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Laying a tile floor is a tedious but well-worth DIY project that can dramatically change an entire room!
A splurge in decorative oversized porcelain tile, a can of touch-up paint, and new light fixtures was our antidote to renewing and transforming this space in our 132-year-old home!
With the design choice of choosing larger tiles, we could even make the room appear larger! And, by choosing lighter tiles, we were able to make our home so much brighter! The white tiles reflect light into our kitchen, which appeared dull at certain times of the day because of the black cabinets.
Here’s our process from start to finish – you will be so shocked how choosing a larger-than-average ceramic floor tile changed the entire room!
Rewind to Labor Day 2018
Our sunporch entryway was decorated with plants and a patterned accent rug. It was never an eye-sore space, but we knew we could make it better, and it had so much potential. Being such a heavy traffic area (and we knew we were adding a furry member to our family, VÃk), we decided to revamp the space.
Lucky for us, the sunporch already had good bones, such as a high ceiling, accordion doors leading to the kitchen, lots of windows, and beautiful molding.
Our Process of Laying a Tile Floor in Our Sunroom
Step 1: Clear the room, remove the accordion doors and lower molding pieces, and demo the bamboo hardwood flooring. Overall, it was a pretty easy task! That evening Caleb researched replacing the sub-floor and created an initial plan, and we both scrolled through countless tile flooring options.
BEFORE photo from when we first toured our home before we bought it . . .
And during the demo . . .
Step 2: Commit to a tile. At first, we were toying with the idea of a marbled tile; traditional white with gray veins. But after a lot of thought (and scrolling through google images and home blogs), we decided we wanted something bolder and unexpected. We settled on hexagon tiles with a geometric pattern in order toto give the room a striking focal point. Caleb and I are both drawn to monochromatic color schemes.
We want to make each room a work of art by carefully choosing only to display the bare necessities and specifically curating each entity. I can’t even express how excited I am about the tile we chose! Eye candy for sure, don’t you agree? We ordered 10% more than we needed in case of any mistakes and because larger tiles are known to crack easier than smaller ones during installation.
KeyCritical Design Decision: By choosing la argerlarger tile over the standard ~12×12 inches and using smaller grout lines, we could make the room appear bigger. The Electra Grande Lighting tiles are 13.5″ X 15.5″.
Step 3: We tore up the sub-floors because they were disgusting and found problems with support beams. The subflooring extended past the walls, which made the demo job enjoyable. Because the subfloor was nailed down and wedged under the walls, prying it up proved a trying and taxing endeavor.
However, we could slowly but surely get about half of the flooring removed before calling it quits for the day.
Step 3a: Caleb made a trip to Home Depot and picked up supplies so we could tackle the remaining subfloors. The shop vacuum is my new best friend! Because of what we learned on Monday, Caleb purchased a Ryobi reciprocating saw and some Milwaukee Tool blades. This was a significant improvement. Cutting the flooring to manageable sizes allowed the pieces to be pulled up more quickly. We were also able to cut away the parts around the walls that couldn’t be pried up.
Next, we removed the old insulation home to a lot of mouse poo and some dearly departed mouse carcasses. With plastic gloves taped to his long sleeve shirt, Caleb removed the insulation and mouse droppings while Ren vacuumed the remaining dust, poo, garbage, etc., from between the joists.
The demo also revealed some water damage to the baseboard below the joist near the door. This was the entryway for our mouse house guests. Upon further inspection, the studs were on odd centers. We could have left them and done some exciting origami with the subfloor but decided to replace them. This part of the demo was also interesting as the studs were fastened to the house’s structure with 5inch long nails. We purchased a long bar to assist with the removal of said nails.
After the studs were removed, it was apparent that the part of the sunroom that extended past the house’s foundation had been severely compromised by water damage. This needed to be replaced. We were not ready to demo the whole porch at this time, so Caleb had to crawl under the entry stairway and nail the sub-subfloor to the bottom of the new joists.
We installed new joists on 16€ centers so the subfloor could be cut in nice even increments. The backer board was then installed in a perpendicular orientation to the subfloor.
Step 4: Tile! There are countless YouTube videos on mixing and spreading the thin-set (tile adhesive). We watched many, and you would not be served here by me trying to summarize that here. So let’s say we did (nearly) exactly what the YouTube videos tell you. We started at the west wall and worked toward the entry door. The first half went quite smoothly. Then the (less than) square 1888 construction reared its ugly head. Caleb used a Ryobi angle grinder with some clamps and a straightedge to cut the tiles.
