Or how to use up leftover tiles

you‘ll need

tiles

wood in the same thickness as the width of your tile

saw

hot glue

grout

water based acrylic paint

I used the smallest available mosaic tiles wich kinda fit perfectly onto an old ikea billy shelf board. obvi not everyone has an old billy board. just find a piece of wood wich is the thickness of the size of your tile. so if you have a 1 by 1 cm tile use a 1 cm thick piece of wood.

if possible to find use mdf or treated wood wich is waterproof. don’t use plywood it soaks up water and swells, it makes your grout crack sooner or later.

cut your wood to the desired size. Plan ahead and measure your tiles. always use the size of your tile sleeve as guide not the wood - because the tile can’t be cut easily.

i used 9 tiles by 13 tiles

but cut the white ones 9 by 11 because I wanted the handles to be the green tile

if you want handles like mine you need to cut two more wood pieces in the width of one tile ( in my case the green ones)

it’s basically a long cube for each side

i just glued them on with hot glue

before you start it’s clever to lay it all out to see if it fits - for some reason with tiles there is always something not fitting. so be clever and check before glueing. 🧡

for a project this small you can use any kinda glue to glue the tiles on. if it comes to big pieces I wouldn’t recommend hot glue since it’s just not practical for a tile cube. look at the tile cube post for what kinda glue to get for tiled big furniture pieces.

Glue all your tiles in place and make sure each and every little tile is glued. if tiles are loose the grout can crack when they move around.

for the coloured grout: mix any kinda water based paint with water and then mix in the grout powder. do not mix the grout and then mix in the paint. this way you won’t get a even coloration. make kinda coloured water and use that to prepare the grout.

try to make it kinda thick pudding consistency, this way it’s easy workable with your hands and you can press it into crevices and corners with your hands. also it’s the easiest to get smooth this way. too watery grout can sink in while drying.

Massage it in and don’t mind the mess on the tiles for now. just get all the cracks filled and make the edges nice and smooth.

while working the grout does become a little firmer you can kinda mold it like clay at this stage. so if you have anything to level out you can just fill gaps with grout.

Once the grout is kinda set sou can wipe off the surface with paper towels. I like using dry ones because this makes really even and smooth surface in the grouted areas.

let dry over night

and maybe wipe off again.

done ✨✨🫑🥬🥒

Tiles I used in this diy are linked in the tiles tiles tiles post. 🧡🧡