To decorate the walls indoors, you can use an artificial stone with imitation of the bark of a tree. You can make such tiles yourself, using affordable and inexpensive materials.
And first of all, you need to make a mold for pouring liquid gypsum mortar. If you plan to make tiles for decorating a fireplace, it is better to use a cement mortar.
The mold for filling can be made of foam. To make an imitation of tree bark on a tile, you will also need a heater with a “corrugated” texture. The thickness of the insulation is 10 mm.
Additionally, packing tape (or, for example, a film) is required to glue the surface of the foam. If this is not done, the finished gypsum tile will be very difficult to separate from the mold.
The main stages of work
To make the mold, you need 2 sheets of foam. We leave one whole, and in the second - cut out the outline for filling the desired size. To make the edges smooth, it is better to use a square. Penoplex can be cut with a regular stationery knife.
At the next stage, the author pastes with tape the bottom and edges of the mold so that the gypsum mortar does not stick (by the way, you can also use a piece of plywood or board as a base).
Useful Tips
To remove all the small cells on the foil side of the insulation, which are clearly visible at a short distance, you just need to warm the surface with a hairdryer, and then smooth it a little - the texture itself will not disappear.
However, it is important that the hairdryer temperature is set to a minimum. Also, do not hold the hair dryer in place for more than one second, otherwise the surface will deform.
Mold fill
Next, the author cuts the insulation with a small margin, and then puts it inside the form. Please note that the denser the insulation will go into shape, the less will result in less sagging when pouring gypsum mortar.
Now you can pour liquid gypsum into the mold (without dyes and additives). After solidification, the tile is removed from the mold, and you can make a new pebble.
In this case, the author makes a decorative stone with dimensions of 40 * 10 cm. To get one square meter of decorative tiles, you will need to make 25 gypsum tiles.
The thickness of the foam is 20 mm, the thickness of the insulation is 10 mm, and accordingly, the thickness of the finished tile will be 1 cm.
Tile Painting
At the next stage, the author proceeds to paint gypsum tiles. But first, the front surface will need to be slightly “brushed” with a wire brush.
For painting, the author uses a primer with dyes. At the same time, in order to obtain a shiny surface, it is necessary to use a clean primer (not diluted with water). To obtain a matte finish, the primer should be diluted with water approximately halfway.
If the artificial decorative stone is varnished, the tiles will be less worn and they can be washed, which is very convenient.
For details on how to make an artificial stone with imitation of the bark of a tree, we recommend that you watch in this video.
