The Brief
The hallway of a Victorian semi-detached house in Chislehurst. The original quarry tiles had been removed decades ago and replaced with carpet. The client wanted to restore the hallway with a period-appropriate geometric star pattern -- a multi-colour design using individual tile pieces rather than printed pattern tiles. The hallway ran from the front door approximately 6 metres to the staircase, with a doorway on each side.
The Challenge
Geometric patterns like this are assembled from individual tile pieces -- triangles, squares, rectangles, and shaped cuts that interlock to form the star motif. Every piece must be precisely sized. The pattern repeats, so any dimensional error in one repeat is visible because the adjacent repeat is correct. The hallway was not perfectly rectangular -- Victorian houses rarely are. The walls were not parallel, and the floor had a slight fall toward the back of the house. The pattern needed to read as centred and symmetrical despite the room not being symmetrical.
The Solution
I surveyed the hallway and found the walls were 15mm closer together at the back than the front. The floor dropped 8mm over the 6-metre run. I levelled the floor with a self-levelling compound to eliminate the fall. For the pattern, I set the centre line from the front door -- the focal point as you enter -- and worked outward. The slight taper in the room width was absorbed by the border tiles at each side, which were individually cut to maintain a consistent border width that disguises the wall irregularity. The star pattern was dry-laid in full before any adhesive. I checked every repeat for dimensional consistency and adjusted piece sizes where the tile batch had slight variation.
The Result
Walking through the front door, the star pattern reads as perfectly centred and symmetrical. The border runs cleanly along both walls. The colour consistency across all the tile pieces is even. Visitors to the house consistently assume the floor is original to the property. It is the kind of job that reminds me why I started tiling -- the precision required is demanding, but the result when it comes together is genuinely satisfying.
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