Good Afternoon!

I’ve had this set of coffee mugs since 2008.  They came with my first “grown up” plate set I ever bought back when I bought my first house.  I never use them because I prefer to use my designer Starbucks coffee mugs but I’ve kept them around for 11 years because I like their color but there’s probably some sentimental reasons behind that too.

There’s something strangely therapeutic in breaking something…on purpose.

I always thought it would be fun to make a mosaic out of them but just never got around to it.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make with them.

Then one of my plant stands started losing it’s tiles and the other week it finally lost it’s last few tiles and I thought it would make a fun base for my coffee mugs

I love the metal work on this plant stand

I took 2 mugs, wrapped them up in a towel, and broke them with a mallet.  I didn’t smash them up too much.  I wanted big usable pieces but also pieces that had interesting shapes.  I needed to break them up a bit more than I originally wanted to since they were small oval shape but I eventually got the pieces into sizes and shapes that I wanted.

Brainstorming the layout before placing them in the grout.

I bought artist grout and sealer from Michael’s, layed the grout down on the table top of the plant stand, and working quickly nestle your pieces into the grout.  I let that dry for a few minutes and then spread the grout over the mosaic filling in all the holes and divots.  After the grout cured for 24 hours I added the sealer.

It’s a little bit bumpy since the pieces were made from coffee mugs and not flat tile pieces but I like how the shadows play across the top of the plant stand.  I wouldn’t use it as a small side table but it works, and looks, great as a plant stand!

I still have grout, sealer, and 2 mugs left.  I think I’m going to make trivets out of those!  Stay tuned!