Last week I shared the reveal of our budget bathroom makeover and today I’m writing about my review of the cheap peel and stick floor tile I used for the makeover. They make the biggest impact in the little room and I still can’t believe that I only paid $93.47 for 5 boxes. I mean I buy jackets and shoes that cost more than that.
I had originally wanted to rip everything out and make room for my dream walk-in shower but like so many of you, this crazy year is definitely not the year I will tackle such a project. I also know that making this makeover as cheap as possible would help others more than making this an extensive and expensive makeover.
So here it goes…
My honest review of cheap peel and stick floor tile
When I bought the cheap peel and stick tiles, I read all the reviews on Amazon and Home Depot to know what others were saying and whether I can confirm some of the pros and cons.
Some of the complaints reviewers had with these cheap peel and stick floor tiles were…
- the pattern doesn’t match up
- the tiles don’t stick well
- tiles have stains
- low quality
Before I get started though, I wanted to show you how bad the tile was looking in our bathroom. The grout was chipping, even the paint where I had tried to restore the grout was chipping. Some of the ceramic tiles were damaged and it was an overall bad look even though I still love the colors of the 20-year-old tile I originally chose.
Yup, that is a big chip in the tile on the bottom of the photo.
So that was an overall view of the tile situation. The reason I decided not to rip it out and stick the tile to the floor underneath is that I wanted to see if you can stick them over existing flooring. I know all of you renters want to know if these cheap peel and stick floor tiles are renter-friendly or not.
When trying to determine how many boxes you need, you can use a tile square footage calculator. One package contains 10 tiles that each measure 12 x 12 inches and covers 10 sqare feet. Just make sure that you purchase extras for mistakes and in case you damage a tile down the road. I always find that very important.
Tools and supplies needed to install the cheap peel and stick floor tile
- ruler
- utility knife
- sharp scissors
- FloorPops FP2948 Altair Peel & Stick Floor Tile or HERE
- double-sided carpet tape (mine ended up being thicker than I wanted, make sure you find thin carpet tape. It still worked though too)
- pencil
- painters tape
- quarter round molding for edges
- measuring tape
Make sure you give your floor a very good cleaning without any residue or dirt left on it. This part is very important and pretty much applies to all DIY projects.
As I said, I bought 5 boxes and before I started to apply them to the floor I laid them out like you see below to make sure how I wanted the placement to be. I wanted the tile to enter the closet with the seam in the middle because it makes cutting and fitting the odd cuts much easier.
So I started in the far right corner by the tub. Don’t be discouraged that there might be a gap by the wall when you try to keep the tiles in line and square. The quarter round molding will hide that at the end.
All you have to do to apply the tile to the floor is peel off the backing and stick them to the clean floor.
I noticed right away that the tile didn’t stick well in the corners so I made sure that I added some carpet tape squares under the corners as I went.
Below you can see what I mean.
To be honest, that wasn’t enough in most places and I ended up cutting long rows of the carpet tape to make the seams stick better.
That doesn’t mean your project will be the same though. It might stick much better to other surfaces. You can easily lift the tiles back up and add more tape. It gets harder the more carpet tape you add because that stuff is super sticky. I have read that some people used vinyl floor mastic but I didn’t want to do that to the tile underneath because nothing would be removable after using that type of glue.
For the odd cuts, I used a ruler and pencil to mark and then big sharp scissors or my utility knife to cut the tile. It is pretty amazing how easy it is to cut the tile pieces.
I chose to remove the toilet to add the tiles because I don’t think the cuts would look great if you would choose to cut around the toilet and there would be so many including the pipes. I’m not saying it isn’t possible though.
Make sure you clean your underlying surface really well. Our toilet area was a mess! Yuck!
Below you can see how I applied the tape in long strips.
I ended up with the strip in the back to cut and was able to use one tile for two pieces.
For under the floating vanity, I used a car jack to slightly lift the vanity just so I could take the support leg out so I could apply the tile. It wasn’t all that hard to apply the tile under the floating vanity. I was a little scared it would be but nope it wasn’t.
I had bought one of those tools, a contour/profile duplicator, you see on commercials that is supposed to help with the odd cutouts as shown below.
