Many readers fell in love with the confetti tile bathroom in the 1955 Minneapolis time capsule ’tile house’ time capsule featured recently. How to recreate this look today? We went researching and so far have found four sources. Clayhaus Ceramics — which offers an online design-your-own-mix tool — seems to offers the most versatility — including direct-with-manufacturer service — so they get the first spotlight in our Where To Get Confetti Tile miniseries. Another miniseries — about minis!
The owners of our “model bathroom” in the 1955 time capsule house owned a tile store, so they knew how to make tile sing. In this little bit of perfection bathroom, they maximized the beauty of the busy confetti tile, which was placed in the toilet niche, by juxtaposing it with the serenity of natural wood and calm blue wall tiles in the adjacent sink area. And, since a custom confetti tile mix may get a little spendy — hey, relatively little square footage may be all you need.
We reconnected with the photographers at Spacecrafting, who were kind enough to send us a high resolution photo of the bathroom so we could ‘zoom in’ and inspect the mosaic tile blend more carefully. Zooming in, it looks like the confetti tiles in our time capsule house might be solid-body porcelain. For this research project, though, we found glazed ceramics as a proxy.
Matching the 10 colors in the time capsule confetti tile
Next, Kate tried to determine how many different color tiles were present in the vintage mosaic tile pattern — an eye-crossing task. She counted at least 10 different colors. How many different beiges do you see???
Then, she tried to figure out which colors available through Clayhaus Ceramics most closely matched those colors. From what she could tell — having not seen the Clayhouse Ceramics colors in person — it looks like all of the colors can be matched quite closely, though it would be wise to request color samples before placing any orders.
Now for some fun: Kate began plugging colors into the Clayhaus ‘You Design’ tool to generate a custom blend. The tile blend design tool only allowed her to use seven colors and her vintage blend has at least 10. So, she contacted Clayhaus Ceramics to see if it is possible to make a custom blend with more than seven colors, and also inquired about pricing.
Clayhaus Ceramics replied:
Yes, customers can purchase more than seven colors in a blend, but it will carry an additional 25% upcharge for any blend using more than five colors. The design tool feature was designed to max out at seven since most blends don’t use more than seven. (I can only think of one time where we made a blend using 11 colors!)
Our 1″ x 1″ mosaics retail direct from the manufacturer for $57.74/sf. We do offer trade discounts.
Clayhaus Ceramics also offers 6″ x 6″ square tiles in shades similar to the 6″ x 6″ tiles used in the tile house time capsule bathroom.
Clayhaus Ceramics took a look at our photos and suggested their colors Abstract Blue, Spa or Cascade Gray in matte finish as possible matches for the wall tile. Be sure to tile-in the mirror, too! These retail direct from manufacturer for $32.72/sf. For the floor, we’d likely match one of the light beiges from the tile mix.
This bathroom: Kind of midcentury modern timeless, don’t you think!
Thanks, Clayhaus Ceramics, for all the help with this story. We hope it helps you sell some confetti tile!
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$57/sf!!!! Zoinks!!!
You can make your own custom mosaic mix here for around $10/sf. http://www.mosaicmaximizer.com/max/MaxP.html
Those are glass tiles at the company you id’d — not appropriate for a midcentury house… beware trendy. That same company used to have a “Lyric” ceramic 1×1 including (as I recall) in confetti mixes — but no more, as far as I can find. They do have some confetti mixes of penny rounds porcelains, though (we’ll feature them in our miniseries!)
Although ceramic is more typical, glass tile did exist, at least by the mid 1960s, when my grandparents installed it in their kitchen.
Yes, I think it was around. I have never seen it in the wild, though….
I think that there is a picture taken in the kitchen where you can see the tile, I’ll ask my grandma.
According to her, it was the leftover tile from a restaurant that was being remodeled, and at the time, it was cool and somewhat unusual.
At World of Tile, they had some very old Venetian Glass tile. One of the colors was orange — I picked some up at the liquidation sale and sent it to Kate to use on her 1955 Betsy McCall DIY dollhouse. And she did — on the fireplace! –> https://retrorenovation.com/tag/betsy-mccall-dollhouse/
Not sure where I would put a ceramic tile wall, but I’m pretty sure that designing one online is going to eat up at least half a day of my vacation.
Though not ceramic, Fireclay Tile also has a mosaic blender tool on their website. They use glass, though you can utilize a 1 x 1 field to obtain a similar aesthetic. There are 38 colors to choose from, each in matte and gloss finish.
https://www.fireclaytile.com/crush-it/
Cool – however, I don’t see 1 x 1’s as among their sizes. 2 x 2 is the smallest in the Tile section…
Definitely classic coolness. The price point is a bit on the upper end for sure but if you have a small area it’s doable. I wonder if the Daltile creative tool will do this too. IDK.
