DIY Stone Tile Coffee Table Makeover: Transforming a $10 Op Shop Find

Welcome to a really fun upcycling project tutorial where I'm going to take this $10 coffee table from the op shop, grab some supplies, and transform it into a stunning statement piece. The supplies are all listed below, making it easy for you to follow along and do it at home.

Davco Grout - https://www.bunnings.com.au/davco-1-5kg-misty-grey-sanitized-grout_p0271855
Grout Trowel - https://amzn.to/49f6kuR
Dunlop - Primer & Additive - https://www.bunnings.com.au/dunlop-1l-primer-and-additive_p6829434
Wall Tile Glue - https://www.bunnings.com.au/dunlop-750g-wall-tile-adhesive_p6829303?region_id=116442&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiArLyuBhA7EiwA-qo80Luij5--gl9KXlHN83YtTeIoU7UOALgVFB8bfSb4DakSqljst4JoFRoCY8AQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Stone Tiles - Kmart https://www.kmart.com.au/product/4-pack-light-stone-decking-tiles-43101696/?sku=43101696&&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiArLyuBhA7EiwA-qo80KAe3JOblmxr6TRttZsbOpRi4mxgM5lB9JYeUhQLdqjCt7hEjTF0RBoCj2MQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Sponge - https://www.bunnings.com.au/sabco-jumbo-wash-sponge_p0065282

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Once I grabbed out the tiles, I needed to remove the backing. The backing is there so you can lay them in large spaces. However, for this table, I don't want them to keep on this sheet because I want to be able to rearrange them and almost play Tetris with the tiles to get them in the order that I want to put them in. This is because it's a curved coffee table in the shape of a circle, and I'm going to need to rearrange them based on the size of the tiles to get them all to fit nicely.

It looks simple enough to just pull all of these off these sheets. However, if I'm going to be honest with you, it was actually quite painful for my hands to peel all of these tiles off. Next time, I'm most likely going to wear gloves just to avoid this and the damage to my skin. Alternatively, you can buy a large tile and then smash that up into small pieces before using tile glue.

I just need to use a primer designed specifically to work with tile adhesive to get the surface in the best condition so that the glue for the tiles is going to hold the tiles really well to the surface. The primer that I chose also works as an additive in the grout when you're mixing up the grout, so you can use it for multiple purposes.

I know when you're doing a DIY project you don't want to have to do all the prep work. But honestly, applying a coat of this primer took me 4 minutes, which isn't very long at all when it gives you that extra little bit of comfort that the tiles are going to stick well, and the glue is going to hold, and your tiles are not going to fall off.

Once the primer has been painted on, give it 1 hour to dry, and then you can move on to the next step, which is mixing up the grout. Every grout is going to have a little bit of different instruction when it comes to mixing it. This particular packet I just needed to mix it with water and also with the grout additive, which was the same as the primer. I mixed them all together into a bucket and then stirred that thoroughly with this wooden stick that was just an off cut till it got to a really thick consistency. When I tipped it upside down, the grout didn't come off.

The easiest way to apply the grout is with a grout trowel. You can pick them up from your local hardware store. There are different shape grout trowels, but the main one that you're going to want to use is this triangle end. You can then use the triangle end to push the grout into all of the grooves in between the tiles.

Sometimes people can be a little bit intimidated to do tiling, and it usually is because of the grouting. But in my experience, grouting is really not difficult. It can be quite enjoyable as long as you know what you're doing and you don't let the grout dry before wiping away the excess. That's when it can get really difficult to get a really nice clean finish.

As you can see, I have applied the grout to all of the areas on this coffee table. It was quite difficult to do the edges because I needed to sort of sit there and make sure that I got the grout into all of the grooves. I decided as I was working around that I was going to need to do two coats of grout: the first layer and then go back and put some extra grout in any areas where it wasn't a nice smooth consistency or any areas that I had missed.

Before I went away and let this dry properly, I grabbed a spray bottle and used my finger to push the grout and remove any air bubbles. You'll see that I did this around the outside and then also on all of the in-between lines in the grout. When you're doing this, you'll also be able to see any spots that you might have missed and you'll be able to apply a little bit of grout in those spots.

I left this for about 45 minutes, then came back with a bucket of water and a nice big sponge. The grout will have now started to dry, and you're going to use the sponge to wipe away the grout that's sitting on top of all of the stone tiles. When you apply the grout, it is quite liberal, so a lot of the grout does end up building up on top of the tiles. But we don't want to let the grout on top of the tiles dry too much because the idea is that we want the stone tiles to be the feature and we need to wipe away all of the grout on top of those stone tiles so that we can see all of the beautiful effect of the tiles.

This was the slowest part of the whole process for me. I just needed to keep dipping the sponge in the water and then wiping away as much grout as I could, then rinsing the sponge out and continuing to go along. You'll find that you probably need to empty the bucket of water a few times. I probably needed to get about three or four buckets of water to be able to clean off all of the grout on these tiles.

You will also find that you need to go over the same tiles again and again to get them back until there is no grout left. Here, you'll be able to see I have done one layer on all of the tiles and then I am then going to go through and do another layer of cleaning all of the tiles.

Once that has dried off, I wasn't too worried when I was cleaning about revealing some of the black edging. I thought about it when I was doing this because I wasn't sure whether I wanted to tile around the lip of the coffee table or just do the centre. When I decided I wanted to tile the lip, as I mentioned earlier, I knew that I was going to need to apply a second coat of grout around that lip. So when I was wiping off this excess from the first coat of grout, I wasn't too concerned.

Now you'll be able to see me getting the grout, which I made a little bit thicker in consistency, and kind of used it almost like Play-Doh and pushed it into all of the little grooves where I needed to get that.

Once I was happy that I covered all of the black metal with grout, I then grabbed my spray bottle of water and used my finger to smooth that all out again, like I showed you before. If you wanted to make this project a little bit easier, I would suggest you just tile the base of the inside of the coffee table and not worry about doing the lip, because that was definitely the hardest part of this makeover. However, I do absolutely love the end result and what it looks like having the tiles on the lip of the coffee table as well because you can see that from a distance when you're looking at the coffee table.

Once I was happy with the consistency of the grout, I let the coffee table dry overnight and then came back the next day and made sure that there was no tile grout residue on the table and then I applied a top coat. I applied a top coat for a couple of reasons: one, to protect my work, and the second one is because a coffee table is a heavy use piece and you're most likely going to have drinks or things on the coffee table that could get spilled. This particular top coat was super easy and fast to apply. I just used the spray can and sprayed on the top coat. I let it dry for an hour in between each coat and come back and did it again, and I did that four times.

Just make sure if you are going to spray on your top coat like I did that you do wear a full respirator mask because this can be quite toxic. But here she is, the end result. I've staged this piece in my living room, and I actually loved it so much that I'm going to keep it. I hope you love this video and that I inspired you to have a go at your own tile project.

Watch the full tutorial here: