Tiles & Tribulations: Making the Tile Table From TikTok

Growing up, I had always dreamt of what my New York City apartment would look like. Of course, I wanted my living space to be filled with the most fashionable furnishings—who wouldn’t? TikTok gave me what looked to be the easy and cheap way to make a tile table that looks like a stylish piece from an Instagram influencers’ fave boutique. If you have yet to see the trendy TikTok table, you have to—it’s adorable.

In the viral video, it looks like a quick process. The sad thing is, you have to buy all-new materials. If you are passionate about the planet like me, and do not want to create more waste, it’s good to know that making a tile table is hard. Maybe you want to refurbish a wood table from Facebook marketplace—it’s tougher than it looks. Buckle up people and get ready to take a trip to Home Depot! We’re DIY-ing a tile table.

My mother so kindly provided me with a free bistro-style table she picked up from a Facebook friend. This table looked like a boring IKEA reject. It needed some flare. TikTok and Pinterest are the best sources for DIY inspiration, so I thought to myself, with a fresh coat of paint and some tile, this table will be good to go. It will maybe take a day’s work, but the table will look as good as new and sit nicely in my Brooklyn apartment… I was wrong.

After watching the video, I made a list of all I thought I needed: adhesive, grout, and some tile, and took a trip to Home Depot. $60 later, I got what I needed, but it was more than I expected: 8 sheets of ceramic tile, 1 can of adhesive,1 can of grout, a pack of paintbrushes, and a pint of black paint. I sanded the table then painted the legs and bottom of the table black. After two coats of paint, it had already taken two days, and I hadn’t even gotten to the tiling yet.

The lovely white hexagon and black diamond-shaped tile I picked out made for the hardest game of Tetris. I could not, for the life of me, get the tile to fit perfectly. After two days of fiddling with the placement of the uneven tile, I needed to use a tile cutter to make all of the tile fit. Another $20 later, I thought I had everything I needed. I left the tile on the table for a few more days, and then I decided to lay down the tile with adhesive. I did not have the tool to do so, so as true DIYers do, I improvised. I used a paintbrush and jammed to some music; it came out pretty good.

The next day, I read the tile cutter instructions (three photos with vague descriptions), and I got started. I placed the tile on the metal beam and squeezed with all my might, and I cut one of the black diamonds into two perfect triangles. Excited, I tried again, but as I heard the crack of the tile, I knew it had shattered into a million pieces—one even slicing my thumb. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Girl, why didn’t you give up already?” I was determined to have my trendy TikTok table. I did, however, give up on cutting the tile myself, and I took another trip to Home Depot to have professionals cut the tile, leaving the last step: grout.

After grouting the table and a few days of setting, it was done. This table took a long time to make, many trips to Home Depot, and a few tears, but I made it. It might be easier to make a simple square tile table, but now I have a chic bistro table that tells a story.