Tiling a floating hearth

I was dubious about the weird dimensions of our hearth factoring into finding tiles that work, but it turns out a 7 inch depth and 5 inch height was actually just about perfect for 12” sections of mosaic tile. Which is good, b/c 6 of these cost almost twice what it cost to get 30 tiles to cover the rest of the fireplace and we went with one of the cheaper options. Jeez.

Shiny

Laying these out, I’m wondering if we’ve made a mistake getting glass tile to put on the hearth. I don’t think we’ll be using the fireplace much so these changes have been mostly cosmetic, but it occurs to me I still should have checked to see if these are fireplace appropriate. I’m relatively sure these will be fine though. 

Thank god, everything worked.

Anyway, without borders or bullnose my plan was to square each corner. Tile along the outside and then fit the top over the edges, and hope with grout things looked okay. Thankfully my test cuts were successful, and I was off to the races. Even with the kids downstairs with me this entire thing took less than an hour; only having to cut a straight edge a couple of times meant a pretty quick job.

Square enough for my tastes at least.

Things squared up pretty well, to the point where I don’t think there are any obvious errors that I will end up staring at every time I walk by, unlike the old backsplash (I chipped a tile right over the sink and didn’t notice until it was too late, and then that’s all I could see). Grout seems to have the ability to make those imperfections stand out though, so we’ll see after the next step. A few passes with a sanding sponge, a little grout, some caulk around the wall, and I think we can officially move the fireplace remodel into the “done” category.