A "What Would You Do" Tile Question

[luckystar112]

DH and I are stupid.

We had this great idea to expand the size of the pantry in our kitchen, all the while assuming that we had a box of floor tile hanging out in the garage. Long story short, we built the new pantry, went to tile, and found that the box of floor tile we thought we had was actually our backsplash tile. We assumed it was the floor tile because there were two leftover floor tiles stacked on top of the box.

Needless to say I have been to six, yes six, tile and flooring stores and I cannot find this tile anywhere. I'm so annoyed because our original pantry, though small, was tiled and now it appears that we have to try and remove it without damaging the rest of the tile in the kitchen.

I'm assuming that the only thing we can do is pick a different tile for the pantry (there is a door to hide the change), but I just feel like that is so tacky and that in the future when we sell our house the potential buyer's might be like, "Why is there different tile in here? Especially since the current tile is used everywhere else in the house (kitchen, hallway, half bath, entryway, upstairs bathrooms, etc).

What's making this even more annoying is that I hate this tile in the first place.

We can't afford to redo our whole downstairs though.

So, what would you do in this situation?


ETA: I forgot to mention that we have no idea who laid the original tile...it could have been the previous homeowners but it's more likely that the tile is older than that. Apparently our house used to be a huge dump, and some guy bought it and completely gutted it out. That was like 10-12 years ago. I'm assuming he's the one who tiled because the tile is predominantly white along with everything else he did....paint, appliances, backsplash, countertops, etc.

 

[movie zombie]

9 times out of 10 no one is going to question why the pantry tile is different. things i was so nitpicky about when selling my house weren''t even noticed by potential buyers....just like the painter and others told me.

in this house we tiled and then i decided to also tile the downstairs bathroom. the tiler told he he would have laid the hallway out differently if he''d know that in the first place. however, no one notices that the tile in the doorway was cut.

i wouldn''t worry about it regarding resale......but if its going to bug you personally the whole time, i might do something about it.....throw a rug over it?

mz

 

[basil]

If the tile is white, you probably won't have too much trouble finding something relatively close? Either that or you could do something totally different and make it look like you meant it to be different.

Personally, if I were looking at a house it wouldn't really bother me if there were different tile in the pantry.

ETA: if you hate it anyway, pick something different that you do like. If you end up ever redoing the kitchen too, you can match it then.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I would notice it b/c I notice everything *but* I rather have a big pantry than a small with matching tile. Can you post a pic of the tile?

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 3/17/2009 2:25:04 PM
Author: movie zombie
9 times out of 10 no one is going to question why the pantry tile is different. things i was so nitpicky about when selling my house weren''t even noticed by potential buyers....just like the painter and others told me.

in this house we tiled and then i decided to also tile the downstairs bathroom. the tiler told he he would have laid the hallway out differently if he''d know that in the first place. however, no one notices that the tile in the doorway was cut.

i wouldn''t worry about it regarding resale......but if its going to bug you personally the whole time, i might do something about it.....throw a rug over it?

mz

Thanks MZ

I just talked to DH about it again, and I think we came up with somewhat of a solution. The original tile goes about 1/3 of the way into our new pantry, and DH doesn''t want to remove it and risk damaging the tile in the kitchen. It''s probably going to look weird, but his idea is to take the two leftover pieces and put them at the two new corners, then fill in the rest with a tile that matches. He thinks that will make it look like it was done like that on purposed. I don''t know...I still think it will be weird to open the pantry door and 1/3 of it matching the kitchen and the rest something else. We probably will put a rug over it. lol.

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 3/17/2009 2:48:04 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I would notice it b/c I notice everything *but* I rather have a big pantry than a small with matching tile. Can you post a pic of the tile?

Give me one minute!!!!!

 

[luckystar112]

Here is the tile. I can try to take a better picture, it''s sort of dark.

Basically it''s a light cream or ivory color, with a weird white pattern throughout. If you look really closely, there is also the smallest hint of blue.
It''s glossy and has a little bit of texture.

