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Stained Glass & Mosaics

Help choosing grout color please!

12 years ago

Hi! I just stuck my first mosaic of any consequence to the wall and I really need some advice as far as grout color goes. I have both warm and cool colors as well as dark and light. I can't decide of I need to brighten the overall effect. It's a nightscape though so maybe a dark gray? I want to post a picture, how!?

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Comments (4)

concretenprimroses
12 years ago
I would love to see a picture.
I have my pics on photobucket, but there are other on line storage sites. From there, I copy the html code (by clicking on it, and a tiny sign says "copied"), then I paste it right into my message.
A way to test grout color is to put some dry grout into the cracks of a portion of your mosaic. Then vacuum and blow it out. That is how I chose the colors for this little table.

The warm tan looked better with the table colors than gray. I had already grouted the bird dark grey as I wanted it to look like lead.
I chose gray for a lamp I made because it had bluish pinks in it and I thought that gray complemented that better than tan.
I never use white, but I have a friend who does and her things are beautiful. Her tess tends to be light background tho.
Hope this helps,
Kathy
texaswild
12 years ago
Welcome to the forum, CLAIRE: As for grout color, I got tired of worrying about what color to use, so years ago I switched to charcoal or black for everything. I'm always happy with the effects they give. CONCRETE: Be careful vacuuming your grout. I read on this forum that one artist ruined her vacuum cleaner just by vacuuming the floor. Apparently there was a little moisture inside, and the cement ruined her vacuum cleaner.
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Pipdog-- I worked with a company for several years doing Lord and Taylor stores on the east coast-- literally hundreds of thousands of square feet of marble-- crema marfil marble with absolute black granite borders. It was ALL grouted with sanded grout. I'll take it a step further. It was done using an old method of grouting, where dry grout is rubbed on the joints, and in this case, with a buffing machine, and nothing scratched. Additionally, crema marfil is notoriously soft, even as marble goes. No problem. Someone really has to TRY to scratch marble. Not saying it can't be done. But you'd have to really try. Also, as for touching up "down the road"-- you can do that within the first 72 hours. After that, the joints must be atleast 2/3 empty, or you take a chance on the new grout flaking off, because it won't bond to the old grout.
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Nice choices! I love the pop of color you have in the accent tile. If you choose white or light grout color then the marble pieces will look more uniform since the tile will be close in color to the grout. The opposite holds true with the larger gray tiles - these tiles will "pop" because the lighter grout will have a contrasting effect. I think you're fine going either way. It's more of - which tiles do you want to "pop" more... What tiles are going on the floor (if any)? If you have to choose a grout color for the floor then I'm always a fan of darker grout to help hide dirt/stains down the road because the grout will get darker with time if it's on a floor that gets used.
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rock_oak_deer
12 years ago
Welcome Claire, look forward to seeing your pictures.

Kathy-beautiful piece. Love that touch of the "dark side" with the shabby chic plates.
concretenprimroses
12 years ago
Thanks slow that is a good point. I used my little cheapo hand vacuum and emptied it right away. But I did it without really thinking about why! Nice I do the right thing by mistake occassionally. Good to do it outside too, which is probably why I had the hand vac.
Kathy

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