Many of our customers select our various Subway tiles for design projects in their homes. Some of the most popular uses of subway tile continues to be for kitchen backsplashes and bathroom showers and in both cases subway tile is a timeless choice that will never go out of style. However, there might be one other area of the home where subway tile would make a nice design addition and that is for wainscoting for a bathroom or powder room.

Using subway tile as the wall covering for the lower half of a wall in a bathroom or powder room with a nice paint color on the upper half of the wall is a relatively cost effective way to add a unique design element to any home. The use of subway tile as wainscoting was a common design element in Arts & Crafts homes in the past. Subway tile was a good fit with this architectural style and with the large number of homeowners acquiring and remodeling these homes in the last ten to twenty years, they have in large part driven a revival in the use and acceptance of subway tile.

Installing subway tile in the standard running brick pattern is clearly the pattern of choice for those using subway tiles as wainscoting. However, interior designers have been telling us lately that some of their customers are “stacking” the rectangular tiles one on top of another to create a new twist on the more traditional look of following the brick pattern when using subway tiles. Whichever pattern you choose, consider using subway tile as wainscoting around the wall areas of your bathroom as a classic upgrade that certainly will stand the test of time.

I have always been in the camp of those who felt that remodeling and improving my home shouldn’t be considered an investment. However, given the performance of the stock market for the better part of this decade and even with home prices falling in much of the country as they have, I am starting to re-think how I feel about my home as an investment. Among other things, Remodeling magazine’s annual cost vs. value report factored in to my decision.

I know Warren Buffet may disagree with this but for us stock pickers with track records a notch above pathetic, putting money in to your home might just be the smartest thing one can do. Investments in many cases (can be) bought and sold with such regularity that placing one’s primary residence in to that category has been hard for me to do. But with the economy teetering on the brink the past six months, treating and managing my home as an investment is starting to look better and better each day.

Home prices have declined in my area much as they have in the rest of the country. But with the poor economy taking it’s toll on each and every one of us I find that I see more of my neighbors because they are always in the yard working, painting, repairing, and driving back and forth to the hardware store to purchase whatever items they forgot on the last trip. When asked why they are spending more time now than ever improving their home, most of my neighbors reply that they would rather put their money in to something they control rather than in to the financial markets where they have no control over the everyday gyrations in share values.

Remodeling Magazine’s 2008-2009 Cost vs. Value report shows that while home improvement projects are down for the period measured, property owners are still finding that the home is a great place to “invest” some of one’s savings and as a result they are tackling minor projects with many of those centering around the kitchen or the bath. The cost vs. value report shows that a minor kitchen remodel can re coup as much as 79.5% of the cost while a minor bathroom remodel is close to 75%. Many of the western states in the US show the ability to re coup more than 90% of the cost of the same projects due to higher resale values in this part of the country.

We offer a number of affordable products that are well designed and suited for kitchen and bath upgrades. Products such as our Solana Glass Subway tile, our Cardiff crackle subway tile, and many of our glass mosaic tile products such as our Coastal Blends or our Milano blends glass mosaic tile collections are all nice choices for upgrading one’s home.

To take advantage of deals and savings when searching for tile for your home stay in touch with us through our emails or by reading this blog. We will email specials to those on our email list from time to time and we will also post the discounts on our blog on the first day of the sales event. As readers of our blog know we focus on issues related to home improvement topics, new products for the home, the real estate market, and of course anything and everything relating to the world of tile.

This month and for the next five days through Tuesday August 18th we will be offering FREE SHIPPING on our Coastal Blends glass mosaic tiles in all ten colors. Any order of $125.00 or more qualifies and orders must be received by midnight Tuesday. Use code COASTAL upon checkout to take advantage of this offer.

Read some of the recent posts on our Blog about affordable kitchen and bathroom upgrades and you will see that a little money invested can go a long way towards making a big improvement in any home.

