After painting the bathroom tiles white (see pt. 1 here), the floors were next. I purchased the Chris Loves Julia x Wall Pop tiles back in March of 2022. It’s actually a funny story, I had my eyes on these since they released the collaboration teaser on Instagram. I knew they would be perfect for the bathroom, budget friendly and relatively easy to install. I set a calendar reminder and an alarm to make sure I remembered to purchase the second the product launch hit the site — I had a gut feeling that they would go fast & I was right. The launch actually broke the website and every time I refreshed I couldn’t add the product to my cart to checkout. CLJ posted on Instagram saying that Wall Pop fixed their site issue, but it still was persisting for me. So … I panicked for about 3 minutes and then called my best friend, told her to drop everything and go purchase 4 boxes for me RIGHT NOW! Despite it being 6am in California, she responded with a confirmation screenshot of my order. 20 minutes later, they sold out. Thanks, Mil!
See below for an overview of the project and my tips/commentary on each step. Overall, it was an easy and rewarding project. It drastically transformed the look of the bathroom and I am extremely pleased. I will report back on how they hold up in a few months.
If you can, remove everything to make the cuts for the floor easier. We only removed the vanity, but looking back I wish we removed the toilet too since we planned on replacing it anyway. If we removed the toilet, we could have laid down tiles and placed the toilet on top, avoiding the challenging cuts.
I went back and forth between checks and diamonds, I ultimately decided to go with the easy way out because I wanted to get it done asap and when I laid out the patterns both ways, I noticed that the walls were uneven which would have made the diamond pattern more of a challenge.
This helps to determine how many tiles you will be using and how many extra tiles you have to work with if any of the cuts get wonky or you need to replace later down the road. I also used tile spacers to help keep the space between the tiles even.
Because our floor was uneven and the adhesive wasn't sticking well to the existing floor tiles, I opted for grout in between the tiles to give it a more finished look and to avoid any potential water damage. We went with whatever left over grout was in the basement from our kitchen reno. The grout happened to be bright white & of course it will get dirty over time so if you are purchasing grout I would go with something more grey as it wont show as much wear and tear or dirt.
Because these are in the bathroom, it was important to seal the edges with caulk to avoid any potential water damage getting in and out of the shower. I used white caulk along the walls and base of the tub and felt that this really gave it a full finished look.
If you can, remove everything to make the cuts for the floor easier. We only removed the vanity, but looking back I wish we removed the toilet too since we planned on replacing it anyway. If we removed the toilet, we could have laid down tiles and placed the toilet on top, avoiding the challenging cuts.
I went back and forth between checks and diamonds, I ultimately decided to go with the easy way out because I wanted to get it done asap and when I laid out the patterns both ways, I noticed that the walls were uneven which would have made the diamond pattern more of a challenge.
This helps to determine how many tiles you will be using and how many extra tiles you have to work with if any of the cuts get wonky or you need to replace later down the road. I also used tile spacers to help keep the space between the tiles even.
Because our floor was uneven and the adhesive wasn't sticking well to the existing floor tiles, I opted for grout in between the tiles to give it a more finished look and to avoid any potential water damage. We went with whatever left over grout was in the basement from our kitchen reno. The grout happened to be bright white & of course it will get dirty over time so if you are purchasing grout I would go with something more grey as it wont show as much wear and tear or dirt.
Because these are in the bathroom, it was important to seal the edges with caulk to avoid any potential water damage getting in and out of the shower. I used white caulk along the walls and base of the tub and felt that this really gave it a full finished look.