bathroom renovation - part 3: river rock accent floor

I love river rocks in the bathroom.They can make the room look spa-like, rustic, modern or luxurious. River rocks can be used in shower areas, floors and walls but, even good things have their drawbacks; They are hard to clean, can be a breeding ground for mold, they can come loose. I decided to use them in my bathroom as an accent. River rocks can be found in square sheets with a mesh background at your local hardware stores or you can DIY like I did. I picked out river rocks matching my tiles at Michaels craft store. I thought they were more flexible to work with and they had the natural look I was looking for.

Here is my DIY river rock border accent floor step by step;

First, I applied a thin coat of cement to build a base over the waterproofed floor to prepare the installment. I could not apply ready thinset directly on the floor because it would not stick to the waterproofing. The surrounding area was taped off to keep it clean.

River rocks were sealed and left dry before installing.

River rocks ready for installing. I tried to select fairly flat rocks and used paper for the layout. When I got to the tub area I changed to randomly placing river rocks.

After installing I used a wood board to level the stones. It did not work so well with these rocks since they have different thickness.

Grouting the river rocks was not so easy. In the above picture the grouting is partially done. I left a small gap between the rocks that unfortunately resulted in larger spaces when grouted. I am not sure if even touching stones would have made much difference because, the rocks are not very flat so when you grout them most of it is covered. I removed the excess grout around the rocks as much as possible to uncover them but now, I have uneven grout with pockets that hold water and dirt. It looks more natural than pre-fab sheets but keeping it clean will be a challenge... :)

Here is the result.

Jade Buddha pendant in a corner where won't get stepped on. Still needs cleaning :)

This is how it looks.

Next, bathtub and accessories...