A Tiled Fireplace at Last!

This all started about five years ago when we were still living in our house at 15th and 15th.  It was a 1938 brick bungalow with original gumwood moldings and arches and lots of lovely details.  The fireplace however was a bit of a disappointment.  It just didn't live up to the rest of the house.  The 6"x6" tiles were a simple cream color with some ridges and most of them were cracked.  The tile framed the opening to the fireplace in a single row around the opening.  The tile on the hearth was larger white squares that had obviously been added later and didn't match.  I would go into other houses in the neighborhood and check out the fireplaces and many had gorgeous bas relief tiles depicting flowers or various scenes. 

 I somehow learned about Ernest Batchelder who created tiles in California beginning in 1909.  His tiles were the ones I felt epitomized the Arts and Crafts movement and the ones I loved the most.  Then I found out about a woman in Seattle who runs the Tile Restoration Center where she both restores original Batchelder tiles and makes new tiles that are almost indistinguishable from the originals.  I located a tile shop on 300 West that carries the reproduction tiles and I went there to check it out.  It was a tiny little place and the woman there was very nice and let me look through a catalogue of all the tiles, made some photo copies for me and priced the tiles I was interested in.   It was a bit of a shock.  The plain 6"x6" tiles were $50.00 each and the 6"x9" tree with stones bas relief tile that I fell in love with was (GASP) $200.00.  This was WAY out of my price range.  I discreetly wrote down the address of the Tile Restoration Center in Seattle and decided to pay a visit there next time we went to visit Justin's family.  

So in July of 2003 Justin and I went to the TRC after first calling and making an appointment and explained our mission.  As it turned out they keep boxes of tiles that they consider to be seconds which they will sell at greatly reduced rates.  It was like a treasure hunt.  Justin and I were both digging through boxes looking for tiles that would fit our fireplace.  We had brought along the dimensions of the hearth area and number of tiles on the face of our fireplace.  An extremely nice woman named Sue asked us if there was any tile in particular that we were interested in.  I pointed out the tree and stones tile.  She said she would go check the unfired tiles to see if any had already been marked as seconds.  She came back a few minutes later with two of the tiles.  She told us that we could choose the color and they would finish the tiles and mail them to us when they were finished and that we could have them at the seconds price of $29.50 each.  I was ecstatic.  Thinking back on this I doubt that there was truly anything wrong with those tiles and that she just took pity on a young couple who had fallen in love with their tiles and who had made the effort to come from so far away on the chance of finding some tiles they could afford.  We chose pewter as the background color and boxed up the tiles that we had found, including two smaller bas relief tiles to use on the hearth.  

Two months later we had a drastic change of plans when we bought our lot in High Meadows.  We then had to decide if we should keep the tile to use on our new house or put it in the old house to help it sell.  It wasn't hard to decide that we would save it for our new house which was to have an Arts and Crafts feel to it.  Fast forward to October 2004 when our house is about halfway complete.  I realized that we were going to need some more tile for the face of the fireplace, specifically some trim pieces to make it look more finished.  The girls and I flew up to Seattle for UEA and Justin's mom took me back to the Tile Restoration Center.  I was able to find some quarter round tiles for the inside edge and some larger trim pieces for the outside edge.  I remember being very rushed and trying to do all the math with only a pencil and piece of paper and worrying that I was going to mess up.  I ended up with two boxes of tile.  I was afraid to check the boxes with the airline in order to get them home in case they got damaged in transit and I couldn't carry them on either.  I ended up leaving the tile with Justin's parents with the plan that they would drive down with the tile the next time they came to visit.  The time came to tile the bathrooms in our new house and Justin's parents hadn't been able to bring the tile yet so the fireplace didn't get tiled.  Justin's parents came down in May 2005  to meet our new baby Barrett and brought the tile then.  It sat in four boxes next to the fireplace for 3 years until last Friday when we finally got around to hiring someone to install it for us.  I still can't believe I finally have the fireplace that I have been dreaming about for over FIVE years.  

The hearth was tiled first.

This is how it would have looked if I hadn't 

gone back for the additional tile.

This photo shows the quarter round installed on the

inside edge and a few of the outside pieces installed.

The finished masterpiece.

As it turned out I was a little short on the outside 

trim pieces so we solved the problem by leaving 

room for a baseboard, as on the left side.

A close up of the Tree and Stones tile.

The Castle tile on the hearth.

The Cottage tile also on the hearth.

Now we just need to figure out what to do with the rest of the fireplace.  The white needs to go. I think it needs to be textured like plaster.  Justin thinks it only needs to be painted a different color.  We are taking suggestions if anyone has any good ideas.