Feeling blue about your flooring? Not to fear, peel and stick tiles have become a beautiful, budget friendly and easy way to update your space. I personally have peel and stick tiled all of the small rooms on our second story like bathrooms and our laundry room. It’s a very simple and easy project and I’m here to guide you! So let’s get started!
Picking Your Tile
Thanks to the modern world, there are a ton of options at your fingertips. I personally chose this beautiful charcoal hexagon tile for our bathrooms and these reborn-modern black and white marble tiles for our laundry room.
A key note here is the shape of the tiles and the stickiness of them. We’ve had these tiles in these high traffic areas in our home for almost a year now and have had 0 issues with them lifting. So while some blogs may encourage you to spray adhesive on the floor first, it’s really not needed. These tiles are thick and that’s part of the reason, the paper thin tile covers are more likely to peel up. Also – the hexagonal shape is obviously more difficult than the square shape! Keep this in mind as you prep. I laid these two types of tiles as a first timer, so it is totally doable, but the square tiles were much much easier to lay haha.
If neither of these tiles interest you, I recommend perusing Pinterest and Amazon! There are so many options and so many people have tried them all – you’re bound to find something you like or an inspiration photo to guide you! Once you know the tile you want to use based on the shape, the material, texture, thickness, color and cost, you’re ready to start buying – no waiting here!
Materials
You know the tile you need, but do you know how much you need? Considering this is a blog for beginner DIYers, I’ll cover on it, but feel free to skip if you know! Getting the measurement and estimates for a room are actually so easy and to make it even easier, you could use a tool like this that auto-calculates for you! However, the math is simple. Measure the length and width of your room in feet and multiply them! This is the square footage of the room. Most tiles will tell you how many total square feet comes in a package, but if not, the math is the same! Find the square footage of one tile (length (ft) x width (ft)) and multiply by the number of tiles in the box! Now that you know how much you need, you can purchase your tile!
For this project, you will also need a box cutter to strike, cut, and/or snap the tiles. Once the tiles are all laid, you’ll need caulk in a caulk gun. Both of these items are pretty standard to most DIY projects, so you likely already have them. But if you don’t, fear not, these will not go to waste, you’ll get many more uses out of them! Make sure to get the color of caulk you need (whether that’s to match other details in your space or to match the tiles themselves). For the black and white tiles, I used white and for the charcoal tiles, I used black because these colors best hide the little mistakes I made!
Something else to note – some people like to fill the gaps between their tiles with grout. I don’t think this is necessary (at least for the tiles I purchased). Many times, you’ll be laying your tiles so closely together for aesthetic purposes, you likely won’t even need the grout. Some people like to lay tiles in the same pattern as their current tile flooring. If this is the case, you may have a gap between tiles if you do now with the told tiles. If so, you may want to consider laying grout to fill the gaps. The hexagon tiles I shared actually come with little white colored edges to give illusion of their own grout, it’s very cool and looks like I did a lot more professional work than I really did haha.
Installing
Like I said, this is a pretty easy project, so we’re flying through this and you’re doing great! Once all of your materials and supplies come in, you can start installing!
As with any project, you should thoroughly clean the space. This is extra important for this project because 1. the clean floor helps the tiles stick and 2. any debris is going to show as a small bubble or create a hump in the tile. I first swept and then used Lime Away to “de-grease” the tiles and almost strip them of anything that wouldn’t be cohesive to getting the tile to stick. I did not sand the tiles. Many people suggest you do, but if you’re laying tile on tile and degreased the tiles, you’ve done enough haha. If you were painting the tiles – yes you should absolutely sand! But for peel and stick? You’re fine to skip if you want.
Once everything is clean and prepped, think about how you want to lay the tile. For me, I laid them in the direction of the room. My guest bathroom has angled door so I laid the tile right down starting in the door frame and ended up looking slanted in the bathroom when I was done. It still looks great, but it’s just something I notice. I chose to lay the marble tile in our laundry room in a harlequin pattern. So this required I lay the tiles in a diamond shape instead of a checkerboard/square shape.
Now you’re good to start! I started by laying the full tiles first. Go the length of the room and as far out as possible to create a great foundation that your cut tiles will butt up against. Once it’s time to start cutting, this is where things get a little more technical.
Some DIYers like the technique of tracing the angle/cut you need on a piece of paper. While I agree this is clever, I tried it and just could not figure it out! The piece of paper trick is much easier if your paper is the dimensions of the tile itself. I personally chose to measure from the edge of the last tile to the edge of where I needed to cut. This helped me get close to what I needed and then I could make finer cuts with the tile essentially in place.
Now, when it came to spots like around the toilet, this was tricky and I lost a few tiles to terrible cuts. Using a tool like this or mastering the paper outline trick is your best bet. Something important to keep in mind is that the caulk is going to be your best friend when the tile laying is over!
Finishing Touches
If you don’t have quarter round or base boards, this is a great time to do that! The base board and quarter round will both cover the edges of your tile and give a super elevated, professional and complete look.
As I’ve teased, you will need to caulk over the edges of the tile. This is another reason why I don’t feel it’s necessary to lay more adhesive before laying the tile. The caulk is both aesthetic to clean up your edges, but also helps to seal the open edges, helping to keep moisture out and maintain the longevity of the tile! I recommend cutting a small tip off the tube to make the amount that comes out more manageable. I recommend wearing gloves and taping off the walls before applying.
Was anything confusing or not well enough explained? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to support you!!
And now… You’re done! CELEBRATE! Enjoy the fruits of your labor, show it off, drink some champagne on your new floor – congrats, you did it!
