Renovation week 31 | Dark Grout Do's and Don'ts

Back to the kitchen again. Now we grouted the tiles with Pewter non sanded grout. The different between sanded and non sanded grout are sanded is for spacing larger than 1/8". Since my tile spacing is the smallest, we are using non sanded grout. I don't prefer the sanded grout because it's so bumpy and always hard to clean.

I have always wanted to use dark color grout. Not only  because I love that vintage industrial look, I also want to hide dirt. I used to have tile countertop with white grout, typical of 1920s bungalow.  (if you recall from my earlier post).

Beveled subway tiles, Pewter non sanded grout. Isn't that pretty?

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Dark Grout Dos and Don'ts

1. Don't go for the darkest shades because it would look darker on the actual grout. I went with Pewter and it turned out looking more like Charcoal. Lets say if you are thinking Charcoal, just dial back a few shades. 

via mercurymosaics

2. If you want that sharp contrast look, don't use stone tiles, use ceramic tiles. With ceramic tiles, they are factory made and they have clean edges. You won't get sharp edge on natural stone. Because of imperfection of the stones and the way it cut, you will end up seeing all these rough edges even more pronounced. Instead go with blended color on stone tiles. Try to match the grout color to the darkest shade of the stone tiles. For example I have carrera marble floor tiles. I used Platinum on those and they turned out so great. 

My bathroom floor

Here is a photo of marble tiles with black grout. I saw this floor in a restaurant and thought never to do this at home. When you go too dark, it looks dirty. 

3. Be careful of the corners. Putting grout on uneven edges, especially where the tiles are being cut, could make it look like dirty gunk stuck around in the corner. I had this problem around the corner areas. A way to fix it is to use white grout in the corners and around the edges. Check out some before and after photos below. 

If you look on to the right side, you will see these uneven lines that bug me so much. And with dark color gout, that line is more obvious. 

Below are the after we patched the line with white grout instead. That make the grout line in the corner look much cleaner.