VanTiki Bathroom Project!

Aloha All -

I thought you may want a peek at out soon-to-begin major bathroom renovation project. We've settled on a "nautical Tiki" theme and are set to start construction in 3 weeks (or so).

A bit of background: The VanTiki house is a very old, small house. Well, old by , VanTiki standards. It was build in 1950 in a raised plantation style. We picked it up as a bank Kailua in 2001 and while structurally sound, it looked pretty bad. We've been slowly fixing it up, and the bathroom is next up on the hawaii' project list. I'll post some "before" shots once we begin swinging hammers.

The project: The house is a 1 bathroom house with a toilet and shower (well - there is a weird quasi bath - about 3 and a half feet square and a foot deep that makes up the bottom of the shower). We will be ripping out the old shower and turning it into a closet, putting in a new corner shower, putting in a new sink, and tiling the entire b-room (except the ceiling). We picked out a river rock floor tile, and a tan 18" field tile for the walls. To foreclosure things up a bit we are adding a band of ol tiles around the entire bathroom. Yep - looks like I gotta press 160 of these guys in the next week to get them done in time! Ya-tiki!

The tile surfaces:

I am a tile pressing machine:

I'll post more shots as the project unfolds!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Make sure you post plenty of before, during and after shots :D

I dig the tile - tell us more about pressing them! I've laid tile, but my budget is limited to what they have at Lowes or Home Depot. I'd love to come up with some cool ones like you have.

You're not done yet? It's been well over a half hour. Everything on HGTV gets done in a half hour.

i can't wait to see your new bathroom, henrik. the tiles are so cool.

On 2007-07-31 11:36, frostiki wrote:
You're not done yet? It's been well over a half hour. Everything on HGTV gets done in a half hour.

:lol:

This is exciting...I am looking forward to the transformation. :)

On 2007-07-31 07:17, Tiki Zen wrote:
I dig the tile - tell us more about pressing them! I've laid tile, but my budget is limited to what they have at Lowes or Home Depot. I'd love to come up with some cool ones like you have.

Yeah, I'm also very interested. We're looking to make a patio, but are sorely disappointed in local tile design. These would be terribly cool.

Tiki Tiles, those are so cool. Wendy

So much awesome support! As many have expressed interest in the ceramic tile process - I took a bunch of shots as I spent an exciting Sunday pressing bathroom tiles!

First off, the clay. I am using a nice white cone 6 clay body from Laguna clay:

To waste as little clay as possible, I take a 25lb bag and whomp away on it until it has stretched out a bit and is roughly the same size as the tiles I am pressing. Here you see the stretched out 25lbs next to a standard bag of clay.

I then slice up the clay like a loaf of bread using a handy-dandy clay cutter thingamabob.

The slices are neatly stacked and bagged to keep them from drying out too quickly

I then prep the plaster tile molds - brushing out any clay dust or particles. I have more info on making these molds on the separate Tiki Tile thread.

I place a slice of clay into the mold and press it in with my fingers. This can be the tricky stage when dealing with very high-relief tiles (like the skull tiles), but this design is fairly low-key.

I place a piece of canvas over the clay and then an oak square that will act as the "Plunger" when I press the tile. The canvas keeps the clay from sticking to the wood.

I stick the prepped mold into my tile press

and I pull the lever! I dunno how much pressure I put on the tiles - but I actually do a chin-up for ever tile I press (lifting myself off the floor). Very dramatic stuff :)

here you see a freshly pressed tile with the excess clay oozing out around the wood plunger block.

All 4 zig-zag tile molds freshly pressed with the canvas and blocks removed

I cut away the excess clay with a wire cutter, then scrape the tile flush using a wood tool

The mold is set aside for a minute or two to allow the moisture to get sucked out of the clay and into the plaster mold. As the water leaved the clay, the tile shrinks. When I can see a gap between the tile edge and the mold, the tile is ready to be released. I flip the mold over and slam it down on a set of raised blocks - and if all goes well the clay tile drops out! (once again, very dramatic!) :)

At this stage I clean up any air bubbles or bad edges on the tile, then I set it on the rack to dry. Here you see one 25lb bag of clay transformed into tiki tiles:

Ta da! Now - I wanna be sure to give credit to tile artist and author Frank Giorgino and his amazing book Handmade Tile. If you ever want to "press your own" - his is the book to get. I've got a mini-library of tile books, and his is the best by far!

I'll post more bathroom photos soon. We are set to demo the existing bathroom this Wednesday. Good Times!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Great post Van! :D very interesting

Wow - a ton of work to produce those tiles, but the quality shows. This has dashed my hopes of making my own - unless you can stamp them out of Play-Doh.

wow henrik, this is one of my favorite posts ever. mahalo for the pics and narrative.

You always do such a great job of documenting your process, which I really appreciate. It takes time to put together posts like that.
Cheers! :drink:

On 2007-08-13 15:36, Paipo wrote:
You always do such a great job of documenting your process, which I really appreciate. It takes time to put together posts like that.
Cheers! :drink:

Agreed +1, so many great step by steps make it possible for the rest of us to even try. thank you

Amy

Aloha All - first up - responses to the kind comments:

Hewey - Mahalo! Your support is greatly appreciated - it keeps my sore muscles moving :)

Tiki Zen - yep - it is a lot of work, and I am only half way done! Still gotta fire, glaze, and fire these guys. I really enjoy it, though - feels wonderfully old-school. Tiles have been made this way for thousands of years.

Kingstiedie - wow! A compliment and a half! I'll keep adding to the post as the process (and project) continue.