But to be honest, I still rather make my own cutout template with painters tape. It simply works better for me that way. All I do is paste little pieces of painters tape into the shape of what I want to cut and then peel it off and apply it to the tile that I want to cut.
See the cuts going into the closet turned out pretty well this way!
As a reminder, this is our litterbox closet, the hole on the left above is due to a leak we had from the tub going into our living room.
One of the most asked questions during my reveal post was how the inside of the litterbox closet looks, so here we go. The wall color looks almost lime green in the photo. Not sure if it is because of the fact that it was taken with my cellphone or because of the artificial lighting but that color is not the right color.
The arrows point to the pug light that I use when cleaning the litterbox. I also use a litter tracking mat and the scooper is hanging on the wall to the left. (You can find the cat hole HERE)
We have 4 litterboxes in the house. Two upstairs in closets like this and 2 in the basement in a larger closet under the stairs.
Things I learned while applying these cheap peel and stick floor tiles:
- Don’t EVER use a magic eraser to clean this tile (look at the photo below, it dulls the tile and is super noticeable
- Rotate the tiles before sticking them on the surface to minimize odd pattern offset. In the end, it is impossible to match the pattern perfectly. This might really bother someone who is a perfectionist. I tend to be that way but in the overall look it ended up being ok with me. It won’t be perfect and that’s ok because they are cheap and even with expensive handpainted tile this can happen.
- You might have to use other glue, like the carpet tape, to help the tile stick better. This was definitely a must for me, especially in areas where the floor underneath wasn’t perfect.
- Make sure you have extra tiles left to replace possible damaged ones from wear and tear as time passes.
- Some boxes do have tiles with stains or marks on them like some of the reviewers mentioned. Again, this tile is cheap and not perfect. I was able to find enough clean tiles though to finish my project and still have extras.
And when everything was done, I precut and painted the quarter round molding and added it to the existing molding with my brad nailer to hide the slight gaps around the wall. That really added the finishing touch to the project.
My final thoughts about this cheap peel and stick floor tile
- You can’t beat the cheap price! If you are on a budget and want a quick fix to simply like your space better then this tile is for you. Would ripping out the tile and adding beautiful new tile last longer? Yes!!! But you pay for that too and it would never be this cheap.
- The pattern is rather busy but since it is so cheap I didn’t fear that I would grow sick of it at some point. If I do, I’ll just take it off. You can go bold with confidence.
- My pros for this tile: THE PRICE! The fact that they offer beautiful unique patterns! The tile is renter-friendly, especially if you are able to use them without using the very sticky carpet tape. I’m not sure how hard that would be to remove over time though.
Any of these patterns would have also looked great:
Make sure you check out my blog post with the full reveal of our budget bathroom makeover.
That’s it for today. Let me know if you have any other questions so I can answer them and also update my post with the answers.
Tschüß,
Wow, very impressive! Looks great!
Thanks Autumn!
Love it!! I’m in need of a budget bathroom makeover. Any thoughts on the peel & stick tile that you can actually use grout in the gaps? I have seen that and wonder your thoughts.
Yes, I have seen that too Gen. My friend Oscar of Oscar Bravo Home used vinyl tiles with grout that he bought at Home Depot. He could probably answer that question because I think these aren’t made for grout.
Looks great. I would warn others, though, that the pattern of the underlying floor will wear through on a highly trafficked area like a kitchen. Been there, done that. And removal of tile is not as easy as one would think. It does give a fresh look on a budget, though.
Thanks for that info Deb, that’s definitely good to know and I will keep an eye out for the tile pattern wearing through. Thankfully our bathroom doesn’t get that much traffic and when I rip this out, it will probably all go including the tile underneath to get that dream walk-in shower that I always wanted.
I am doing our hall bath on a budget. It will be either paint with stencil or peel and stick. Thank you for your detail assessment it helps. I wouldn’t notice the imperfections.
Another great project accomplished! Thanks for the details….I was wondering if I should get the edge duplicator, but like your idea better.
Julia! I love the look and more importantly I love your honest explanation of the process!
Congrats on another awesome project!