Talkin' Tin

I wanted to tell you about the faux tin tile I found online to give the wall behind my new chunky shelf a little oomph.

I've always loved the tin-tile look, but have you seen the price on actual tin tiles? Yikes. And the local home improvement store's fake options made of plastic were not much better at $20+ for each 24"x24" square. I actually had them in hand at Home Depot, ready to gulp and drop the $80, when it occurred to me to whip out the ol' smart phone and give Amazon a quick perusal.

Light shining down on me from heaven in the lumber aisle and angels singing: I found them. At $3.50 each and made of polystyrene (aka: pressed styrofoam), I shelved those $20 plastic versions and placed my online order.

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I had already grabbed a super-strong double sided tape to hang the plastic tiles, so decided to stick (ha) with that to adhere my foam tiles.

The tiles were so light and thin (but not too thin that I felt like they were going to crumble or anything) that all I needed to do was measure (and measure again, per usual), and slice my way down a ruler's edge with an x-acto knife.

Snipped off some tape, stuck it to the tile, and stuck the tile to the wall, gently pressing along the length of each with my fingertips. Easy, peasy, done.

I'm so impressed with the finish, and because the shelf is so deep, I'm not worried about wear and tear on the styrofoam. These tiles are made for putting on ceilings, out of the reach of daily touching or any jabbing objects poking at them. If they were in a more easily bumped area, I probably would have had to go with the plastic or real metal version.

But so far, all who've seen them in person have thought they were real tin. Not bad for fourteen bucks! Alright, including shipping and the tape it was probably around $30, but I'll take that any day.

I'd totally recommend this method to anyone. Hmm... Our dining room ceiling could use a little visual interest....