Tile All But Done

Now the tile in the new addition is all but complete and I must say that things are really beginning to take shape. Here’s the master bedroom fireplace. At our tile guy’s suggestion we used a sable grout and I must say it’s stunning. I need to figure out a way to get the colors to show true. They’re really incredible. It’s still a bit schmutzy—we need to clean off the tile a bit. We’ll do that tomorrow.

And here’s the family room fireplace. The entire effect turned out even better than I’d hoped. You can’t really appreciate what the decorative tiles look like from the picture. The crows on the three tiles at the top of the fireplace are rendered in the most beautiful shade of deep blue, high gloss glaze. The leaf and vine are rendered in a medium gloss glaze while the background is matte. The contrasts among these varying glazes gives the tiles tremendous dimensionality. There are still mantels left to put on the fireplaces.

The tile in the kitchen, too, turned out even lovelier than I’d hoped. The brick-colored field tile gives it the look of a real, working kitchen while the bougainvillea decorative tiles humanize it a bit, make it look less purely utilitarian, less like a restaurant kitchen.

This picture is taken from the center island facing where the stove will go. That blank space above the stove is the last detail still to be completed in the tile work. There are some decorative tiles that will go there that we still haven’t received yet.

Here’s a picture of “the desk” in the kitchen. It’s a little nook opposite the door to the backyard. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but every room in the new addition has video, data, and phone jacks. You can see the jacks at the right in this picture. There are also jacks in the center island. Very high tech. 😉 I’ve got a patch panel in the basement from which I can patch practically anything to anything.

And here’s a picture of the kitchen sink area taken from the entrance into the kitchen.