Love a blast of confetti tile like this in the MN showcase home, though I never had it in my own place to live with day in and day out. I think the danger is one might get tired of such a specific motif. It’s a serious investment you’d want to continue to love as time goes on.
I do like the same idea carried out in conventional tile sizes — more a “crazy quilt” than confetti. The fireplace in the same home features a subdued version on the fireplace.
Couldn’t you just use the Daltile Mosaic Builder?
Answer! Yes, but only six colors and only from their Keystone series (not a ton of choices). But could be good for some programs.
Yes, I tried it myself just last night. Alas, the Daltile tool was not working for me, every time I try it lately, it doesn’t seem to work, at least, not intuitively for me.
Yay for Clayhaus. They are right down the street from me suburban Portland
My high school, finished in 1962 had features in glass-tile mosaic. (And a main lobby of terrazzo floors and travertine walls).
Good to know. Thanks!
This wouldn’t work in my tiny bathrooms. But I can see a use for it in a larger bath where some of the midcentury tile has been damaged. For example, if the tile around the tub has broken when the tub was taken out, you could frame the tub with as many rows as needed in the confetti tile, picking up colors near the original tile and bringing in five or six other colors. Or you could do the inside of a shower or tub alcove in it.
The tiles in the 1954 home are glass tiles with no grout. The tiles butt up next to eachother. The tile looks much better in person than it does on the zoomed in picture.
oops sorry ment to say 1955
Thanks! Well there you go: They’re glass! Okay, we can replicate this even more easily with all the glass tile available today: Just leave everything all chunky — and don’t use grout! Thanks, Melinda, so have you been in the house?
I work with Bruce. The homes owner. I was showing him the article. He told me what it is. I would love to see this home in person. I have seen it in pictures many times. Hopefully I can go sneek a peek before they move. Which is soon.
Thanks!! GORGEOUS HOUSE! One of my all-time favorites!
If you are wanting this look at a discount price, it doesn’t hurt to ask around for old sample sheets from tile stores. Tile stores often have lots of old sample boards running around their back rooms–you just need a putty knife and some elbow grease to get them off the boards.
Yes, good idea, albeit: Some therapy!
2 things-
1- I notice an area of 1×1 tile under the loo, all the same color. The loo appears to be updated- is that some repair work, perhaps where they ran a new cold water pipe up the wall?
2- I also noticed that the light switch at some point has been switched out for a “Decora” style, which did not come into use until sometime in the late 70’s, if my research is correct. Although not period correct, they do have a clean, Mid-Century look. How do you feel about updating to the Decora style? I’m in the process of installing Decora outlets and switches in our 1961 ranch to accommodate the GFCI outlets and modern dimmers, and to allow everything to match, rather than have the “replaced with whatever happens to be handy” collection which is currently in place.
DH and I ran into the same problem when fixing out-of-code electrical outlets in the knotty pine kitchen and adding brand new ones in the pink and gray bath. We needed GFI but thought the new style outlets would ruin the look of the 1959 house and not match the outlets elsewhere throughout the house. Also, there were five outlets in the backsplash, and that meant buying five GFI outlets. In the bathroom, we settled for a ank of outlets and switches in the more modern look, but we solved the problem in the kitchen differently. We wired all the outlets that showed on the backsplash to a GFI connected to the circuit breaker box in the basement. Ask your electrician if he or she can do that.
Of course, the disadvantage is that if the GFI shuts off the outlet, it shuts off all the outlets in the kitchen (except the refrigerator, dishwasher, and anything that is separately wired) and then you have to go down into the basement and fix it. But in four years, it has never happened.
This house is far and away my favorite RR time capsule, and that’s saying something!
For those on a budget trying to replicate the mosaic wall in the bathroom, I wonder if buying white ceramic tile and painting it with ceramic paint such as Pebeo would work. The paint isn’t exactly inexpensive, but would definitely total less than $57/sqft, especially if you buy tiles secondhand or at a discount.
I was thinking the same thing. Or you could buy individual sheets of six or eight colors and take apart the sheets and rearrange, as one RR reader did!
Another idea would be to paint an non-tiled wall in the bathroom or another room with little squares–sort of a do-it-yourself paint by numbers.
Clayhaus Ceramics is one of my favorite lines of tiles to design with and sell. They have the greatest color choices and a nice selection of matte finishes too. They are great for the many mid century homes our clients work on here in Palm Springs. Our clients like knowing they are made in Oregon too. Their craftsmanship is impeccable. We hand pick their tile among the many other home finishing products in our showroom, which is unique and most relevant to our clients.