Paipo - thank you so much - it is a bit of extra effort documenting the process - but it is great to share because that is how ideas get better! I was going crazy washing my hands every time I needed to pick up the camera yesterday :)

Now for the update - wanted to show a shot of the Rapidly Shrinking Tiles - here they are a day after pressing. Keep in mind I had these all mashed together on the rack yesterday. This is how they looked this morning:

So weird to see all the gaps between tiles! They clay shrinks about 10% while drying, and another 2% when firing. I may press a few more this afternoon - I will be spending tomorrows "tiki Studio" time making ceramic shower shelves for our shampoo, soap, and stuff). Not sure just yet how they are going to fit together - should be interesting! The skull tiles you see drying are to test a new bright red cone 6 glaze I am very excited about.

Mahalo for looking -
Henrik "VanTiki"

Wow! you have an incredible craft. I look forward to more posts.

I love your tiles and the river rock floor tile is spifferiffic. Your how to posts are very appreciated! Well done!

I think that is the coolest thing I have seen yet! You are a truly gifted artist and can't wait to see more pics!! Unbelievable!

your tiles are amazing! I can't wait to see what they look like when they are installed. Thank you for taking the time and effort to do the step by step. It is a great read, and VERY dramatic! Dropping clay! Chin-ups! and cool tiles!

these tiles look great, I love the stage photos, shows all the hard needed to make them real. Thanks for posting them.

verry nice keep updating

Mahalo for all the support and interest everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates - it has been a VERY long week of demolition and construction. Ms. VanTiki has been keeping a photographic record (when not swinging a hammer) and I'll be sure to update this thread soon with photos and the like. We are very sore and tired and tend to fall asleep right after dinner :) Mahalo for your patience. gotta go load the kiln!

Henrik "VanTiki"

Aloha all!

Sorry (once again) for the lack of updates - good news is Ms. VanTiki has been updating a photo page showing the trials and tribulations of Project Bathroom. Man - it has been a tough 11 days! Soon we will begin tiling - and I still have to press and glaze a bunch of TikiTiles. The fun never ends :) Enjoy the photos - WARNING: we have (had) the ickiest bathroom in Hawaii - the house was a foreclosure when we bought it and there was some wild stuff done before the prior owners vacated. Slowly getting it back in shape.

http://gallery.mac.com/dvanryzin#100005

Mahalo for looking,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Dayum...that is a hellalot of work ya got going there. Thanks for the pictures....I can hardly wait to see the final outcome. HEY!!! Sink-throwing....that could be a new sport. :lol:

Whew - it's been a while! The bathroom project is never ending. We spent last weekend on the big island celebrating our 10 year anniversary - and we greatly enjoyed taking a shower at the volcano hostel where we stayed whenever we wanted to! Hope to have our shower up and running by next monday (fingers crossed). A month of driving to your parents house every night to take a shower can get a tad tedious - good thing my parents are very understanding folks :)

The project is now being headed up by Ms. VanTiki as I have a slew of commercials to animate - and today she started putting up the tiki tiles. They look so neat on a wall! Cant wait to see them grouted.

Mahalo for looking!

Looking great Van! I just thought of something, how are you going to keep the grout out of all the grooves in the tiki tiles?

On 2007-09-20 18:44, hewey wrote:
how are you going to keep the grout out of all the grooves in the tiki tiles?

Good Question! We have learned that tile pros use a grout applicator that is just like a pastry applicator (dunno what it is called - the bag thing that bakers use to decorate cakes with fancy frosting). It lets you squirt grout into cracks that you want and keeps it away from everything else. In theory at least - I'll give you a report in a few days! :)

Henrik "VanTiki"

Happy Anniversary!

Oh, the bathroom looks great too...

Yes indeed...Happy Anniversary. The bathroom is looking great. That aqua blue really pops against the tan tiles. Remodels can be stressful, but you will have an awesome loo when your done. :)

MAn that was a long week. I thought Thursday night's post was never going to get here.

Need my Van mug fix.

Got the shower put in today, and looks like I'll have the curtain up tomorrow morning. If all grout/caulk/sealant cures as it should we will be enjoying our new shower on Monday! Almost too good to be true :)

Tile fun:

Ms. VanTiki working the grout in:

You can see a bit of the river rock floor in the above pic. We were going to do the whole floor in river rock - but we learned that it was not compatible with the underlayment we are using. So it is green porcelain for the floor and river rock for the shower. I will (of course) post before-and-after photos when all is said and done.

Hennie

Wow...it is really looking so amazing. Great job and the colors are the bomb!!! :)

that picture sorta has a classic look about it. Man, thats a shower I could fit in.

Looks gorgeous, a real credit to you and your missus mate! Cant wait to see the final before and after pics

Aloha folks!

Welp, the B-room project is still chugging along. I hope to press the final slew of tiles this weekend (thank GOD)! Snapped a shot of Ms. VanTiki sneaking a skull tile into the setup to give visitors something to discover whilst parked on the john.

We've been using the new shower for several weeks now and it is heavenly! sooooooo much better than the original. I'll be sure to round up this thread with a before and after gallery once the project is done.

Mahalo,
Henrik "VanTiki"

Looking good. I like the colors and looks like your towel hardware matches the dark tiles you are using. You should get some good pictures when you are done and submit them to a home improvement magazine. :)

Wow! Is looking amazing, and from scratch!! Big congrats!

Beautiful tile! You picked the perfect colors. Loved looking at all your pictures. The border collie makes a great decorative accessory too. I'm gonna teach mine to serve tiki drinks.

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/border%20collie%20tiki/-/cfpt2_/cfpt_/source_searchBox/copt_