Tiles are an easy and classic option when renovating a bathroom. Reddit user [Powercube][1], however, wanted to take the ceramic squares from nice to cool. With a bucket of mosaic tiles he had lying around the house, he chose to wrap them in a towel and take a hammer to them. The handyman used those broken pieces to create a large lizard on the bathroom wall. To give his lizard something to look at, a dragonfly was applied to the second wall. The project was time consuming but it was worth it when you see the final product. Take a look at the steps below. [1]: http://imgur.com/a/hOrdyMy wife and I are rehabbing an old 1960’s ranch house. This was the small second bathroom before we started. This was the only door which entered from the hallway.
Here is a second shot standing against the window you see in the first picture. I won’t bore you with the demolition – we gutted everything down to the studs and removed it all. To rearrange the layout for maximum use, we reclaimed the corner you see on the left which was actually the back of a small hall coat closet that we didn’t need anymore and moved all the plumbing around.
So I wanted to do something different with the shower. I had quite a few left over 18×18 porcelain tile that we used in the kitchen. I also had a bucket of 1×1 blue mosaic tile that have followed us around from house to house because my wife always said we would find some use for them. This was my chance. After building out the shower stall I applied backer board over the while thing. Then I found a picture of a lizard I liked and drew it on a sheet of hardy board and cut it out with a saber saw. I used mastic to attach it to the wall. This has the effect of raising the lizard about 3/8″ away from the wall giving it a 3-D appearance.
I broke the 18×18 porcelain tile by dropping them outside on the cement driveway. I wrapped the small mosaic tile in a towel and hit it with a hammer to break them up. Then I just turned on some music, and started working on the puzzle.
I found some smoothed rounded river pebbles and took the whitest one I could find. I sawed it in half with a tile saw. I needed some contrasting colors for his strip on his back and sides so I bought a couple of gold and cream color 12×12 mosaic glass tiles from Home Depot. I took one of the gold ones and sawed it into a sliver. I bonded the sliver between the two halves of the river stone and attached it as his eye. It sticks out even a bit further than the body.
Slowly worked my way down the wall each night after work
Short stop to apply some RedGuard on all the seams for waterproofing.
But now as I am getting this wall done I realize that the lizard is looking at something over on the other wall under the shower head and he looks hungry. Can’t have him staring at nothing.
This one was easy. I found an online store selling decorative ceramic pieces that are used as pool inlays. Bought the dragonfly and started the process again on the second wall.
But I’m almost there.
Finished with all of the little broken pieces of tile. Damn that took a long time.
I wish I hadn’t gone so dark but I used a cocoa grout. I think lighter would have been better but too late now.
Add the glass shower doors – and done.
This is the same location as the first picture was taken. There is a bedroom to the left so with the new layout I was able to add a door on the left wall to enter directly from that bedroom.
And that’s it folks! You don’t have to be an expert to do this type of renovation. The internet is full of helpful videos and helpful people in discussion groups. Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it.
So I wanted to add this photo to show how it looks today. I have been building an addition on the house on this side and the window in this bathroom ended up inside of that addition. We have now removed it and fixed the drywall. The other major improvement is that I have gone through the house and replaced all light fixtures with LED lights. The difference in lighting is AMAZING and it drastically cuts your light bill too!
