Nooooo! I've fallen in love with onyx mosaic tile...

12 years ago

Can you hear the giant sucking sound as my original plans for a simple (and inexpensive and easy to take care of) laminate countertop and backsplash are swirling down the drain? I can. D.a.m.*. Why did I have to find this (see link)...? It's so beautiful I've already ordered some samples from Amazon and emailed the manufacturer in Pakistan. I'm catching kitchen remodeling fever from you all and I haven't even started tearing the existing one out yet. *cue Wicked Witch of the West voice as she's melting*.. ohhh... who would have known that all my beautiful plans could have been undone by some simple little onyx tiles...what a world, what a world..."

Here is a link that might be useful: tiles

Comments (8)

kirkhall
12 years ago
Those are beautiful! I'm not a huge fan of green, but those are just gorgeous! Sucking sound indeed!
desert_gal_nv
12 years ago
Oh Deedles, I feel your pain. Those are beautiful. I've fallen in love with some honey onyx tiles and my samples arrive on Thursday. I can't really believe how obsessed I've become over this whole kitchen thing. Neither can my kids, or my husband or our dog for that matter, but I tell them that in the end, it will be gorgeous.

Here is a link that might be useful: honey onyx mosaic
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Oh monica...thanks for asking. Long, long sordid story short, our electrician, mensch that he is, is coming out yet another time tomorrow to see if he can make a splice further down that will finally address the problem--involves sacrificing warm feet for a few sf, but we'd save the rest of the bathroom. He did connect the 5' mat and of course the cats have found it already :) It's really lovely and I just hope we'll catch a break on this and clear things up. Bill, thanks--can you give me a specific name of a nonsag thinset? I know you were mentioning one you were going to try -- gosh, was it last year already--? What's one that you specifically recommend? Thanks...and I'd *love* to hear about what you have in mind for the mural--as in small mosaic work? That's getting more up my alley :) Donna--I *hope* it will be beautiful. It will be memorable, at any rate :) We have the onyx slices up in two other places (and down on the shower floor) -- this is a third strictly decorative strip running up the wall next to one side of the vanity, and I figured I'd incorporate our love of --well, rocks :)-- by working some of the beautiful jaspers and agates, quartzes and granites we've found over the years we've been here (sliced courtesy of my lovely tile saw--man has that thing earned its keep :)) into the design. (side note for lovers of rocks, of which I think you are one, Donna :): yesterday I halved a jasper and honestly, there is a "picture" in it that jumps out at you of a storm at the coast. So real and somehow has light in it that makes the waves practically move when you look at them. DH confirmed it--he said you really don't have to give the benefit of the doubt and say "sure, yeah, that's a storm" or whatever, as you do with so much of what is called "picture" jasper-- it's just *there*...it's so amazing...it's not going on the wall :))
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My mother put some beautiful onyx tile in a bath. A lot of pieces cracked while the tile setter was trying to cut it. He hated working with it. I thought maybe he didn't have a sharp diamond blade, but more likely the onyx just breaks easily. So buy plenty extra. Over the years, it has gotten a little scratched and lost some gloss in the traffic areas. Not bad. No worse than marble would be. Still looks gorgeous. A corner or edge of a tile cracked, though. So what I learned is, buy the thickest tile possible (probably one choice, though), and buy plenty extra for breakage. Use Ditra decoupling layer. Make sure the subfloor is dead flat. Cut with a brand-new super sharp diamond blade. Be careful where you make cuts especially for small pieces or edge pieces. Try to cut in more uniform places.
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Would you be doing it? I took out pieces from an onyx-slices-on-mesh mosaic and rearranged all the slices to include some slices of native rock from our state. It was really fun, actually, but then again I like doing mosaics. It's definitely doable, esp. if you can find matching granite the same thickness as the mosaic that's already cut up. Or if you can find 12x12 tiles and cut them up (if you don't have a tile saw, you could ask your installer to cut up the granite and say that you'll do the replacing work yourself, just to make it a little less onerous). Just use weldbond to attach the tiles to the mesh (I did it by putting them down on the floor on cardboard with saran wrap between the cardboard and the mesh) and thinset as usual.
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I think raee put her finger on what I found "off" about it. It would pair up very well with a warm wood stained finish, its the white and the dark brown tile that is just a bit jarring to me. Having said that, romy718's photo of the white cabinets/dark backsplash does look lovely, so who can say? Choosing a backsplash is hard, I didn't realize it until we had to pick ours. We brought home several samples of tile, all which looked like they would be perfect for us in the showroom. Until we got them home, under our lighting conditions that is. Then, we found a lot of them were not even close to working for us. Finally, finally, after many trips back and forth, we found the right one. Take your time, no rush to get the backsplash done. Bring home samples, see how they look in your kitchen, with your lighting. But, when you do finally decide, get what you love and don't worry so much about what others think.
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dodge59
12 years ago
Now if you really wanna spend some money, backlight it!
Onyx is a stone that light will pass thru. How do I know that?
I used it as a fireplace surround and backlighted it.
Absolutely Luv it.

I'm not sure how well it would hold up with the water splashing, and who knows what else as far as a kitchen backsplash goes---something you may want to look into?

Gary
deedles
Original Author
12 years ago
Dodge59--Yeah, I've read a bit about it's not as durable... but what happens to it with water splashing? And I think I read on here that someone rubbed it with beeswax or something? Oh and I DON'T REALLY WANT TO SPEND SOME MONEY but I bet that is beautiful, lol! Love to see a pic of it lit up...

desertgal--Thanks for the link and the honey tiles on there are so pretty. I like the mandarin one with the red in it, too. I feel guilty sometimes to spend so much time thinking about remodeling when I know there is so much crap going wrong with the world.. but it's fun to get excited about something like this. And hey, it's not like it's free to do this so I do feel justified putting lots of mental work into it before handing over cold hard cash. Right? :)
Linda
12 years ago
They are gorgeous (and so are the honey onyx, desert gal). So now you've gone and shown them to all of us, so you can SUCK us down with you!!!! ;-)
singingmicki
12 years ago
Um, wow! When I redo my backsplash (we haven't even moved in yet!). I'm going to use this.
Very pretty...
mtnfever (9b AZ/HZ 11)
12 years ago
sometimes a little knowledge is an expensive thing...like hanging out on this forum lol!

getting my inspiration from femmelady's kitchen, I used 4x4 and brick-style and tumbled mosiac rather than square and polished onyx mosaics in my previous kitchen. They *are* pretty, aren't they?!

Maybe you won't have to since yours will be polished, but I used Miracle 511 Sealer and Enhancer (all in one bottle) before they were installed. The enhancer part kept the "wet look" that I liked better but I bet the polishing already does that for you. YMMV.

I included a link to an old thread on onyx. My pictures aren't showing up so I'll have to go check that out but lots of other nice pics!

cheers

Here is a link that might be useful: femmelady's and other onyx kitchens
marquest
12 years ago
My daughter chose Honey Onyx for her bathroom. She saw it at HD and fell in love. I have a old house and was looking for tile that would not look new but updated. I understand that it ages beautifully. For the master bedroom I used Travertine.

It was installed 3 years ago and it still looks beautiful. Check stone locator. We got a great price and free shipping. Much better price than HD. The contractor said it was the best quality he had seen and he had done some really high end bathrooms. They were great people to deal with too.

Nooooo! I've fallen in love with onyx mosaic tile...

Comments (8)

kirkhall

desert_gal_nv

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Nooooo! I've fallen in love with onyx mosaic tile...

Comments (8)

kirkhall

desert_gal_nv

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Original Author