Tile Mania

The house came with 2 fire places. While the surround tiles were in very good shape, the hearth tiles really took a beating over the years and will need to be replaced. The original 1895 tiles were quite eclectic. There were square, triangle, and rectangle tiles. Some were marbleized and others were solid color. There were 2-inch and 1-inch boarder tiles. Some tiles were incised with a design and some had face portraits on them. It was quite a work of art.

I could duplicate it but it would be very expensive. I could have everything custom made by professional tile restorationist, but that ain’t gonna happen. The other option is to buy antique tiles. There are a lot out there but some can be very expensive, especially the portrait tiles.

I ended up buying antique tiles but I hunted and searched for deals. After a year or so I had almost enough tiles to do both hearths. I ended finding some new tiles on Ebay made by a woman in Mississippi. She makes custom tiles in small batches and occasionally has over runs. I got a very good price on them.

I’m getting ready for the party in about a week so I want to show off some of my tiles. I made a cardboard template of the hearth and laid out some of the tiles.

Here you can see the tiles for one hearth
The tiles with frogs and dragonflies are new. All others are antique


Here is a close up


The other hearth will look similar. These tiles will be the center