Make a pretty china mosaic bench for your garden! Follow the steps below or follow along on our Curious video lesson where you’ll learn how to break china into mosaic pieces using tile nippers, lay out your design, glue the tiles down, mix and spread the grout, and buff the mosaic as it dries. Even if you’ve never done a mosaic project before, you can do this.
Materials
Flea market bench
Krylon primer
Krylon Outdoor Spaces Spraypaint Sand 2905
Vitreous glass tiles: cobalt, green, turquoise, light green, white, 1″ x 1″
Glazed ceramic heart tiles: blue and green, 1″
Flattened glass marbles: cobalt and frosted green, 3/4″
Giant flattened glass marbles: green, turquoise, cobalt, 1 1/4″
Broken mirror pieces, 1″
China plates
1 pound sanded grout, white (Mosaic Mercantile)
Grout sealer (Mosaic Mercantile)
Beacon Adhesive Quick Grip Glue
Tools & Materials:
Tile nippers
Hammer
Nail
Large Ziploc bags
Safety glasses
Protective leather gloves
Protective latex-type gloves
Dropcloth
Mixing pail or can (coffee can)
Stirring stick
Spray bottle
Sponge
Spatula or palette knife or putty knife
Paper towels
Face mask (optional)
Cup for water
Pail for rinsing sponge
Masking tape
Foam paintbrush
To Break The China Plate (Optional)
1. To break the china plate using a hammer, place the plate in a Ziploc bag and seal it. Don protective leather gloves and safety glasses. Place the bagged plate upside-down on a hard surface like the garage floor.
2. Hold a nail to the back of the plate and strike it with the hammer. Repeat to break large pieces into smaller pieces. Carefully remove and rinse the best pieces to use on your mosaic.
3. Alternatively, you can break the china plate using tile nippers. Wear your safety gloves and glasses and place the plate in a Ziploc bag. Use the nippers inside the bag. Grip the edge of the plate with the nipper blades horizontal to the edge of the plate. The nippers only need to nip 1/4″ to 1/2″ into the plate. Hold the plate with one hand and bend the plate against the nippers as you squeeze them onto the china. They will create a crack and break the china into two pieces. Repeat to break the larger pieces into smaller pieces.
Making The Mosaic
1. Prime and paint your bench and let it dry. Lay your design out by starting with square tiles around the border. (No need to glue yet, just lay the tiles out to create your design.) Place the tiles 1/4″ to 1/2″ from the edge and place each tile 1/4″ to 1/2″ from the adjacent tiles to save room for the grout. Create a second border inside the first mixing heart tiles and large flattened marbles in with the square tiles.
2. Fill in the center of the design with the broken mirror pieces, the broken china pieces, and the small flattened marbles. Try to get the pieces close together so the grout lines are not too big.
3. Using the Quick Grip, glue each tile down. Let dry.
4. Lay down a drop cloth and protect the sides of your bench with masking tape. Wear a mask if desired and don your latex-type gloves. Mix the grout according to the directions on the package. Blend the grout and water in the coffee can using the stirring stick until it is the consistency of runny peanut butter. (Ours is one part water to seven parts grout.) The grout stays workable for about 15 minutes, so get ready to grout the mosaic.
5. Spread the grout onto the surface of the mosaic right over the tiles. Use a sponge or putty knife to spread the grout around all the tiles. Make sure you apply the grout around the outside edges of the border and in between each and every tile.
6. Check on the grout as it is drying and spray it with a mist of water if there are any areas that look like they are drying faster than the rest. This will prevent cracks.
7. After 30 minutes, use a paper towel or damp sponge to wipe the grout haze off the mosaic tiles. Be careful not to remove the grout from between the tiles.
8. Wait another 30 minutes and buff the haze again. Repeat if necessary.
9. Let the grout dry for 24 hours then seal the surface with grout sealer and a sponge
paintbrush. Let dry.
What do you do if the pieces you have are different thickness’? how do you deal with curved pieces? I don’t want the table top to be bumpy and uneven.
Thanks
Great question Erica! If you want the surface of your mosaic to be level and even, it is best to choose tiles that all have the same thickness. If you have curved pieces or thicker tiles, you might want to save those for a terra cotta pot. Hope that helps!
FYI:
NEVER mosaic ANYTHING on wood if using outdoor.
Tiles will eventually pop off ruining your creation!!!
Wood expands and contracts and is an extremely POOR choose for ANY outdoor mosaic use.
Use cement board or Wedi board instead and your creation should last a lifetime if done correctly!
Thanks for the tips, CJ! We’ve had pretty good luck with our wooden bench and other wooden projects, but we always make sure to seal the wood. Thanks for telling us all about Cement Board and Wedi Board. We’ll check it out! J&K
Any recommendations for attaching the cement board or Wedi board to the bench? What about mosaic directly on cement bench ?
Our bench came preassembled, but you could screw a board onto a bench before starting the mosaic. And yes, doing a mosaic directly on a cement bench should work just fine! J&K
very clear…going to make one this week as my hubby is handy and made me a nice bench for my garden
Oh that sounds great! What a handy hubby!
J&K
Hi. I’m loving your tutorials! I just found your site while prepping to try my hand at mosaics. I found a beautiful mirror with a mosaic frame at a flea market but some of the tiles are missing. I think I can now confidently replace them thanks to you!
My question today is about grout. The piece i have does not appear to have been grouted. It actually looks pretty good without grout but do you think I should finish it with grout? If so, can you recommend a lightweight griut ? The piece is pretty large and heavy already so I worry about adding too much more weight before hanging.
Thanks so much!
Janet
If it looks good without grout and all the pieces seem to be properly adhered and aren’t popping off, you might just leave it without grout. Sometimes grout covers some of the tiles and doesn’t look as pretty as ungrouted. Plus grout is very heavy!
J&K