rebunky, thanks for the compliments. You will get there.
I'd love to give you the paint color but the problem is I have no clue what it really is. I thought the painter was putting BM Aura w/ color as Baja Dunes on my wall. I am like 99% sure that is what his can said on the lid. But, when I had to repaint the fireplace wall and touchups on the adjacent wall to the right, the color wasn't close. Hundreds of $$ later on trying to match paint I got close. No where near the same sheen and slightly darker but every wall looks different. Now its a custom color. So no real name.
"How long did it take to complete?" That is a loaded question. Which part? Took years to refine a design for this entire floor. Took about a year from when I started to when I had a at least a working kitchen again. I didn't do the tile work till about 1 year later. That took me probably like 3 weeks. Maybe less. All the work I did on my own, aside from a little help from my daughter assembling some cabinets. I am still doing stuff in the house. Its never ending.
As far as Calcatta Olivia, I got it from a local tile store and the importer of the tile. The importer happens to be close to me as well in NJ. Here is a link to the importers site: Allstone Maybe give them a call to see if anyone in your area carries it.
I did this in several steps. The big issue was the glass tiles were 1/8" thinner then the marble. There were two issues. The first is that with see through glass tiles, you have to make sure the backs have full coverage of thinset. Second, if you build up too much thinset, when setting the tiles, the tiles can crack as the thinset dries. Thus, this required that I had to build up the the area ONLY where the glass tiles would sit an extra 1/8" from the entire rest of the wall. From the experts over on the Johnbridge forums, I knew to do this right, I needed to build this up 1st using thinset, let that dry, then set the glass tiles.
So my plan was to tile everything but the area containing the glass tiles. Then build that area up, set the glass tiles, then caulk and grout.
I cut the 2x4 tiles off the sheets and laid them out in the herringbone pattern on the LR floor on a board. I used the 1/16" spacers between all the tiles. I bought some Azek PVC Trim and ripped pieces to make a frame with the center equal to that of the size herringbone pattern. I then laid that frame on top of the herringbone pattern I laid out and made sure it was even all around. I marked and cut the tiles. I then set them in the frame. This makes it sound much easier then it was.
I had already marked out on the wall, behind the rangetop, the vertical and horizontal lines and marked them on the frame as well. I then lifted the frame and screwed it to the wall. I then set all of the herringbone tiles.
Now in the pic above, you will see that the frame is much narrower. The next day, after the entire herringbone pattern was set, I pulled the frame off and ripped it down to just the width of the glass tiles plus the grout lines on either side (from memory around 1-1/8"). I didn't make the frame this width initially cause I didn't think the frame would support the weight of the tiles, plus minimal surface to screw through.
So to get to where I am at in the pic, I laid out and cut all of my chair rail pieces to match the outside dimensions of the new narrow frame. I then pushed the frame back on over the herringbone pattern on the wall. You can see in this pic a piece of chair rail on the bottom of the frame, spaces and a 2x4 tile on the bottom for temp support for the chair to set.
The Inner AZEK frame was removed after the thinset set up. I then did the 2x4 tiles up the sides and under the cabinets. Leaving the top row last. I had removed the light rail from under the cabinet so I could tile flush and not cut around it. I then had to cut down the light rail when I re-installed later. I tiled all the way up to the point where I needed to remove the hood to get the last row in and tile all the way up to the ceiling. I had installed each of these 2x4 tiles one by one cause I wasn't happy with the spacing on the sheets. Plus I could make sure the color had a good mix.
You can see 1 glass mosaic tile along the bottom I had placed there to see how it looks.
The next step was I finished all the 2x4 tiles. Then it was time for the glass mosaic's. I first had to screed thinset 1/8 of an inch thick to build up the area where the glass tiles would sit. I cut a notch in a plastic scraper, so that it would be the width of the gap as well as the depth (minus 1/8") and would ride on the narrow flat lip on the inside of the chair rail and the herringbone pattern.
(You can see the black scraper I made into a screed on the bottom right of the plywood board). After this dried, I then set the glass mosaic's. There were removed off their sheets so I could eliminate certain coloring and then set them 1x1. If you cut these tiles there have a sharp edge vs, the back bevel the way they come. Its obvious, so I knew I needed to use full tiles all around. Of course, sizing didn't work with 1/16" spacing all around, Thus, I had to fudge it as I went to make it a little wider to make sure it was even all around. The blue tape was used to hold the tiles till they set. Green tape had the center marks.
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Fantasy ivory granite
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