If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll know about my relationship with Tile Mountain. They are my go-to when it comes to anything tile related, not only because I write for their blog and provide consultancy work for them behind the scenes, but also because they do great tiles at incredible prices, trade-quality materials and they are just a fantastic company to work with. So of course, when they heard I was going to be giving my kitchen a bit of an upgrade, it was only natural we would work together on the project.

Tiling work in kitchen - Tile Mountain marble effect porcelain tiles

When we first did some work on the kitchen (more than 5 years ago now!), I had chosen a white subway tile and used black grout. At the time, it wasn’t a common look really aside from seeing it in the odd magazine but I had no idea at that point what a huge trend it would become. Don’t get me wrong – I still liked it in the kitchen but I felt it was time for a change. I wanted a fresher cleaner look. Not just that, but when we’d originally done the work as DIY “newbies”, we failed to include a trim around the tops and edges of the tiles and it just never looked finished. It bothered me every time I was in the kitchen!

kitchen tiles before - note the lack of any trim and the tiles stopped at the worktop!

Kitchen tiles before – note the lack of any trim and the tiles stopped at the worktop!

So this time around, I decided to go with the same Carrara marble-effect tiles from Tile Mountain that we used in our dining room fireplace. They are actually porcelain tiles from Italy. They have the most beautiful soft matt finish with a gorgeous varying grain and unless you knew they were porcelain, they would easily be mistaken for the real deal. The best thing about using marble-effect tiles is that they are super hard-wearing and won’t etch or stain the way real marble does. Plus? At around £40 per square meter, they are so much more affordable as an option. It’s a win-win all around.

A look at the process of updating the tiles in our kitchen using Tile Mountain's marble effect tiles

Half way through re-tiling the kitchen using Tile Mountain's marble effect porcelain tiles

I also decided to use the same brass trim that we used on the fireplace makeover. This was all intentional of course because the kitchen opens on to the dining room and so using the same materials ties the rooms together, making them a bit more cohesive.

Tile Mountain expert updates our kitchen with marble effect porcelain tiles

Tile Mountain were gracious enough to supply their own tiler on this job – Grant Housley who was such a perfectionist and who saved us the trouble of having to do the work ourselves. All week, Wayne has been staying late at work to paint the cupboard doors and end panels so having a bit of help on the tiling has literally saved us weeks of work and I was so grateful to Tile Mountain to provide us with someone who was incredibly skilled.  It took Grant 3 1/2 days to do the work this week and he’s done an incredible job.

Tile Mountain marble effect kitchen tiles

As you know, I’ve not had the best of luck in terms of finding tradespeople but Grant was so good-natured, a real perfectionist and problem-solver, professional and courteous. He was even great with my dog!

Tiling work in the kitchen with help from Tile Mountain

I have no doubt this would have taken us quite some time to complete. Living in an old property (our house was built in 1906), none of the walls are straight or plumb so it takes a lot of work to get the tiles as straight as possible on the walls. It means packing out any areas of the wall that are uneven and making constant adjustments as you go to create square edges where there were none.

Updating our interiors with marble effect kitchen tiles and brass trim.

My favourite part of this job has to be the tiles and trim work around the windows. I decided to carry on the tiles to the floor here (if you look at that before pic above, you’ll see they stop at the countertop) and use tiles along the small shelf as well. I just love how they came out and I know watching Grant that these weren’t easy to do! The shelves were at different heights and weren’t at all straight but he made them work!

Marble effect porcelain tiles with brass trim work along windowsill in the kitchen

Bear in mind, the end panels of the cupboards are still missing here but I think it looks amazing anyway!

Marble effect porcelain tiles with brass trim work along windowsill

Here are a few more shots of the finished tiles…

A closer look at my marble effect porcelain kitchen tiles from Tile Mountain

Gold sink and tap with marble effect kitchen tiles and worktop

I genuinely couldn’t be happier with my tiles! The elevate the entire kitchen now and Tile Mountain have been fantastic to work with as per usual. If you are interested in using the same marble-effect tiles in your next project, you can find them here and tell them I sent you! You can also request free samples so you can see exactly what they look like before you purchase them.

Also, if you are interested in a great tiler and you’re in the North/Midlands region, I can provide you details for Grant as well as he does some side jobs alongside his work with Tile Mountain so just let me know and I can get that for you.

Marble effect kitchen tiles with gold hanging utensils and open storage in the kitchen

Sorry for the lack of more pulled back photos! There is still plenty more to do and I don’t want to spoil the whole effect by showing you a space that is still only 75% finished but we’re getting close now so hopefully I’ll be able to share the full reveal in the next month or so!

A huge thank you to Tile Mountain and to Grant for working with me on this one! I adore my tiles and can’t wait to get this kitchen finished!

So in the meantime, what do you think of my tile choice? I’d love to hear from you!

 

Disclaimer: I was provided tiles and a tiler free from Tile Mountain for my review but as always, all opinions, words and images are my own. I only work with companies I really like and think you’ll like too and I was incredibly grateful to Tile Mountain for getting on board with our project! Thanks so much for supporting the businesses that support Swoon Worthy!


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