Lauren and other readers have mentioned that local retailers don’t even know that this Dal-Tile Mosaic Design Tool exists. To be sure, it’s wicked fun and a very dangerous way to waste lots of time. That said, I only wish there were (1) a preview feature and (2) a way to make the whole thing bigger for the screen. How to you like my pink and golden granite and speckled marble “Romany-Spartan”-esque design? Medium grey grout and I have the foundation (haha) for a serious pink and grey 60s bathroom renovation. Luv.
Ceramic tile in 147 colors and 26 sizes from Ann Sacks Elements Ceramic Basics 
Crossville 4″ hexagon tiles 
95 colors of vintage pink tile 
Ceramic tile in 75 colors and lots of shapes from Modwalls Tile 
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Hmmmm, the possibilities are endless….could even do a backsplash!
Hi Pam, looks like hours of fun. I can understand the salespeople not knowing about it. I went to local paint shop that carries California paints and they knew nothing about the new colors that are named for different decades!!! I told them all about it. I went back recently and they still had no information or color swatches or booklets from California paints about them.
JOhn
I used this tool to match the tile of my sister’s original B&W & Gray speckled mosiac floor as the original tile needed to extend into an adjoining dressing room area that was once carpeted.
The factory sends you a sample 12″ x 12″ of your masterpiece. Once approved, you order all the tiles you need. I am a big fan of Daltile.
How much was it for each 12×12??
I sat up untill 1:15a playing with this last night because of that girl’s BR project. I got a great scheme together and tried to send for a quote but the upper right corner on the layout – the 1/2 x 1/2in square wouldn’t fill in. I was unable to send the design for a quote! That aggravated me, must be a prob with the site. I’ll try again now….
We were running into the same problem… I ended up drawing out the pattern from the screen on a sheet of graph paper, then started writing the color codes to the tile in the squares, and brought that with 1 piece each of the tiles to be used, taped to the bottom of the paper. When it was sent off to see if the pattern could be made, they sent back a pattern that was slightly different than on the computer, but still a block random pattern.
Yeah, it took me forever to get the design I liked!!!! I actually liked several arrangements. It was a bit agonizing at times. Also, when I sent over the request for the block random- they couldn’t do it “exactly” as I had arranged it on the website. In the end I had no issues with how they *could do it, so it was fine. But, keep in mind it could happen to you, too.
That Daltile, a bunch of teasers. Ya gotta go to their location with print out in hand!
~Lauren D.
LOL! Thanks, Pam, for giving me something else to play with!!!! Love hands-on stuff!
Wow! This looks FUN and Lauren and Jon’s bathroom looks fabulous! We are *nearing* the final rounds of our similar retro redo, and I can’t wait to send Pam pics when it it finished! We were shy about the Daltile design tool, figuring it would cost too much, so we went with the almond block random. We had considered buying a couple sheets of the sparkle pink and spa in the 1 inch squares, and were going to hand remove the ones from the almond sheets, but we couldn’t order just a couple sheets – would’ve had to order an entire box of each color. We didn’t need that much, so we gave up. We had an, um, “problem” with our floor tile too, but I’ll wait to explain all of that later. (It includes me hand chiseling out ALL of the grout – miles and miles of grout.) 8 months into our bathroom project, we are almost (do I dare say it?) done! Update to come. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that by the end of the month, everything will be complete. Lauren, any chance your floor tile had a haze over it when the grouting was done? Ours does. It doesn’t look all that good. MUST figure this out!
Yep on the haze. We cleaned the tile with grout and tile cleaner purchased at home depot called “tile and stone cleaner” by miracle.. It really helped Alot but it appears there will always be a very subtle haze, never looking as vivid as it could unless it was always wet. I am not sure there was a way it could have been helped because of the way grout is put in…wiping and swiping it all across the tile.
Try buying the cleanser, or something liek it and see if you get it to brighten up 🙂
~Lauren
Oh my! just what I needed to push me over the limit of renovations in my pad! Pink bathroom, here I come!
So I havent spent too much time with this program, but was this a pattern you created? I couldnt find it using their choices.
thanks,
Sarah
Sarah — look right on the photo I uploaded and you can read the tile choices I selected. They are faintly visible – but visible – below the pattern. And at the upper left you can see the line they came from – Keystone and Keystone Shapes. Get in there and play, that’s the only way to learn.
Wow – Lauren’s floor is an exact match for the 1958 tile floor I’m replacing, and I went to the local DalTile outlet and was told they had nothing like I was looking for! After going through store after store of nothing but either all neutral or $18-a-square-foot Italian glass, I finally found a 1″ square replacement tile that looks period-authentic enough (and matches my wall tiles better), but it’s nice to know it’s possible to find an exact replacement.
It looks like the link to the Daltile Mosaic Design Tool has changed. I found it at this URL:
http://www.daltile.com/inspired/tools/mosaic-pattern-designer
Thanks, Michael D!
Is the Design Tool gone? I looked at it not too long ago, but now I can’t find it anymore.
Seems gone
I’m glad I’m not just dim-witted, because I’ve been searching for it for an hour! But I’m not glad it’s gone, because we really need it for our powder bathroom…
Another idea for doing glass mosaics in multiples…. you can buy a plastic frame that holds the 1×1 tiles and make your own mixed patterns. Just make one original and color a template underneath to match or use codes for the colors and put it underneath the frame, as it has holes under the tile spacrs. Then when you fill it, just put a piece of clear contact paper over it and remove the whole finished set. Then repeat for the next one. I did a few bathrooms like this rather than pay a very high price per square foot for the tile companies to it for me. I also did gradient mixes with mosaics myself. I can send a photo of the frame, I will need to dig it out. I got it somewhere online, from some place that sells mosaic tiles. I cannot recall exactly where, but I a quite sure it was mosaic artist type site, selling mosaic supplies. Just let me know if you need more info.