Last summer we started restoring our guest bedroom and after one of the first steps – removing our laminate flooring – we were lucky to find some original period hearth tiles. As with everything in this house, they were covered in layers of gunky paint, but after a bit of stripping we were amazed to find these lovely tiles!
Whilst they are lovely, some of them are sadly in a bad condition. We’ve of course been scouring our local antique and reclamation centres, but with thousands of different designs it’s pretty much impossible to find the exact missing ones.
Not ones to give up lightly, we eventually managed to find a solution and managed to find a company that prints onto tiles. Here’s the result.
Obviously as the image is only printed onto the tile there isn’t any texture to it like on the original, but other than that it’s a pretty good match!
We thought replacing the tiles would be fairly straight forward, but as usual when we think a project will be quick and easy it turns out to be the opposite.
Luckily the broken tiles were easy to remove just with a hammer and chisel, but at some point a thick stone slab had been added to the back of the insert so that the new tiles wouldn’t fit into the opening as easily as imagined.
Being too scared to cut the new tiles (they were too expensive to mess up), we decided that cutting the stone slab would be a better option.
After chiseling away the corners of the slab the rest was straight forward. First of all we gave the existing tiles a good clean (by covering them in a stripping solution to remove any last bits of dirt and paint) and then just glued down the tiles and grouted between them.
And this is what it looks like now.
If you look closely, you can of course tell the difference between the new and old tiles – mainly because the new ones are cleaner and shinier – but from a distance you’d almost never know.
Have you ever discovered any hidden period features in your home? Have you ever replaced any tiles?
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Great job, you would never know looking at the photos, and what a lovely find! We tried to match up some taupe tiles on our 1930s fireplace that were missing and broken when we moved in. We couldn’t get the same colour, so opted for some darker brown ones as a contrast and it has worked pretty well. In fact most people assume the fireplace was always like that! You can see our fireplace here http://www.tidyawaytoday.co.uk/home-tour/
Thanks Antonia! Your fireplace really looks like it was meant to be that way! I actually really like the contrast that the darker tiles add. More importantly though – I love your door handles!
Cx
What a great solution! I am glad that you did not get rid of the original tile as so many people would. How much did the tiles cost to have printed, if you don’t mind me asking?
The tiles were £15 each. Whilst it’s not cheap for a tile, it’s actually less than buying original ones!
Cx
It looks aboslutely amazing!
Thanks Magali! It’s such an improvement!
Cx
Hi,
Wow the tiles look great, I am in the same situation, trying to find old ones to match, could you tell me the name of the company you used? And also where did you take your doors to be stripped? Mine were boxed in like yours too.
Great work, Emma x Where abouts are you in Manchester?
Thanks, Emma! The company we used is called Wisdom Fireplaces in Levenshulme. It was £15 per tile, plus a one of fee of £30 if they have to do any work to the template file (in our case the scanned image was okay).
It’ such a shame that people boxed up the original doors, removing all of the covers was one of the first things we did in the house. We took our doors to be stripped at Kwick Strip at the Antiques Village in Levenshulme. It took a week (although it can be done quicker) and was £15 per door.
Good luck!
Cx
Another thing I have never seen done. Very interesting!
It wasn’t perfect but considering it would have been impossible to ever find the same tiles we were really pleased with the result!
Cx