You can get 12x12-inch tiles so cheap at home improvement stores - even stone tiles run as low as a couple of dollars per square foot. But limiting yourself to a 12x12 grid can be a bit, well, boring. We can recommend this trick of the trade we've done many times:
Cut the tile in half. This gives you a 1:2 proportion of 6x12-inch tiles. Perfect for running bond (brick) pattern or even fancy schmancy herringbone as shown in the image up top.
This idea works best when your kitchen or bath flooring is a DIY project, as the man-hours for cutting and laying the tile can really stack up. But if you're doing the job yourself and want to save on materials and not necessarily time, this is a great way to make your floors into something special! It requires renting a wet saw, but you would probably need the tool anyway for edging even if you were using simple square tiles.
Image: DecorPad
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Great tip! It reminds me of when I was at a local home renovation outlet one of the sales guys was joking that he was going to cut their white tile down into subway tile, because so many people had been asking for it.
Gorgeous! But there really is a lot to love about this kitchen. Honestly, the only thing I wouldn't have chosen is the backsplash...the marble is too marbled for my taste (still lovely though and if I moved into this home I don't see my self replacing it).
I've heard of this before and didn't think it would look good. I'm wrong yet again. This looks great, fantastic job.
That floor is beautiful! When we were searching for affordable honed marble in subway tiles for our shower, we tried this trick too, cutting 12 x 12s down to 4 x 12s. It looked great, but honed was so tricky (even with the wet saw) that I wasn't thrilled with the edges. We ended up getting standard 3x6 honed marble instead.
dream kitchen!
I too, wonder about the cut edge vs. the finished edge of the tile. I can see where it would work well with tile that had a straight edge but not so well with those that have a slightly angled edge.
I love the black window sashes too.
The picture looks great, but I agree, cut edges, not good. We have over 800 square feet of tile in our house which ended up being about $2 a square foot, including backer board (new build), mortar and grout. We did it all ourselves though. It's all porcelain, and even just cutting the end pieces we went through a number of blades. There are a lot of considerations to make with a project like this which could easily drive the cost much higher.
I everything about that picture, except, as Aninhas said, the backsplash. But this is very inspirational.
Oh, I should add, we bought all of our tile at liquidation centers. You have to hit them regularly, but if you do you can find beautiful tile very cheap. We even built the shower with them. http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll196/rainarana/shower.jpg?t=1305300597
technically, it gives you slightly less than a 6" x 12" piece, because you lose a bit to the width of the cut.
Whether the cut edges have an acceptable look as field tiles depends mostly on the style and finish of the tile. Some tile material cuts a lot nicer and easier than others.
Also keep in mind that rented tile saws usually have crappy, abused blades which makes for crappy looking cuts.
Tile has an eased edge that is also finished. If you cut it you will have a very sharp edge and the small portion sticking up above the grout won't be finished and looks bad. If you are using natural stone tile it's not as big of a deal because you CAN ease the edge, but that isn't really simple for the DIYer and that isn't really in the cheap realm anyway.
That's a beautiful black and white kitchen. I love the black foor & the black cabinets together.
What type of stone/tile are those?
gasp! Totally brilliant!
If you use rectified (also called dimensionally stable) tiles, you won't have the edge issue. Rectified tiles are cut from sheets of porcelain after firing so all the edges are at 90 degrees. Traditional tiles are cut or molded before firing and usually have an eased edge (they are also not the same size due to shrinkage).
My aunt used a cut tile (molded, not rectified) on her bathroom walls and there is a noticable "cup" to the tile (meaning the tile was not flat) so that is also an issue with cutting traditional tiles.
That's A LOT of work to get the tiles you want. If you really have your heart set on half size tiles, maybe set out a pattern with a mixture of full size and partial (which could probably be found instead of cutting). Contractors would have a fit (and charge a fortune) for all that extra cutting, and diamond blades aren't cheap. esp.
Great idea IF you're using a rectified tile...many 12x12's have slightly tapered edges which, when cut in half, will give you a bit of a raised edge on every other tile. If you're gonna do it, just make sure your tile is completely flat with square edges!
My blog is all about tile for more useful design and tile tips :)
Http://tiletramp.wordpress.com
This is brilliant in that it's so obvious... and yet so few people do it. Bookmarked for my future kitchen!
This would be an an excellent thing to do with natural stone--particularly slate, which would cut easily because it is relatively soft and cut edge vs. factory edges shouldn't be an issue.
I wouldn't even want to bother trying this with most manufactured tiles.
Looking for a glass tile installer for small backsplash, S. Loop. First job was botched, and cannot be fixed. Need to tile over, but must have it done by expret with glass tile. Any recommendations?