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Using cut field tile to finish off glass tile backsplash (pics)

14 years ago

Looking for honest opinions and/or suggestions here. We're tiling our tub/shower area with 10x13 field tile and a 3" blended glass mosaic tile 59" up in shower as an accent. To coordinate, we're thinking of using the glass mosaic as our vanity backsplash (and on the left side of the vanity as well, even though there's no built in 4" splash like the back shows). We'll be using bullnosed tiles to finish off the shower ends. Would it look okay to use the same bullnose tiles (only cut into 1" strips) to give the vanity splash a finished look. Or should we just use the glass tile with not finished end liners? The field tile is porcelain, BTW.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer of the glass doesn't make a bullnosed liner to match, and with the colors of the blended mosaic, it's very difficult to match elsewhere - I've looked high and low. The colors in the field tile are ivory, beiges, greys and the glass tiles are charcoal, grey, and beige.

Picture of the area showing mosaic on left. We'll tile the left side too:

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Porcelain field tile with glass mosaic:

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Glass tile against sink counter

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Am I on the right track or way off on how I should do this. DH is doing the tile work.

Thanks.

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Comments (6)

debo_2006
Original Author
14 years ago
Sorry, I hit submit, but meant to hit "preview". Apologies for any errors.
mahatmacat1
14 years ago
If you already have the bullnose, why not go ahead and cut some to size and put it on the glass tile to see what you think? You can mock it up by taping it onto some cardboard and putting it in place, so you don't even have to visualize to that extent. That's no 'vision' copout, IMO; I'm a firm believer in visual aids :)
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debo_2006
Original Author
14 years ago
I didn't buy the tile yet. Just wasn't sure if a porcelain bullnosed acting as a finished edge would work with glass 1x1s. I'm big on visualization too, but I'm not good enough in Photoshop yet to piece it together. I suppose I could just get it, try it, and do what looks best even if it potentially means wasting a few pieces of bullnose.
pricklypearcactus
14 years ago
I think it partially depends on whether you want the backsplash to look "framed". That's essentially what the porcelain tile will do because it is visually different from the glass tile.

Bullnose tends to be more expensive than field tiles, and you will (almost definitely) have some scraps left over from doing the shower. I would consider cutting some of those scraps into the strip shape (as you would the bullnose) and taping it up as a layout to see if you like that framed look. If you do, then go ahead and cut the bullnose and tape that up. This would hopefully save you some money if it turns out you do not like the look of the frame around the glass tile.

My personal preference would be to not do the bullnose around the glass tile. To me the mosaic is very pretty and has a lovely rounded edge and I would not want anything to take away the focus from the glass tiles. However, this is just my opinion, so feel free to ignore it.
bill_vincent
14 years ago
I've done what you're talking about once on a shower, but didn't like it. It was requested by the homeowner who's also a good friend of mine, because there was also another stripe down further on the wall that continued to the tub skirt, and he didn't want to have one uninterrupted, and the other stopped with a piece of bullnose from the field tile:

You can see in this first picture, where the last piece of the glass tile stripe is a cut tile:

So it would "match" the bottom stripe:
emilynewhome
14 years ago
Could you use the glass pencil liner instead of bullnose?

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