Last week we spoke about affordable bathroom upgrades and bathroom fixtures were mentioned as a nice addition to any such projects. Well, we think we have come across a contemporary and very complementary collection of drawer knobs and pulls to go with an upgraded bathroom where glass tile is being used. The new Riva collection from Amerock Hardware www.Amerock.com is designed with the modern home in mind and features simple, clean lines to reflect its urban appeal.

The Riva collection is available in graphite and satin nickel finishes and comes in eight sizes of knobs and pulls. Amerock products are available nationwide at Lowe’s and Home Depot as well at many Ace Hardware stores.

The graphite finish would work well with dark cabinets or black appliances while the satin nickel finish would be a nice choice with lighter cabinets and stainless steel appliances. We can picture either as a complement to glass subway tile in a kitchen or bathroom or glass mosaic tile on a tub surround or bathroom vanity backsplash. If you have any design suggestions or photos you would like to share of your DIY project please send them over and we would be happy to share them with our readers.

Visit the Learning Center on the AnchorBayTile website where we have numerous informative articles for the DIY’er hoping to make affordable improvements to their home. Some of the easiest improvements to make involve those in the Bathroom and each one can offer significant aesthetic improvements at a very affordable cost.

First of all and whenever possible, do the work yourself on small projects in order to save money. All of the projects we talk about can be completed by a homeowner with moderate home repair skills.

The easiest improvement to make is to re-paint the Bathroom in order to update the colors in the room. Pick a color scheme which you like and try to match other Bathroom accessories to the color family which you have chosen.

Our favorite upgrade of course is to tile the tub surround or behind the bathroom vanity area with a color that stays within the color family of the paint color chosen. A great choice for a bathroom vanity or tub surround area is glass mosaic tile because glass tile is a wonderful design complement to a newly painted and updated bathroom.

Finally, complete your weekend bathroom upgrade with new bathroom hardware of your choosing which may include faucets, light fixtures, cabinet knobs, toilet paper holders and light fixtures. Most bath hardware is quite inexpensive and store sales are common on these items.

Good luck with your weekend projects and send us your project photos when you are done!

We hear often from our customers in these tough times about locating beautiful tile products that offer a good value for homeowners. With our new Coastal Blends glass mosaic tile we believe we have over delivered for our customers by stocking a tile that is very competitively priced and comes in ten beautiful contemporary glass tile blends colors which are suitable for most any interior or exterior project.

We find that our customers are using the Coastal Blends tiles as an affordable glass mosaic tile choice for showers, tub surrounds, kitchen backsplashes, and entire swimming pools. Given the incredible pricing of only $8.50 per sheet this makes upgrading one’s home using decorative glass tile in reach of most anyone considering a home improvement project.

Consider that a standard backsplash varies between 15 and 20 square feet. Using the Coastal Blends tile makes that backsplash materials cost well under $200, falling somewhere between $127.50 and $170.00 depending on actual square feet needed. Throw in one bag of mortar and one small bag of grout and the entire materials cost for a DIY’er installing our Coastal Blends tile is less than $200. Not bad at all.
Go to www.AnchorBayTile.com and click Glass Tile to learn more about how the Coastal Blends collection is a great choice for a contemporary upgrade to any home or commercial location.

Finally, it is done. It seemed like a simple pattern. I really was unprepared for how long it took to do the tiling. Or how precise the tiling had to be.

And I was definitely unprepared for making a grave tiling error and having to tear off one wall of tile after it had already been put up. I have laid a lot of floor tile and thought I had skills greater than a beginner, but I guess I don’t. Or at least I didn’t. I feel confident that sould I decide to undertake a project like this now I would measure better and make sure the corner seam was lined up.

The major problem is that I live in an old house, where nothing is square, level or plumb. This requires you to “cheat” in order to make it appear correct. This cheating is a skill that can’t be taught, it is all trial and error.

It is done now and like most home improvement projects, the finished product makes it all worthwhile.

I spent a large portion of my holiday weekend doing this:

And then I realized I had made several grave errors.

I tried to tell myself that it didn’t really matter. But it did. It bothered me every time I looked at it.

And so I tore about 1/3 of the tile off the wall and scraped the thinset off the wall and backs of the tiles.

