Beach House Tiling Progress Update

We wrapped up another very productive week at the beach house, spending over 40 hours tiling across four days to nearly finish all of the tile work. With most of the showers and floors complete, the house is finally beginning to feel like a real home.

Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, click through to the post to view the video player.

This trip we focused on the major task of tiling eight shower walls, plus floors and shower pans. Previously we completed floors and pans on shorter two-day trip bursts, but tackling multiple full shower walls required more concentrated time. Since school hasn’t started yet, we brought the kids and the dog along and stayed nearby at a friend’s place, which let John dive deeply into the tiling while I balanced wrangling the kids and running errands. That arrangement worked well — he made huge progress without the pressure of hotel costs or looming childcare deadlines.

By the time we left on Sunday, two of the three bathrooms were completely tiled and the third was about 90% done. That means everything’s ready for grout, and soon we’ll be able to set toilets and sinks — especially exciting since we now officially have running water hooked up to the house. Having reliable water from the street to the house is a major milestone after a long saga of behind-the-scenes work, so it was gratifying to finally turn on a hose bib and see water flow where it should.

We used a few different tile types throughout the house to create varied but cohesive looks: a basketweave floor tile, a slate-like porcelain tile, and a long subway tile on some shower walls. The downstairs bathroom, with its nine-foot ceilings, got oversized 4 x 16″ subway tiles across all three walls, which sped things up compared to standard 3 x 6″ subway tile. It’s a classic, clean look that pairs nicely with other finishes.

The upstairs en-suite received the same large-scale subway tile on two walls (the third will be a glass partition), and it went even faster thanks to the lower ceilings and reduced wall area. We paired those white wall tiles with a small-scale hex floor pattern for a crisp, layered look that we can’t wait to see grouted.

One of the most time-consuming details was tiling the shower curb that wraps around two sides in one bathroom. That required careful mitering for clean corners and some real-time planning between us — including FaceTime while I was back at the house during nap time. Instead of using slab material on the curb, we extended the wall tile across it and trimmed bullnose tiles in half to create a subtle pencil border that keeps the overall look simple and cohesive.

One of our favorite rooms will eventually house the original clawfoot tub, and seeing the tile in place makes it feel more and more like home. The hall bathroom is nearly finished too — just a small portion of one wall and the curb around the shower floor remain. We ran out of thinset (and energy), so we’ll head back in a few days to wrap it up.

A practical tiling tip we followed: don’t trust a floor to be perfectly level when starting wall tile. Set your first row from a marked level line using a temporary scrap board screwed to the wall. Once the upper tiles are set, remove the board and trim the bottom row to fit the floor. For our waterproofing system (Schluter/Kerdi), we sealed screw penetrations with a Kerdi-Fix-like product before re-covering with thinset so the assembly stayed watertight.

The back wall of one shower uses patterned 13 x 13″ tiles that look like many small squares. Because each 13 x 13″ tile varies in pattern, we planned the layout carefully to avoid having the same designs adjacent to each other. Offsetting the tiles as we installed each row helped conceal the seams and maintain a consistent rhythm so the pattern reads well from floor to ceiling.

Right now some of the shower walls look busy because the dark thinset lines are visible; once we grout with a low-contrast grout the lines will soften and the spaces will read more cohesive. Grout color dramatically influences how much tile lines and shapes pop, so we chose lighter grout to keep the overall look balanced. Yes, grouting will be another multi-step trip (spread grout, wipe haze, repeat), but we’re excited to see the finished result.

Beyond tile, we also made good progress on trim and doors. The pocket doors are hung in the back bedroom in their charming, imperfectly chippy state. Some readers asked why we hung doors we’ll later remove to seal or paint; the answer is practical: most of the house trim can’t be installed until doors are in place. Hanging them now lets us complete the trim work, which in turn allows caulking, painting, and eventually floor refinishing to move forward without pausing the whole sequence.

Other updates in the video include more trim going up, full installation of the A/C system (though it can’t be turned on yet), and the little victory that is water flowing from a hose bib. We’re steadily checking boxes and inching closer to a livable, finished beach house.

Psst — if you want to catch up on earlier beach house posts, check the previous updates we’ve shared about trim, drywall, appliances, exterior color choice, style inspiration, floor plans, and the original before tour.

• Original trim, doors, and lots of new tile
• Drywall is up, and it’s glorious!
• Finding a vintage pink stove
• Stuff Sherry bought (way too early)
• The outside’s almost done & the inside’s getting good
• That time our beach house photobombed HGTV
• Walls up, walls down, and a new floor plan
• How we picked the exterior color
• Gathering beach house style inspiration
• Beach house “before” video & floor planning
• Holy seashells, we bought a beach house!

*This post contains affiliate links