My very first DIY project--tile art!

I don’t even remember how I stumbled upon all the wonderful blogs I read, like this one and this one. I’m sure it happened during the hours of procrastination during finals in my third year of law school. At first, I was just admiring the pretty pictures and homes. I recently got interested in decorating and was having fun putting together mine and boyfriend’s apartment. But then I started letting my mind wander to what I might be able to do. Of course this was swiftly followed by thoughts of “you can’t do that." Nevertheless, when I stumbled across this I knew there was no going back. I blocked out a time on my calendar and read the post 5,000 times to be sure I understood exactly how to do it.

When the appointed project week arrived, I was so excited. I spent an hour roaming around Home Depot choosing just the right tile, even lining them up in the 2X2 square to see what it would look like (I’m sure they were loving that). I asked lots of questions that I’m sure made the nice Home Depot worker wonder what business I had in their store. Any questions he asked of me were pretty much met with a blank stare. I can’t even remember them now to type here. When the nice worker asked if I needed floor or ceiling grout, I said “ummm well I’m mounting it on the floor but it will go on the wall” (Kimba had not prepared me for this question!). This time it was nice worker’s turn to give a blank stare. I expanded—“well it’s for artwork." I guess that was enough for him because he showed me an adhesive/grout combo deal (2 for 1-score!) and I was on my way. He must have lots of clueless, uncrafty people like me who come in wanting to make tile art. Kimba’s post was inspiring so I’d believe it!

Supplies in hand, I trudged out to wait for the bus and was reminded yet again of why having a car would be nice. So I hailed a cab instead. I was in my new lulu workout pants and the 2x2 piece of dry wall was dusting on me! (Most DIY gals would know not to wear nice, new clothes to Home Depot. Lesson learned). I made it home, laid out my new drop cloth (which boyfriend asked if I made—clearly he has more faith in my craftiness than I do) and got to work.

I won’t give a tutorial because, really, there are far wiser, more experienced people out there to teach you—see Kimba’s site. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Here it is all grouted up!

And the final product!

I am SO proud of this first project. I feel like I can do anything now—and I can’t stop my imagination from running. I’ve already conjured plans for a new upholstered headboard (like this one and this one!) and seriously cannot look at a piece of furniture in my apartment without wanting to paint it.

So there you have it—I survived my very first DIY project and caught the bug. If you like the way this looks (or Kimba’s because I think I still like hers better) you CAN do it! It is SO easy and hardly takes ANY time. Just give it a try!

Let me know what you think below (please be nice though--I'm so new to this!)