In this instructional video, the creator demonstrates how to transform a plain tabletop by tiling it with mesh‑backed tiles. The process begins with cutting thin wood panels, priming them with Kilz primer to seal the wood and prevent warping when it gets wet. After priming, a layer of mastic adhesive is applied using a trowel, creating ridges that help the tiles grip. Mesh‑backed tiles are then pressed onto the adhesive, trimmed, and any excess adhesive is wiped away. The presenter mixes gray grout with a small amount of water to a "runny peanut butter" consistency, applies it with a squeegee to fill the grout lines, and then removes excess grout with a paper towel and sponge, cleaning the edges for a neat finish. The video emphasizes using gray grout to keep the visual focus on the tiles, and highlights the fun, messy, yet rewarding nature of the DIY project, concluding with the tiled panels being installed onto the table.
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It's ugly the way it is, but it has a lot of potential. I'm going to replace the tiles. I've cut my wood pieces out, and I'm going to prime them. It's important to prime this because they're going to get wet. This is Kilz primer, and this is something that seals the wood. And if you grout wood that hasn't been sealed, it's going to warp, especially wood that's this thin. I'm going to take each board after it's been primed, and I'm going to put something different on every board. So the table that was boring is now going to have a lot of personality. I prefer to use gray grout with any project because gray is an absence of color and it doesn't detract from the beautiful tile. You see the tile instead of seeing the grout lines. What I'm doing here is adding a little bit of water to this grout and I'm mixing it. You can use a spatula, you can use a paint stirrer, just about anything. This is the consistency you want, and you'll notice it's— I'd say it's like runny peanut butter maybe. Okay, so I'm going to set this aside for a moment. Take my mastic. This is adhesive. I'm going to take my primed panel, and I'm going to use the primed side and use my trowel. Dipping the trowel in the mastic, I'm going to rub it over This makes little lines in the adhesive which makes the tile grip. Okay, now I take my tile. This has a mesh back so it holds together. I got this at a hardware store. I'm going to place it on my board where it's nice and even. I'm going to cut it off. You also want to make sure that you press your tile down so it grabs into the adhesive. Then I would get a wet rag and kind of Clean off any adhesive. I'm making certain that my tiles are straight, they're lined up. Here we have it. So we're going to take our grout that we've mixed. I'm going to dump it on. Then I'm going to take my squeegee that I just— here it is. It's just a squeegee that you can get anywhere, Walmart, you probably have one in your house. Yes, so I'm going to make sure the grout gets in all the little cracks and crevices with this. All right, I've taken as much of the grout off as I can with the squeegee, and now I'm going to wipe some more of it off with a paper towel. Every piece will have a different feel to it. I'm going to clean the edges up with my sponge like this, give it another going over, and now I'm going to place it in the table. Put these in place. It's a little messy. It's a lot messy, but it is also a lot of fun. Oh, on to the next project.
