DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles - Sealing the Tile Grout

(This is the continuation of Part 3)

When the tile grout has dried, the mosaic looks really good. The grout looks a bit chalky though and doesn't blend well with the rest of the glossy mosaic tiles. Not only that, the tile grout powder sometimes has the tendency to stick to your fingers when handling the pot.

And this is where you need to seal the grout with a tile grout sealer. The tile grout sealer penetrates the grout, fills and seals it. It leaves a waterproof surface with a shiny finish.

Sealing the Tile Grout

1. The tile grout sealer is liquid and there's nothing to mix. However, do shake the tile grout sealer well. Spray some of the sealer on the mosaic garden pot. After spraying, spread the liquid around on the tile grout rather than on the tiles with your fingers. You may also use a small paint brush to apply the sealer on the grout.
   
   
   

DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles - Applying the Tile Grout

(This is the continuation of Part 2)

This may, arguably, be the fun part of the DIY Mosaic Garden Pot project, if not the dirtiest part. In this stage, you'll be working on filling in the spaces in between tiles of the mosaic and further securing them to the pot. Other than black, there are other available tile grout colors like gray and white. In a way, tile grouting gives a touch of color syle to the finished mosaic pot.

Applying the Tile Grout

1. Before you add the tile grout, it is best to feel if there is tile adhesive that sticks out with the tiles. This is tile adhesive that may have been pushed out from beneath the tile pieces and dried. If so, use an old screwdriver to scrape off this excess tile adhesive.
   
   Ideally, there should be some space between the tiles for the grout to fill. Edges and points of broken tiles can be extremely sharp so wear garden gloves to protect your hands from injury.
   
   
   

DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles - Applying the Tiles

(This is the continuation of Part 1)

After the initial preparations on the pot and tiles, is the part where you will be filling in the design with the tiles. You will need tile adhesive for attaching the tiles to the garden pot.

In some other countries, this is sometimes called thinset tile mortar. Tile adhesive is cheap and is often bought by the bag. It and can be economical when making a number of mosaic garden pots at a time.

Applying the Tiles

1. Put tile adhesive in a disposable plastic bowl with water. Be sure to follow the mixing ratio as instructed in the package label of the tile adhesive. Wear a protective face mask to avoid breathing the tile adhesive powder.
   
   
   

DIY Mosaic Pots with Ceramic Tiles

I've had initial success with mosaic pots and decided to make another one using some new techniques. I've stored away leftover tile grout and tile grout sealer and was unsure if they were still good enough. I did pack them really well and placed them in a dry and dark storage.

So now, which is a few years later, I decided to make another mosaic garden pot but with a different design. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tile grout and sealer were still good!

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 6

(This is the continuation of Part 5)

Completed Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles

Finally, here is the completed product with the new tile grout color. Notice the black grouting inside the garden clay pot. The inside grout is only 3 to 4 inches deep. The rest of the inside of the pot (up to the bottom) is untreated.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 5

(This is the continuation of Part 4)

If you don't like the color of the grout used in the mosaic garden pot, you could still change it, provided the grout has not yet been sealed with a grout sealer or any other sealant.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 4

(This is the continuation of Part 3)

Initially, our son's idea was to use cement or mortar for binding the tiles together to the garden clay pot. This may have been the instruction from the teacher. For this reason, we chose a gray-colored tile grout. Tile grout is cheap and usually comes in 2 kilo bags.

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 3

(This is the continuation of Part 2)

4. The smaller the size of the broken pieces, the more number of pieces you will be gluing to the garden clay pot. But the bigger the size of the piece, the more uneven the mosaic surface will become.
   

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles - Part 2

(This is the continuation of Part 1)

4. Tile Grout
   
   As mentioned before, a contrasting color between tile and grout would be attractive. In general, most ceramic tiles are light colored. So a black colored grout would fit most needs. It just so happened that my son's instruction was to use cement and cement is gray colored. That's the reason we initially chose gray.
   

Mosaic Flower Pot Using Broken Ceramic Tiles

This Mosaic Flower Pot project was actually borne out of a class assignment that my son had in school. The class assignment was to come up with a mosaic project using broken tiles.

The base for the mosaic was really optional, but it seemed all the students chose the terracotta or garden clay pot as the base to mount the mosaic design.

So I helped my son start off with the Mosaic Flower Pot project by choosing the tiles and then helping him work on the application of sealant and grout until the mosaic flower pot was completed.