 

[luckystar112]

Here is the space we''re trying to fill. This is a weird angle, but the original tile goes about a 3rd of the way up.
The other thing is that the tiles were cut on the left side....

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I would take out (and try to save) the tile that is in the pantry. Cut them in half to make a boarder and fill it in with a totally different tile (not close enough to try to "fool" someone if that makes sense). Set the new tile at an angle. It looks similar to a cheap tile (no offense!) that DH has used in some of his homes from Lowe's. Did you try there?

ETA: maybe get the new tile to match your backsplash to tie the kitchen together.

 

[luckystar112]

Here is a better picture of the tile

 

[luckystar112]

Date: 3/17/2009 3:17:31 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I would take out (and try to save) the tile that is in the pantry. Cut them in half to make a boarder and fill it in with a totally different tile (not close enough to try to ''fool'' someone if that makes sense). Set the new tile at an angle. It looks similar to a cheap tile (no offense!) that DH has used in some of his homes from Lowe''s. Did you try there?

ETA: maybe get the new tile to match your backsplash to tie the kitchen together.

That''s a great idea!!!
The only problem is that I''m pretty sure the tile is laid down directly on the concrete....so I assume it might be hard to remove it in one piece. We''re actually changing our backsplash too, to a silver tin. Ever hear of a tin floor?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

They do make stainless tile ($$$) I would still remove it from inside the pantry. But I am a risk taker. I can ask my DH later (he has tile experience) what he would do.

 

[basil]

If you take it out you might break it, but it looks like the doorway is only 2 tiles, so if you break those you could always replace what you need to with your two extras.

 

[oobiecoo]

I think putting the extras in the new corners could work... but I wouldn''t fill in the rest with a similar tile. It would look like you were trying to match but couldn''t. I would fill in the rest with a color so it actually looks like a design or something. Could you cut your 2 extras into strips and lay them all around the edges like a border and then fill in the middle? I know I wouldn''t mind if my pantry tile didn''t match.

 

[movie zombie]

ok, the old adage goes something along the lines of: if its an eyesore, draw attention to it. seeing the picture, i''d keep the leftovers you''ve got, buy some other tile maybe even different sizes and fill in then use your leftover tile in the middle to make it look like some kind of design feature. in other words, mix it up rather than keep it uniform. the new tile is far enough into the pantry and you''re going to have shelving right? i think you could make it look like you''re trying to draw attention to the shelving.

did any of that make any sense at all?!

mz

 

[luckystar112]

lol, MZ I wish I would have read that earlier because that is a great idea!!

I basically caved and just removed all of the tile from the pantry. It was laid directly on the foundation, but it came up rather easily! The kitchen tile now ends right smack in the middle of the doorway, so we can lay different tile in the pantry itself. Phew.
I still think it''s kind of weird to have two different types of tiles, but at least the transition makes sense now. Now I just need to pick a tile to go in there...I''m thinking just the cheap, .99 per sq ft generic 12x12 white tile from home depot (since it''s just the pantry). At least it will play off the white in the kitchen tile.


Have I mentioned how sick I am of home improvements?! lol. In the last six months we''ve...
Bought new living room furniture (not exactly a big project)
Got new countertops (not installed yet), backsplash, and appliances
Put new baseboards down throughout our whole downstairs
Created a new pantry

And we still have to paint the upstairs bedrooms. Next week we''re putting the countertops in and making a dog run along the side of our house.

I''m really glad that we expanded our pantry though. It''s not huge or anything, but it''s WAY bigger than it was before. Before you just opened the door to the shelves, but now it will be a walk-in--which is HUGE because we have NO storage space.

 

[movie zombie]

its just a larger space and you can still do the mix it up design so it looks purposeful......rather than a jarring discontinuity from the main floor. can you reuse the tile you took up?

mz

ps is your shelving going to set on the tile itself? if so use something to create more of a frame effect around the base of the walls and extend that out whatever would be appropriage beyond the shelving.....and then play with mix/match design so it isn''t so glaring a change from one side of the door to the other. good luck!