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Monday, February 17, 2014

Laundry Renovation - Picking Tiles

Since our first wet area renovation the bathroom we are much more organised and aware of how the renovation process works and what we need to decide on and pick out first so that we don't hold up the project. So that is why we have already picked out our floor, kick and splash back tiles for the laundry and powder room renovation!
 
We were going to be thrifty and use the leftover tiles from our bathroom renovation and buy just a few more to do the job. The white wall tiles we were going to cut in half to use as kick tiles and the floor tiles we needed to buy a few more boxes for ... this is what it would have looked like.
 

But unfortunately the cost and bad customer service turned us off this idea.
 
The floor tiles RRP at $95 pm2 and we paid $49 pm2 last time on sale were now $71 pm2 and the sales lady was not going to budge on the price. She was extremely unhelpful and I swear actually rolled her eyes at me at one point when I was asking about kick tiles. Bear in mind we are returning customers and had bought all our floor and wall tiles for our bathroom renovation from there AND we were the only people in the store so it's not like she was under pressure to help other people! No wonder the store was empty with that kind of customer service we didn't want to give our money to a place with that kind of attitude. Which is sad as I know it's a family business and the male owner is lovely who we dealt with the previous time .... I actually contemplated letting him know how unhelpful his other staff are but didn't want to cause trouble!
 
 
So moving on ... there went the idea of reusing our bathroom floor and kick tiles so we went on some tile hunting trips over the next few weekends, took sample tiles home of the ones we liked (if you ask they will give you a tile for free), it's amazing how different a tile can look once it's in a room under different light and at different times of the day.
 
It's really important to take a sample tile home before buying ... trust me on this!
 
Here's a great example of why, I loved this tile it looked like the exposed aggregate that we wanted to have for our new driveway if we had the budget! But when we got the tile home and put it in the room it was way too dark without the fluro shop lights highlighting it and just made the laundry look dark and small, you would need to turn the light on even in the daytime which isn't ideal.
 
 
 
Not to be disheartened we visited our favourite tile warehouse which is the place to find the diamond in the rough there's a huge variety of tiles in boxes to hunt through if you don't mind getting your hands a little dusty and they also have a show room at the front of the store if you prefer your tiles laid out pretty. The prices are very reasonable if not the cheapest we have found around Osborne Park. Cheap does not mean less quality as there are a heap of Italian tiles (which are known to be the better quality tile) as opposed to made in China tiles which are the more popular tile because they are cheaper and more affordable.
 
 
 
We found a grey floor tile we liked and took it home to see how it would look in different lights at different times of the day ... and it was a winner! It kind of looks like concrete and the light colour is going to work really well in such a small room. This tile is Italian made and the Grigio brand the same as our RRP $95 pm2 bathroom floor tile. Our tile was priced at $33 pm2 but we actually got it for $28 pm2 .... The Bargain Queen strikes again!
 
 
We also got our grout from there, grey for the floor and white for the kick tile and splash back tile. They have so many different colours to chose from and this sample wheel made it really easy to pick the right grout colour match.
 
 
 
As I  mentioned the floor tiles were marked as $33 pm2 but we were charged $28 pm2 and it was one of those start the car moments! When you get such a good deal you keep thinking they are going to realise they made a mistake and take the goods off you! Too late, they're loaded up and we are out of here!



So this is how the tiles look back home in the laundry. The grey tile is 30 x 60 and the white kick tiles are 15 x 60 so they will match the joint lines of the floor tiles perfectly, the white tile we got for $24 pm2. I love that we found a large tile for the kick tile and we needed just 2 more from a box which they gave to us instead of making us buy the entire box ... Once again that is what I call customer service!


For the splash back tile along the wall behind the laundry sink and in the powder room behind the basin we are going to use our leftover white tiles from the bathroom, they are a 30 x 60 gloss white tile. As a feature in the splash back behind the laundry sink I want to add a stripe of the leftover metallic mosaic tiles along the entire wall which I think will go perfectly with the grey/white colour combination in the room and add just enough personality to stop me from feeling like I'm being a boring designer!
 
This is how the white tile and mosaics looked in the bathroom (part way through the tiling job!) and after.
 
 

So that is all the tiling decisions made for the laundry and powder room.
 
Now we can move onto the next task of picking out our throne (the toilet!), powder room basin, laundry sink and tap wear.

What do you think of our tile choices?

For updates as I go on the Laundry/Toilet Renovation follow me on Facebook or Instagram and you'll never miss a thing!


[All images my own]

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6 comments:

  1. Love your tile choices! I need to now your secret place to get tiles in Osborne Park too! We were so gung-ho with our first wet area that we didn't plan it out well either but I guess it's all part of the learning curve hey?

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    1. Thanks I am happy to share my secrets with you! Osborne Park Tile Centre, they have a fancy shop on Scarb Beach Rd but their warehouse is on Hector St and thats where you'll find the tile bargains!
      Absolutely live and learn and each renovation is that bit easier than the one before :)

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  2. Ohh, I just love your choices you've made... I would have such a hard time deciding.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Carrie :) It is hard deciding but I think narrowing it down to just 1 colour makes it a lot easier!

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  3. I really love your grey/ concrete floor tile! Do you mind me asking what the tile is called?

    Thanks, Nic

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    Replies
    1. Hey Nic sure thing they are called Fast Grigio and they're made in Italy

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