How to Plan a Tile Layout in An Awkward Space

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Note to self: I have the wingspan of a fruit fly. With only a few days left before Black Friday (and consequently my Black Friday laundry appliance shopping plans), the weekend was prime for laundry room floor tiling. After installing the Ditra last weekend, I used a box of inexpensive gray ceramic tiles ($0.99 per tile) to dry fit their placement and it got me thinking how to plan a tile layout in an awkward space.

I chose this particular layout mainly to limit the number of cuts I’d need to make per tile. Couple of thoughts on that:

plan a tile layout in an awkward space – tips

• When possible, an easy (square, ceramic, no-nonsense) tile in a difficult room seems best.
• This room has one heck of an odd layout (see below).
• By cutting the 12-inch tile in half and using those six-inch lengths along the longest wall, I’d be using far less tile overall than if I had used any other layout (since the other half could be used for the very next row instead of throwing out as waste).
• To lay out or dry fit tile, always start in the middle of the room. My hair-brained 6-inch tile idea on both sides could have looked really weird if I hadn’t mapped things out a little at first, but luckily, at the room’s widest point, I had six inch cuts along both sides and the back wall. The only part that would look slightly off is the narrower doorway area, which would have eight inches on the right side instead of six, but no odd 2-inch pieces or anything (and Ditra needs at least 2 inches of tile for it to work properly). Hooray for things working out to my advantage!

plan a tile layout in an awkward space – what I learned

Once again, I did the install in the room while Dad was Sir Mix-A-Lot. And a few things I learned during the actual installation of the tile:

• While I’m not smart enough to remove the door when I installed Ditra, I am smart enough to remove it while installing tile (or rather, Dad is).
• I have very short arms and an endless need for perfection on an imperfect room with imperfect walls.
• Because of said need for perfection and skipping breakfast, about halfway in, I was a snarling mess of frustration. Luckily it was also the moment when I ran out of supplies, so Dad and I conveniently broke for lunch (gotta give the guy credit, he puts up with both my learning curve and the frustration it causes me when things don’t go well right away).
• It is astounding how a single room can feel like both the smallest (in terms of freedom of movement) and largest (in terms of time spent stretching my arms out while on my hands and knees) room on the effing planet.

In other words, on Saturday, I had an 8-hour yoga session in the room I hate to be in the most (since I loathe doing laundry). And it seems as though all I managed to do is install tile that is nearly the same freaking color as the cement slab that I spent all of this time tiling over.

Huh. There’s that.

plan a tile layout in an awkward space – #yogabody

At any rate, my to-do list is getting shorter. And perhaps with enough tile jobs, I’ll have that super lean yoga body I’ve always wanted (pssh, ha!). I’ve got the paint (spoiler alert: it’s the same color I’ve used in the hallway and living room downstairs, only with a different sheen – I saw no need to spend hours agonizing over paint considering how long it takes me to decide, and this needed to be a quicker project than most). I’ve got my grout, too.

My hands aren’t too happy from leaning on the Ditra for the day (at least I had kneepads though). Progress is starting to feel a lot like bruises and sore muscles, but it helps to envision a clean, efficient laundry space that doesn’t thwart my efforts to stay organized (since I tend to want to leave the room asap, I take unfolded laundry upstairs to fold in my bedroo- oh hey, new season of something is on Netflix and Charlie wants a snuggle).

So, for now, I can leave you with this before pic (taken when I moved in – blech):

And an in-progress shot of where I am at the moment:

Later this week, I’ve got a few other things to share about some repair jobs to the walls (perhaps including a video) and more details on the overall design plan, too. Then, it’s turkey-slash-appliance-getting time. How was your weekend?