First Time Tiling + Small Laundry Room Make Over

This was my first time tiling anything ever. A follower recently gave me a (very gentle) reminder that I never posted the laundry room reveal. So I figured this was as good a time as any to walk you through my first time tiling as well as give you a laundry room review.

Before of the Laundry Room

Removable Subway Tile Wallpaper // Ikea Kallax Shelf // Woven Basket // Tabletop Ironing board // Globe Sconce

If you are thinking to yourself, the before and the after look very similar (especially that blue shirt), you would be correct. The before is actually the “middle step” of our laundry room; a simple fix that was done just to carry us through to the “renovation”. It’s the perfect “apartment fix” where you can make change but not ruin everyhting.

With removable wallpaper, an Ikea Kallax shelf propped on a ledge that once held a wire shelf, and a sconce, this laundry room was an easy fix until the renovation to come and would have been a great stopping point if we never decided to do anything else in here.

It was likely that we would stop here since I was initially intimidated by my first time tiling but I do have some experience with DIY. See me pulling up all the carpet in our house in a fit of peak.

The Process

Remove the “Removable wallpaper”

I was really excited about this step because I have always wanted to know if removable wallpaper actually came down without ruining the walls. Clean walls after would make removable wallpaper a renters dream. Plot spoiler: Not.

These grainy stills give you some idea of what the wall looked like after I removed the wallpaper. The removable wallpaper was not so removable. It shredded the paint that was on the wall. In the wallpaper’s defense, the paint was from before we moved here. It felt incredibly low quality with no base coat beneath. The paint felt a bit like nail polish when you don’t do a base and top coat if that makes sense.

Whoever painted our house must have done it quickly and inexpensively in an effort to get it on the market. But consider this your warning if you have ever desired to do removable wallpaper. Once the paper was down, I removed the shelf, the ledge and the machines and got to work.

Tiling the Wall

Now for why you more than likely came here. This was my first time tiling anything. I manage to tile the back wall in one afternoon and grout it the next. While I’ve never tiled but have done some diy, I found it to be two hammers on a five hammer scale after reading many blogs and watching many videos late at night.

Shopping List 

• Bucket(s)
• Safety Glasses
• Pencil
• Level
• Rags aka T-shirts
• Caulk gun
• Caulk
• Sponges
• American Olean Gloss Subway Tile
• Grout Float
• 11 in flooring trowel
• Snap Cutter
• Tile Cutter
• Grout Maximizer Additive
• 1/8in White Plastic Spacers
• Type 1 Mastic
• Sanded Powder Grout– For spacers 1/8in-5/8in
• Drill Attachment Spiral Mixing Arm

DIY Tiling the Wall

First think about what pattern you want. I knew to avoid complications during my first time tiling, I wanted to try the traditional subway tile pattern with the 50% offset of tile. So, I buttered the wall with the premixed mortar along the base board. Then I placed a tile to the far left and went straight across. I then insert spacers between the bottom row and the base board to make sure the first row was even all the way across.

If you ever watch any tiling videos (which I highly recommend if it’s your first time tiling as well) they say spread the mortar like peanut butter on the back of the tile and the wall then press the tile straight on to the wall so you don’t smear the pattern the trowel made.

After doing the first row, I smeared enough mortar on the wall to do two rows. For the second row, I placed one half a tile that I cut using the tile cutter (unseen) into the first position to begin the staggering pattern. After going all the way across, I did the third row. I made sure with each row that the row was level horizontally but also vertically by making sure the vertical rows were aligned.

I went up the entire wall avoiding obstacles like plugs. I stopped halfway up the wall to scrape out the grout lines and prep the wall for the closets I planned to put in the laundry closet.

From this photo, you can see that around the plug, I completely left this area open. I plan to go back with a single tile that is cut with a wet saw. You can also see in this photo that mortar got into the grout lines. I used a metal nail file and a screw driver to gently clean the excess out.

For end pieces. I measured the space for the finishing tile by placing a loose tile next to a row. I made a mark on the tile where the tile in the wall end and then used the tile cutter to cut there. Then I could use the long piece to match up to this row and the short piece to place in the row above.

Installing Cabinets

Once I reached a certain height on the wall, I installed these unfinished wall cabinets by finding the studs and drilling a screw into the top and bottom of the cabinet. If you look closely in the below cabinet you could probably see the screw. A better way to do it (in a less stressed and exhausted hindsight) would be to place the screw right below the shelf so its less visible. Without boring you with the nitty gritty details, I installed this cabinet by myself by screwing a 2×4 to the wall at the height that would be below the cabinet. I then rested the cabinet on it as a brace so I could screw it into the wall. And you can also see the whole from that screw below the cabinet in the below photo..

After finishing up the wall, I realized I had some extra space below the cabinets and scored these little pieces to fill the gap. They came in a pack of 12 and fit nicely in this area.

Grouting

After letting the wall dry overnight, I followed the direction on the grout package to a T and smeared grout onto the wall. I was careful to make sure I smooshed it down into the grout lines. Gotta love these technical terms, right? You can see the pattern that I used to fill the wall by the smears. For the small tight spaces like around the cabinets, I used the caulk that I purchased which was the same brand and therefore color as the grout. Most major grout brands sell this caulk. Jackpot!

It look about five buckets of clean water, two sponges and two cut up college t-shirts to smear the haze off the wall. I started with a piece of cut t-shirt to rub off the excess, then a sponge filled with warm water. And another sponge of warm water. Then another sponge. Seeing a pattern here? Followed by another cut up t-shirt. 

Until finally the wall was clean. If you look at this photo, you can see there are still gaps around the outlets that I still hadn’t solved by cutting out a piece of tile with a wet saw. In case you are wondering, those are still like that. I have been sooooo busy since Christmas (when this project was done) that I have yet to complete this. I will I promise! I recognize it looks unfinished like this so I will tackle it eventually.

Painted and Patched Walls

I painted the walls a hydrangea blue-purple that changes color with the light and patched up the wall where the previous shelf once lived.

The middle section of the all looks a bit wonky, but its level in person. I checked while loading these photos because I didn’t realize quite how strange the angle looked.

Styling The Laundry Closet

We specialize in hanging a ton of our clothing so we knew we needed both a hanging rack and shelves. We brought in the same tension rod that we had before. By this point, we were beat and just wanted to be done. We snagged the Ikea hangers we picked up one weekend and placed them on the rod.   We also put installed two pieces of unfinished poplar as shelves. We left them unfinished and unstained because we quite liked the way they looked with the hangers and the wicker baskets.

The Reveal

This little laundry area got a few more tweaks for functionality like hooks for the stool, tap lights under the cabinets (that’s what that glow is) and something to hold brooms and mops on the other wall. As you can see in the photo above, I need to go back and correct that rogue tile around the outlet. For now, I am just happy to be done.

Overall, this wasn’t too bad for my first time tiling. I am happy with the project and would certainly tile again. Just not in the near future. Except for that little gap. I’ll tile that. Also, feel free to ask any question that I was way to vague on in the posts 🙂