.

Most tiles seem to be around 10mm thick and I'm guessing the adhesive is 5mm ish for a solid bed. So should I just lay more SLC to bring the floor up a bit more?

The plan is to use a black polished porcelain tile on the floor. We found some we like a the local tile depot store who are always willing to partake in a little haggling.

These are the tiles:
SUPER BLACK FLOOR TILE 60X60CM

Obviously these are 600x600 so there will only be 3 or 4 tiles across the width of the kitchen. Do you guys think this will look ok or would we be better off going for something smaller? We have a sample one of these tiles and it seems like fairly good quality but then what do we know, anyone ever used them?

I was going to put them down with grey mapei keraquick and grout with Manhattan ultracolor plus grout on 2mm joints. Sound about right?

[zzr-matt]

Here's a quick pic of how it looked before I started messing about....

[zzr-matt]

Anyone got any advice on the best way to bring the floor up by the few mm it needs to move by?

[Colour Republic]

Anyone got any advice on the best way to bring the floor up by the few mm it needs to move by?

How many mm are we talking Matt?

Kitchen looks great, those look very similar to the tiles I suggested are you happy with them?

[zzr-matt]

Really happy with them,thanks for the suggestion!
The floor has to come up by about 5mm assuming a 5mm bed of adhesive?
Had a look at the tiles today they are made by ceramiche ever heard of them? Thanks for your help so far!

[faithhealer]

Really happy with them,thanks for the suggestion!
The floor has to come up by about 5mm assuming a 5mm bed of adhesive?
Had a look at the tiles today they are made by ceramiche ever heard of them? Thanks for your help so far!

you can get 6mm backerboard, don't be tempted to use ply

[Colour Republic]

As faithhealer says you can get 6mm backer board. 'Hardi' - 'no more ply'

Or if you've got a concrete base already you could kill two birds with one stone and lay some self leveling compound down, some thing like Mapei Fibre Plan. Builds up the 6mm you need and a nice level surface.

JUST BE CAREFUL! When the kitchen was fitted did you allow for this extra 6mm, the addy and tiles? if you didn't you may find your appliances won't go back into their spaces! More than likely you did, but it had to be mentioned

[zzr-matt]

The kitchen was fitted on top of the concrete floor which I had levelled with slc with a 20mm gap allowed for the flooring.if the tile is 10mm and the backer board is 6mm it only leaves 4mm for adhesive.is that enough to glue down the board and then the tile on top?