This coming weekend? Back to the drawing board, or more accurately, the wall board.

Trying to find the mix of bathroom fixtures that both matches the style of the house and is modern enough to be convenient has proved to be more challenging than I had thought.

I bought a bridge style faucet with cross handles that say hot and cold on them for the sink. The faucet in the tub also has the cross handles but says hot and cold in French. My husband insists that it says, “You paid too darn much!” on the handles. But I love it.

The tile for the bath area is a combination of white tiles. 6×6 field tiles, 3×6 subway tile, a decorative raised 3×6 tile (listel), and a chair rail. Until I ordered the tile I had planned on going with all subway tile, but this particular mix of tiles won me over.

Now we are trying to decide whether we want the bottom 6×6 tiles in a running bond pattern or if we should just match up the grout lines. Decisions, decisions.

When we remodeled one of our bathrooms we decided to keep it in the style of the house… wainscotting, hex tiles on the floor, pedestal sink. A more modern interpretation, certainly, but not something that would look wildly out of place in a house over a century old.

One of the things that I excitedly purchase was a porcelain and chrome toothbrush holder. I remember one of them in my grandmother’s house and I loved how the toothbrushes hung there. A chrome rimmed glass sitting in the center. So I bought one for our bathroom.

It was only after it came, and it was installed, that I realized not one of our toothbrushes fit in the holes. I thought it was annoying, a fluke in the design of the holder I purchased, and really didn’t give it much more thought. The holder is in my children’s bathroom, not mine.

Then I read this article in the NY Times that talks about this exact annoying problem. Turns out I am not alone.

As problems go, bulked-up toothbrushes — the kind that make obsolete the old-fashioned built-in ceramic cup and toothbrush holders that persist in many homes and apartments like relics of a less sophisticated (but, one can’t help feel, more grounded) age — don’t rank high on the list of human scourges. But they probably have more direct impact on the quality of many people’s daily lives: one more petty annoyance to make them feel powerless, pawns in some hidden corporate marketing strategy.

Until I purchased the toothbrush holder, I never realized that all of our toothbrushes came in different shapes and sizes. The tooth brush holder that hangs on the bathroom wall is about as useful as the slot in the back of the medicine cabinet for the disposable razor blades.

Some manufacturers are coming on board and making holders that are fit a variety of sized handles. This one by Umbra is one of my favorite finds. It reminds me of indoor/outdoor carpeting gone wild. I mean that in a good way.

At $9.50 at Shop Fosters it is also very affordable. Now to free up valuable counter real estate to find it a home.

Is subway tile a trend that is on the way out?

When you are doing a remodel, whether a kitchen or a bathroom, you are spending a quite a bit of money. You want to make sure that after a few years the choices that you make are not the equivalent of avocado green appliances.

I have been trying to walk the line between choosing things that I love without choosing things that will quickly be dated. But it is difficult at times. A lot of the things that I really like are popular right now, but so it the historic type of house that I live in popular. Pedestal sinks, hexagonal floor tiles, subway tile walls, claw foot tubs… I have all of these things. But the tubs are original to the house. And I am certain that before a previous owner thought it was a great idea to put in a dark faux wood vanity with pink sink and matching pink toilet, that there would have been a pedestal or wall hung sink.

Our third floor bathroom is original and has an adorable wall hung sink, wainscotting on the walls, and a clawfoot tub.

But back to chosing the tile. Will subway tile look dated in a few years. I honestly don’t think that it will in older homes. Maybe in new construction, but even then I think that done well it will be a classic look which is timeless.

A more modern application of the subway tile is to install it with all the grout lines. Running bond pattern, meaning the grout lines are staggered, is a classic look. And I love Cardiff also makes a subway tile that is smaller in size, 2″ x 4″ instead of the 3″ x 6″ that is standard, and comes mounted on a 12″ x 12″ mesh sheet.

Subway tiles are not just available in white either. While I prefer the more subdued colors, subway tile can be purchased in virtually every color under the sun.