Vintage Home ...Rejuvenate and Restore: The Finished "Leftover" Project....

Had you figured it out yet? If you said trivet, you would be correct.

I'm forever looking for something to put hot dishes on at dinner time. The best/only thing I can come up with is a pot holder or folded kitchen towel.

But after completing the living room fireplace makeover (read here) I kept looking at the tiles I had leftover and wondering what I could do with them.

So starting with this....

I wound up with this....

I used the same SimpleMat tile adhesive I used on the fireplace surround. Trimmed and adhered the tiles in place; then grouted and wiped clean. Once it was dry, I glued a narrow ribbon around the outside. Ideally, I'd like to wrap the sides in some type of "metal tape".... similar to the stuff you use to wrap glass pieces that are soldered together in making stain glass. It would make it easier to clean up, rather than the fabric ribbon. But this one is for me and I'll just have to be neat!

The smaller squares shown in the picture above will become coasters. I have the dark copper colored tiles and the lighter iridescent tiles are left over from the kitchen back splash. I bought a quarter sheet piece of 1/4 inch wood for about $5. It's not actually wood.... rather like a press-wood- Tempered Hard Board is the technical name (thanks, man of men!). It's soft- not rough like plywood, so there was no need to sand or felt the backside. Besides, the quarter-sheet was already cut and easier for me to lug through the Home Depot- saved some unsuspecting shoppers from a nasty bruise or two.... "you're welcome!"

The "wood" was enough for 8 trivets and 8 sets of 4 coasters. The tiles are all leftover pieces and strips, and if I need additional grout, a small container is around $8.

So for roughly $13 and my time, I'll have 8 gifts.... 1 trivet and 4 coasters per set. Not bad for less than $2 a set! If I had to buy the tile, 2 sheets would cover both the trivet and one set of coasters (with some left over) for around $8.00, so if you're starting from scratch you'd be looking at right around $10. That's still not bad for what you end up with. Pretty & practical!

So what do you do with your leftovers?