DIY: Monogrammed Tile Coasters

I can’t believe I actually made these monogrammed tile coasters because my entire grown up life, I have shunned coasters. Perhaps it’s because I never cared if my furniture got rings on it or because the coasters I had seemed useless or ugly. My husband, however, has been nagging me to make coasters out of tiles for quite some time and I guess I’m starting to care about whether my furniture gets water spots on it because I finally listened to him. I bought some 4” X 4” tiles and was just going to stick felt bumpers on the bottom of them to make DIY tile coasters, but them I decided I would love to have monogrammed coasters.

I have a monogrammed coffee cup that was the inspiration. The thing is that my hubby and the kids have a different last name than I do, so I couldn’t decide what letter I should put on the tiles: the first letter of their last name or the first letter of my last name. Fortunately, I didn’t have to decide because their last name starts with a W and my last name starts with an M. If you flip a W over it looks just like an M and if you flip an M over it looks just like a W.

The DIY monogrammed tiles were super easy to make and I didn’t even have to buy a stencil to make the monogram. I made my own stencil using my computer, a printer, a box cutter and tape.

To make the stencil, I found a font that I liked and used Microsoft Word to create a template. I knew the size of my tile so I sized accordingly and then printed it out on a piece of paper.

I covered the part of the paper that I would be using on both sides with clear tape to make the stencil sturdier and waterproof so that I could use it multiple times. I then cut out the letter portion carefully and also cut around the outline of the 4” X 4” square that I had made.

On half of the tiles I taped the square stencil on and spray painted so that the monogram would be black surrounded by the natural color of the tile. On the other half of the tiles I used double sided tape to stick on just the cut out letter so that the monogram would be the color or the tile surrounded by black. Like this:

To make your own monogrammed tiles, here’s what you will need:
A stencil (you can buy one or make your own like I did)
Tape to secure the stencil if you are using a homemade one
Tiles
Spray paint in the color of your choice
Clear sealer spray paint
Felt bumpers

Directions:
Apply the stencil onto the tile and in a ventilated area (you should wear a mask too because your lungs are precious) spray paint the sucka. Wait until the spray paint is dry and remove the stencil. Repeat on each tile.
Apply clear sealer spray paint on top of your lovely monogrammed tiles.
Once everything is good and dry, put some felt bumpers on the bottom of your coasters so you don’t scratch your furniture ‘cause that would suck.

I love the way these turned out and think they would make for great personalized hostess gifts too!

This post originally appeared on ByClaudya.com.