Spice Up Your Tiles

Tiles, tiles everywhere and here at Tile Mart we love them! We love them so much that we thought we’d offer up some fun ways of utilising your old, plain tiles!

When you’ve had a brand new floor laid down in your house, if you’ve taken some ideas from our blog Themed Bathrooms, or decked out your rooms with some stunning mosaic tiles, what do you tend to do with your old tiles, you know, the ones you no longer want? Do you throw them in the skip and never think about them again? We thought so.

Whether you love recycling or not, everybody loves saving their pennies, especially on items they have no need to replace! Tiles, believe it or not, are one of these fantastic little money savers when it comes to interior design or garden accessories.

One way to utilise your tiles is by decorating them. Yes, that’s right, decorating them. Find a good tile, preferably one that hasn’t been smashed at some point during your redecorating.

Sharpie Designs

You will need:

Tiles

Marker pens

First thing first; grab your Sharpies and permanent marker pens.

On their glossy surface, pens offer stunning colour as none of their ink is absorbed by the material. That means that you get the full potential of the pen you have never experienced before in your day-to-day life.

The best thing about using your pen on tile is that if you make a mistake, you simply need to damp a cloth and wipe over the surface- before it dries of course- to erase the design and start over. Another advantage to designing your own tile is that it’s completely original, and nobody else will have the same style, image or technique as you!

Allow your tiles to fully dry before you move them to avoid smudging.

Watercolour Effect

You will need:

Tiles

Marker pens or nail varnish

Rubbing Alcohol

Eye Dropper (optional)

You may be surprised to hear that you can create stunning watercolour images on tiles, simply by using nail varnish or pen.

You can create some truly amazing designs with this method. Either wipe the tile in the rubbing alcohol or use the eye dropper (if you want) to apply the alcohol to the tile once you’ve drawn your design. The alcohol will react with the ink and push it out around the tile. Thanks to the genius of chemistry this leaves a stunning watercolour effect across the surface of the tile.

Classy Lace

You will need:

Tiles

Spray paint

Lace doilies

Paint mask

You’re likely to find lacy doilies in your grandparents’ house, still in their packets in the party drawer, very rarely do we use them anymore. The great thing about doilies though, is their delicate, floral patterning and their surprisingly sturdy material- meaning you can use them as stencils and they won’t break!

To add that extra bit of class to your tiles take your lace doily and place it securely around the tiles. Secure your paint mask over your nose and mouth- you don’t want to breathe any of those fumes in- and spray your paint evenly over the tiles surface. Make sure you do this outside or in a well ventilated room. Leave the tile until the paint is completely dry before carefully peeling off the doily. Tada! A brand new, classical tile! Alternatively you can buy sticky lace to cover pre-painted tiles if you don’t fancy the mess.

Now that you’ve successfully redesigned your old bathroom, kitchen or sitting room tiles, what can you do with them? You can make your own outdoor mosaic patterns by simply securing the old tiles in place with concrete. You could, alternatively, hand them out as gifts to friends and family to use as coasters, all you will need is to attach some Pro-tec-tors to the base of your tiles to prevent them from scratching any work surfaces. The possibilities are endless!

So next time you visit us for new tiles to redecorate your house with, don’t throw away all of your old tiles, turn them into creative gifts to help save you money! You can contact us on 01772 258998 to find out more about our home tile range.