Safety recommendation for when cutting tiles: Use earplugs!!
We didn’t have trouble cutting the tile for the non-whole pieces, but the gaps in our tiles started to get harder to line up. Then when we made it to the final row of tiles, we had nowhere to stand. So we stood on our newly laid tiles. It turned out not to be that much of an issue, but it still caused some anxiety.
Step 5: Wait 48 hours for the tiles to set. This was a very welcomed break! We were so tired!!!
Step 6: Grout time! We chose black grout to match the tile lines and continue the pattern throughout. Mix grout and spread into joints with a rubber grout float. Sweeping diagonally over joints fills them nicely. Use a grout sponge to wipe off excess grout from tile surfaces.
So messy, but so worth it!
Step 7: Allow to dry for a few hours, then wipe the tile with a damp rag to remove any grout cloudiness on the tile.
Can you believe how tiny VÃk is??!
Step 8: Replace the molding—paint the new molding white. I accidentally started painting the molding the wrong color white, so I went to Home Depot with a scrap piece of the old molding and had them paint it to match it for us.
While the molding strips were drying, I sanded and then repainted the East + West facing walls. I used the paint color Behr Toasty Gray, the same gray as every room in the house.
Step 9: We found a T-mold transition piece from Home Depot. Caleb had to miter a section of the base as the tile mating up with the kitchen hardwood floor was not a perfect gap. After several weeks we finally found a seam that we liked to cover the hole to transition from kitchen to sunroom. We went with a gray wooden piece to match the color tones of the sunroom while also bringing in the silver hues from the appliances in the kitchen.
Step 10: Replace the Accordion Door or Not? I appreciated the accordion door because although it does not provide visual isolation, it does create a separation between spaces, and I think it looks pretty cool. But, over the several weeks, we had it removed, I enjoyed the open transition from the kitchen to the sunroom, and it gave us a little more room coming in and out of the house with the two excited doggies. Caleb and I decided to keep the doors off.
Step 11: Replace the fixtures. We decided on cast aluminum matte black pendant lights from TRNK NYC. We love these because they match the black lines in the tile and create a nice transition into our kitchen, which has a lot of black entities such as our kitchen cabinets, doorknobs, and furniture legs. They are so Scandinavian, modern, and delicate. I love them so much!
Step 12: Add all the plants & a geometric deer head. Please step back and enjoy our new room! The tile has changed the entire downstairs! Since the sun porch is the door we use to enter, we get so to be invited every time we come home by our houseplants. When you walk down the stairs in the morning, the sunroom is the first thing you see. You can see the sunroom in the dining room and the kitchen. The dogs and cats love lying in the sunshine.
Final Cost Breakdown
Our Planned Budget: $3000.00
Our Final Actual Cost: ~$2750.00
Floor Tiles from Mission Stone and Tile: Electra Grande Lightning– Porcelain Tile
Cost with Shipping: $1,581.28
Cost: $109.97
Sawzall Blade from Home Depot
Cost: $19.97
Air Masks from Home Depot (2 Pack)
Cost: $5.47
Canvas or Plastic Drop Cloth to prevent dust from spreading throughout the house from Home Depot
Cost: $4.98 – $30.00
Cost: $80.00
Cost: $50.00
R19 Roll Insulation (2) from Home Depot
Cost: $97.96
Cost: $42.00-$70.00
2x6x8ft Boards (6) from Home Depot
Cost: $34.92
48€ Wood Lath 50 PC Bundle from Home Depot: We purchased these to heighten the boards we made for support beams.
Cost: $13.97
Sub-Floor Panels from Home Depot
Cost: $300.94
Cement Floor Panels from Home Depot
Cost: $105.40
Grout – in Black from Home Depot (2 bags)
Cost: $27.43
Wooden Floor Divider Seal from Home Depot
Cost: $30.14
Trnk NYC Conical Cast Pendant (2)
Cost: $220.52
After Thoughts
I am so happy with how our sun porch turned out! The new tile floor brightened, modernized, and even made the room feel larger! When laying tiles, it is essential to remember that smaller tiles in a large room will make it seem tighter, whereas large tiles in a small space will create the illusion that it is more extensive. Our sunporch is proof that even just one design choice can make all the difference.
Want more remodel inspiration? Check out: 4 Ways to Improve Your Home Without Breaking the Bank
Just what I was looking for, regards for putting up.