Building Your Own Custom Home Series Part XVI: Ceramic Tile

OK. We’re starting to have some fun now. The house is trimmed out and painted. I’m loving it!

Now it’s time to lay some ceramic tile. We’ve been using L&L Companies for all of our tile needs for over 10 years now. They are one of the largest flooring companies on the east coast, and I have really enjoyed working with them. They are just good people.

The first thing L&L will do to get ready for the ceramic tile install is put down the underlayment. The underlayment prevents tiles from cracking, delaminating and/or coming loose.

The underlayment is put down directly on top of the subfloor.

In all showers and around our bathtubs, they will install backer board. This protects from water damage in wet areas.

Now comes the pretty tile.

Here is the tile we picked out for the Owner’s Bath.

The color is called Snow. Appropriate for this time of year.

And here is the accent tile we’ll be using in the Owner’s Shower and the listello around the soaking tub.

Remember I was telling you about the inspiration I got while on a recent trip to Chicago. We went out for a wedding back in October and stayed in a great hotel in Andersonville called The Guesthouse Hotel. The hotel is actually a condo building converted into two and three bedroom suites. It was perfect because we had the boys with us and my mom came up to help watch them while Paul and I attended the wedding so we could all stay in the same place.

I love Chicago (especially in the fall) and we had a blast showing the boys around the city. We took them to the Lincoln Park Zoo, the aquarium and up to the top of the Hancock Building.

And best of all, we attended the wedding of a dear friend.

Such a memorable weekend!

OK, now but back to the tile. So our hotel room had the most magnificent shower with accent tile galore. It was just beautiful. I came home from the trip and immediately contacted L&L and gave them this sketch.

I don’t know why I didn’t just snap a picture of the hotel shower but I think you get the idea.

And I love love love how it turned out in the master shower at GFS.

It’s exactly what I remember from the hotel in Chicago. What do you think about the ceramic we selected? I had a client once tell me she loved this tile so much, she wanted to lick it. I love it too but I’m probably going to refrain from licking it.

At least until after the final clean.

Dream Big. Build Smart.