Glass Wall Tile.
Your Classy Wall Decor

Bring Joy to the Eyes with Colourful Glass Wall Tiling

Decorative and classy, available in a variety of colours and degrees of translucency, glass wall tile makes the perfect display for a luxurious kitchen backsplash, bathroom or a vibrant exterior wall decor.

They have been around for some time, being considered the perfect solution for baths or pools, obviously because of their water resistant properties.

There is a revival of sorts on the use of glass tile in the last years, very popular being for walls, backsplashes and countertops.

You want to go one step further? Bring the full potential of tiling by creating a warm and rich visually mural glass tiling of geometric or pictorial design!

History and Types of Glass Tile
Glass mosaics have been used - according to Wikipedia - as early as 2500 BC.

Smalti tile is made by mixing molten glass with different metal oxides. The result will be tiles with various colours. Then the mixture is poured into flat slabs that are cooled and broken into individual pieces. The molten mixture can also be topped with gold leaf, followed by a thin glass film to protect against tarnishing.
During the Byzantine era, Constantinople became the center of the mosaic craft, and the use of gold leaf glass mosaic reached perhaps it greatest artistic expression.
Early 1920's, instead of the old method of rolling the colored glass mixture out, cooling and cutting, the new method called for molten liquid to be poured and cooled in trays, usually resulting in 3/4 inch chicklet-type pieces.

Fused glass tile appeared in 1990's, and the manufacturing process consists in layering thin sheets of glass, using different colors to create a pattern or an image. Then the layers are placed inside a kiln, and heated until the layers bond together. The tiles will get round edges. Next steps is cooling time.

Top 5 Reasons To Use Glass Wall Tiles

They are decorated from the back and under the glass tile. So they will be long-lasting, and decorations themselves will have depth.

They are fully transparent, as opposed to the ceramic ones, so it adds shine and make the whole assembly more colorful, vibrant and shiny.

Glass tiles are scratch resistant - so in time they don't get that dullness the ceramic tile get after years of being used and displayed.

They are an eco-friendly material as most manufacturers these days use a large percentage of recycled glass within their processes.

Glas tiles are non-flammable and easy to clean.

Glass mosaic tiles are most often used. If in the past they were installed one by one, requiring a great deal of workmanship, nowadays they come in sheets, with glass tiles held by mesh or paper backing.

We put together some useful tips if you want to have an appealing glass wall tile decor:

If your sheets of glass mosaic tiles come with a variety of colors, take the time and plan the arrangement so you won't have colors cramped all together, but rather well dispersed.

To have a uniform look, make sure the joint width on the sheets of mosaic matches the joint between each sheet.

Most often you can manage to install them without the need to cut the individual tiles. If you need to cut the sheets in smaller ones you can use a utility knife.

If you do need to cut one of the glass mosaic tiles to fill a space, it's best to remove the tile from the mesh, cut it with a snap cutter, and then put adhesive on the back of it before you set it in the desired spot.

Make sure the surface to be tiled is clean and smooth. You can consider to prime it first.

Basic Steps To Install Glass Mosaics

The sheets of glass mosaic should be pressed into a combed bed of adhesive. Don't forget to make space for the joint between the sheets.

Press the sheets into place with a rubber faced float for complete adhesion.

Remove any excess adhesive between joints with a damp sponge (or a cloth).

Let the adhesive dry thoroughly and only then do the grouting.

The grout can be applied over the whole area with a squeegee or a rubber faced grout float.

Remove any excess grout using a grout sponge.

Polish the glass mosaic with a soft cloth.

While these are some basics steps, we always recommend to follow the specific manufacturers instructions!

Quick Tips:

Because most glass wall tile is translucent to some degree, it's important to use a white tile adhesive that it will not affect the appearance of the tiles once they are installed.

Glass is impervious to moisture, but it can be scratched easily and cracked, so it shouldn't be installed where it may be hit by a swinging door, for exemple.