Glass tile warms up a room like no other material.
Whether it is used in a backsplash, shower wall or flooring in the kitchen and bathroom, or just a dash here and there glass tile lends a rich look to its environment. Its surface welcomes the dance of the light that delivers a rainbow effect, especially when the pieces are grouped in a mosaic of colors and shapes.
Glass tile typically is more expensive than other tile and often is not considered when a budget rules. But expensive doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. There are ways to enjoy its full effect without breaking the budget, said Linda Dehne, owner of Charles Tiles in Baltimore’s Federal Hill.
You can mix inexpensive plain field tile, for example, with splashes of pricier mosaic glass, Dehne explained. “You can use inexpensive tile and $100 worth of this,” she said holding up a colorful, mosaic strip, “and you’re there.”
A broad palette of mosaic patterns offer hundreds of choices that would deliver, with the right combinations, a rich, exotic, fun feel while being gentle on the purse. But then, there’s the other problem: Choosing.
The walls and floors in Elaine Bonneau kitchen and bathrooms of her Harford County home have been waiting for tile for two years.
“I enjoy doing things myself,” the marketing executive said, boasting how she painted the whole house single-handedly. Still, she says she can’t get her mind and arms around the tile project.
“I’m scared of it,” Bonneau said. “I don’t know if I will make the right choice.”
Bonneau said she has envisioned using a copper accent treatment on the backsplashes.
Tile intimidation is the twin to cost fear but is not unusual, Dehne notes. Fearful customers come into her Federal Hill store all the time.
The best way to get over the intimidation is to decide a budget and just go ahead and choose something. Go into a tile store a few times and let all of the choices wash over you, Dehne said.
“Then choose. You’re going to know what you don’t like right off the bat.”
