The Brilliance of Carl

Mt friend Carl is redoing an 1880s house in Wichita for resale. These were all the extant tiles remaining of the parlor heath, with bit more in a box.

 

And after cleaning.

 

I told Carl that he could in no way just pull up the tiles and replace them with something else.

Because Carl is pragmatic (rather than insane, like me) I suggested simply infilling with plaster and painting it a brick color or something. “That way, the new owner will at least have the original tiles, and can find the missing ones, or have the missing ones made.”

Carl pondered this…and came up with another solution.

Scroll way down…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ZOUNDS!

 

You will never guess what Carl did.

He cut subway tiles to size, and painted them! He then varnished over the whole.

The fireplace is not working, so there is no concern about flames blistering the paint.

Carl pointed out that the mantel is also faux. It is slate, and retains its original painted marble finish.

So, a faux mantel. And now faux tiles.

The repair cost? $20.

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Architectural Observer on June 8, 2019 at 11:19 pm

    Brilliant!

  2. Dawn Rocco on June 9, 2019 at 2:48 am

    See sometimes ya just have to improvise. That’s the faux Sir, nothing but the faux. We could all use a little fauxing once in a while! To faux or not to faux that is the question. Giggles!

  3. Cindy Belanger on June 9, 2019 at 7:15 pm

    Amazing, who’da thunk it! (like my Dad always says) The faux tiles & mantel are so beautiful.

  4. JCF on June 12, 2019 at 5:44 am

    What’s a “subway tile”? [I trust related to a transportation hub, not a franchise sandwich shop!]

  5. Celeste on July 2, 2019 at 8:05 pm

    Clever! It looks like te real thing.

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