SK On Elderberry: This Old House Deserves A New Life

Tiling has become a new treat for me. I have no idea how it is supposed to be done properly, so I just go ahead and try lots of different ideas and styles.

This little house was in very poor condition. It had been foreclosed on four times over the last three years. How sad for a home not to have a wonderful, loving, caring family.

The kitchen was ill-designed and cramped. We pulled out the upper peninsula cabinets and moved the peninsula base cabinets out four feet. We then built an island from the scraps of an old island. The new granite tile counters were then laid with a slate backsplash and decorative insert.

I was given free rein designing the floors and showers.(so long as the tile was free)

The original floors were composed of four layers of moldy press board and vinyl. Yuck...Nasty removal job.

The shower walls became a pallet for some creative tile cutting. Can you tell it's a mountain?

The tile was scrap and given free of charge. The problem became, what can you do with just so many amounts of such little amounts of each style and color of tile? Whew. Did you get that ? I'm not sure I even understood it...

Before

After

A long thought-out process began to emerge. If I only have so many of each style and color, you would think that would determine what could be created. Or so everyone thought. A little practice, a whole lot of thought and these are the results.

My inspiration are owners whom have a deep love and hunger for the outdoors. They hike, bike, snowboard and camp at every opportunity. So the outdoors became our indoor theme.

As the house became livable, my time there ended. I will be going back to put a few finishing touches on a newly discovered jewel. I will post additional pictures as we finish.

See You Soon!

SK Sartell
sartellart@gmail.com
http://www.sksartell.com/