Fireplace re-do with Faux tumbled tile

There she is!!!

The eye sore in our living room. We painted the fireplace in a beautiful metallic finish then softened it up with a walnut stain but now the tile doesn't go.

OK..... I'll just rip out the existing tile a replace it with a tumbled marble tile ..... pretty right?

Yeah pretty expensive!

This is my inspiration so..... It's time to raid the paint vault!

Step 1. Clean the tile with a tsp

Step deux. Sand with 150 grit sandpaper

Step 3. Clean tile with tsp

Step 4. Prime tile with Styx water base adhesion primer (good stuff)

I filled the existing grout lines with a high end synthetic venetian plaster

A good tip I learned the hard way is make sure your tile is room temperature if it's too cold the venetian plaster will droop and sag.

Ughhh... Those are the worst words a lady can hear.

I then rolled a "scratch coat" layer of plaster over the entire surface and re-filled my grout lines because the plaster shrinks as it dries.

Patience young grasshopper ... we will let dry and finish in the morning

Having no concept of time I pull my Husband into my timeless world....

Wake up Mitch and wash my brushes PLEASE!!!...

that's 12:03 am

And like a good Husband .... he does it

I think his eyes are still closed

I purchased a mosaic tile stencil online for 11 bucks!

I then applied a thin layer of plaster with a Japan scraper

I use a level and measure as I go

Here is a close up of my faux tumbled stone mosaic tile

I sanded the finished product with a sanding block to get excess plaster off and smoothed out.

And here is the finished look!

This project was very inexpensive but looks like a million