I applied the last coat of paint to front entrance bench on Saturday. I was able to finally bring it inside yesterday.
The next step was to apply the tile to the tops of the shelves.
We decided to use a self-stick laminate tile on the shelves since the working space was pretty tight. Because the shelves are made of birch plywood, I used a primer that is supposed to enhance to bond between the tile and wood.
I applied a liberal layer of primer to each shelf. Let it dry for 2hrs and we were ready for the tile.
Simply peel off the backing
Place the tiles down.
Roll over the tiles with something heavy. Pizza sauce jars work great in tight spaces.
Unfortunately the tiles are large, meaning I had to do a lot of cutting to fill the spaces around the whole tiles. I found that by cutting the face of the tile, the lines were better looking. The rough edge usually was the back which can be scraped away with the edge of the utility knife.
In order to trim the tiles, I started by marking the face of the tile with a pencil. Set my straight edge to the line.
And have at it with a utility knife. They cut with a utility knife just fine. Not easy, but they will cut after multiple passes.
The cuts come out a little rough, but it gets covered with grout anyways, so no big deal.
Shelves are all covered.
Time to apply the grout. I used a pre-mix grout which worked really well!
Apply a heavy layer to all of the spaces between the tiles.
Scrap away the excess grout.
Immediately clean the area with a large damp sponge. Apparently grout is a pain the remove once dried, so if it gets onto the tops of the tile it can become a big pain once dried.
This is the cubby now. All finished.
I almost don't want to put shoes in it!
The link above is the plans I loosely followed. I added a shelf to each side and added tiles. Some of the dimensions called for in the plans are way off, but it's an easy fix.
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