Tile Tattoos for a New Look
Make Over Your Bath and Kitchen Ceramic Wall Tiles on the Fly
© 2008-2009 by Kelly Smith all rights reserved
Tile tattoos are a brilliant response to the expensive job of re-tiling your shower, bathtub enclosure,
or kitchen backsplash. There are times during a plumbing repair where replacement matching tile
aren’t available. That’s where tile tattoos come in!
The one thing that stays constant in this home improvement/remodeling industry is innovation.
Hipper, better, easier, shinier; it’s the thing that makes money for architects, interior designers,
and building contractors.
Whoever it was that quipped that there’s nothing new under the sun obviously never spent a minute
shopping at Lowe’s or Home Depot. What’s new just now? Why, tile tattoos. When your tile surfaces
start to look a bit dated, try using tile tattoos to give them a flashy custom look
A Brilliant Marketing Promotion
Tile tattoos are a brilliant idea. The name itself is bound to generate sales simply because of the
term “tattoo”.
Tats, once shunned in social circles (excluding drunk sailors on shore leave), have entered the
mainstream in the last decade or so. As a matter of fact, a recent Pew Research Center survey reports
that 36% of individuals aged 18 to 25, and an eye-opening 40% of individuals aged 26 to 40,
have been inked at least once.
No wonder that the makers and distributors have elected to dub their product what they did. And
they’re a quick DIY job that exhibits a major design change.
So, what exactly is a Tile Tattoo?
It’s really just a graphic sticker, designed to be applied in either non or high-humidity rooms
in the home, to decorate or simply re-color ceramic tiles in your bathroom or
kitchen backsplash.
Obviously,
they’re not exactly prime candidates for floors finished with ceramic tile.
They can be purchased in both solid colors (say, to make an alternate white/black pattern), or
a theme or design pattern that accentuates the existing tiles. For instance, if, after a plumbing
repair job, an exact match can’t be found, simply buy some as similar as possible.
Then apply tile tattoos as a kind of camouflage campaign.
Another newly discovered product that I am very impressed with, is Wallpaper For Windows
& Glass Doors. It’s a do-it-yourself product that is very affordable and easy to apply.
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Are They Difficult to Install?
Absolutely not! Follow these steps:
- Clean all the ceramic tile surfaces completely. TSP works well; wear gloves.
- Determine your design and install the tats.
- If your remodeling design involves complete color changes, take time to align the
corners precisely.
- If you’re making patterns, you might strike a chalk line across the tiles
instead of measuring from your grout lines. They're rarely perfectly even and a crooked
pattern will show up where a solid colored wall will not.
Can They be Relocated After Installation?
Absolutely! As long as you’re using high quality tile tattoos, relocating them is not an issue.
They’ll stick to your tile statically, just like some car windshield stickers do. Just peel them off,
then install them at the new location. Don’t forget to clean the new location.
And in Summary
Applying a few tile tattoos is a quick and simple approach to spiffing up and giving your kitchen
backsplash or bathroom walls a quick touch of class without the effort of financing a complete
remodel in these hard economic times.
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