Question (in 2 parts)from Andrina from UK

Hello there, I am making my first mosaic table and I wondered if I could ask you one question as ive had no luck finding out myself. I have brought a table with metal legs and a wooden round top. Do I need to nail a copper rim around the outside edge of the wood to make it look right, or can I just mosaic up to the edge with the rim? most tables ive seen have this rim which makes me think it might look odd if I leave the edge woodHope you can help.

Thank you so much for replying to me. I have attached a picture of the table edge for you to look at. im just not sure what to do with it, whether to grout over the edge and stick tiles around the rim, or stop before the edge and leave it plain wood, or buy some sort of copper rim to nail around the outside and make a border.

Any advice would be gratefully received!

Reply from Brett

Thanks for the photo.

OK, now wood is not the best base for a mosaic – particularly if it’s going to be in the weather – the natural expansion & contraction is going to work against you in the long run.

My suggestion? Use a cement sheet tile backer (I presume something like that’s available in UK), and attach it to the top of your table – screws, glue or both.

I would then definitely suggest a rim – tiles placed there will almost certainly come off – not good.

If it were me, I’d have a ring made for it out of steel, but your copper idea should work OK too. In fact, if the copper doesn’t work too well – you could always have a steel ring made later.

Hope that’s helpful – let me know if you have more questions.

As to the design – have you thought of adapting one of the designs you find on the website? You could maybe use the centre part of one of the mandalas or something like that.

Reply from Andrina

Many thanks again for your info. This particular table is going to be just for inside use only. If you wouldn’t mind answering just one more query for me then I will leave you alone I promise! If I was to get a steel or copper ring made, do you know what thickness I should ask for? obviously it has to be thin enough to be able to nail through I would presume, but I don’t know how many mm roughly it should be. Also who do you get to make a steel ring for you? I thought maybe an iron mongers or something but I have been looking on the internet and im not quite sure who would do that sort of thing.

Again, thank you so much for you help.

My first project will be a big learning curve for me 🙂

Reply from Brett

It’s no problem – that’s what the members section was created for!

I’d suggest a thickness of steel of a minimum of 3mm – 5 is better. If you take the photos to an ironmonger they should be able to advise the best way to fit it – I’d be inclined to fit it from the bottom so you are left with a clean finish – but then that’s a matter of taste.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to nail on – some pre-drilled holes would do the trick.

I usually get mine done professionally (by an ironmonger).

Hope that helps.

Cheers