Jun 1, 20234 min read

The Ultimate Guide to Make Peel and Stick Flooring Look Expensive

Updated: Jul 7

Hi Friends!

The bathroom is coming along - I just finished the flooring in our bathroom after doing epoxy counters, painting the shower and bath tile, the shower door frame.

Basically this whole entire bathroom has been transformed with paint. In the spirit of trying to keep this bathroom makeover on a very low budget, I decided to install peel and stick tile flooring. If you've never used it before - it's super easy to install. I think anyone could do it. It literally just sticks to the floor.

I'm going to show you how I installed it - and how I gave it an upgraded look which really helped it look more expensive. The best part of this flooring makeover is that the flooring only cost $60! Seriously so cheap, but I don't think it looks that way.

I purchased these tiles from the Home Depot for $1.39 a square foot.

They come as 12x12 tiles or 12x24 tiles, but I purchased the 12x12 tiles and them into thirds.

I used a 12" square and measured 4" wide and then used a utility knife to score and snap the tiles. If you don't have a speed square - I really think it's a must to getting accurate and straight tile cuts that are all the same size.

Here's a video if you prefer to watch a demonstration - I think that can be helpful sometimes rather than using photos.

I did have some issues cutting a few of the tiles where they didn't snap correctly - or the edges were slightly off (not perfectly straight). I think that's to be expected when you're cutting them by hand. So just be warned when you go to do this it might not go exactly as planned!

Alright - let's get to the install. I installed mine directly over the old tile - so I did a bit of prep work beforehand. You're not supposed to install it over floating floors or any type of flooring that's not solid and adhered to your subfloor. Tile is totally fine - but I had very large grout lines and I needed to fill those in before installing the flooring over it.

I used this Henry floor patch. I think the consistency is similar to grout. I used a spackle knife to push the floor patch into the grout lines. It can be layered up to 1 inch! It's not easily to sand or clean off when it's dry, so I did my best to make sure there wasn't excess on the tile. After it dried, I did have a few spots and I used my spackle knife to work them off of the tile.

If you don't fill in your grout lines before laying the peel and stick flooring, you can have issues with the tiles sinking into the low spots below the flooring - so it's important to have a flat level surface! That being said, not all of my tile flooring was laid perfectly flat - I did have some areas where my tiles were higher than others and since this peel and stick tile is a temporary solution for me - I wasn't worried about it.

After that prep work - I cleaned my tile flooring really well. Now it's ready for the peel and stick. The peel and stick flooring has a paper backing that you just peel away.

I decided to lay the flooring in a herringbone pattern. I think this is what really elevated the look of the flooring over all. I also decided to leave room for grout.

To make sure all my lines were even, I just used this square as a spacer. You could purchase tile spacers to do this too, or you could just eyeball it.

The hardest part of this was making cuts around the edges. I sometimes used the paper that I peeled off from the back and pushed it up against the wall. This gave me a pretty accurate idea of where I needed to cut. All you have to do to cut is score with a utility knife, and then the tile snaps right off.

Once you get in the grove of things - it goes pretty fast!

I was able to get it all laid in a few hours - and then it was ready for grout. I decided on a white grout because I didn't want to overemphasize any mistakes I made with the grout lines. They didn't end up perfect as hard I tried. You can see below the white grout really helped hide any areas where I didn't lay it perfectly.

From far away, you'd never be able to tell the tile wasn't laid perfect! And good thing most people don't lay down on a bathroom floor. ;)

One last thing to note with the grout - I did have some tiles along the edges that moved a bit because they weren't perfectly stuck to the floor. I ended up going around with some construction adhesive to adhere them better. Just something to keep in mind if you try this!