5-Minute Coasters

Intro: 5-Minute Coasters

These coasters are almost too easy! In less than 5 minutes you have a set of coasters.

STEP 1: Clean and Cut

All you need for these coasters are little tiles attached to a woven grid and scissors. I found the tile grid at Scrap in San Francisco. First I cleaned the tiles and then I cut them into shapes. I tried different shapes. If you want to make as much coasters as possible from one grid of tiles, it's a good idea to mark which tiles you are going to cut with a pencil before you start cutting.

STEP 2: Finishing Touch

Finish the coasters by cutting the woven grid along the edges of the shapes. Make sure you remove all loose ends.

STEP 3: Ready

Done! I told you, they're almost too easy!

Comments

[zposner]

Looks good.

[AmieB]

You can find cork board or thick felt and cut it out and glue to the entire bottom. That will keep them together, provide a moisture barrier and create a non-scratch base.

[BobS135]

Isn't one of the purposes of a coaster to protect vulnerable surfaces like wood from condensation on glasses and from any drips that might run down the sides? How is a coaster full of gaps going to do that? These might work for protecting counters from hot items, but they don't seem like the best design for coasters.

[Benjamin Chell]

When you are finished I would look into making a framed box and using a 2 part epoxy or actual tile grout. Something to hold them together solid.

On another note if you are having granite counter tops put in the sections they cutout for your sink tell the installers to keep it and use it as a cutting board.. they may need to clean it up but putting felt or rubber feet under it as not to scratch your new counter tops.

[mtbike2]

Great dea. Just a small suggestion, or word of caution. Some mosaic tiles come on a fiber glass mesh backing so watch out. Also they are usually attached with water soluble glue so you have to grout or secure things somehow. Some of the guys below have great ideas

[mtbike2]

Great dea. Just a small suggestion, or word of caution. Some mosaic tiles come on a fiber glass mesh backing so watch out. Also they are usually attached with water soluble glue so you have to grout or secure things somehow. Some of the guys below have great ideas

[OculumForamen]

I like this idea, I had the same one a while ago, but I simply haven't come across any tiles to use. To solve the flexibility issue, you can mount these tiles on some fiber board (i think that's what it's called) and then grout then like you would on the wall. That solves the flexibility issue, the seepage issue, and the adhesive problem under the tiles. And the "Fiber Board" can be bought in fairly thin peices so it wouldn't add too much height to your coasters. Thanks! :)

[Battlespeed]

It's easy to grout the tiles (after creating your shape) so moisture from a sweating glass or cup doesn't leach down between them (defeating the whole purpose). You can use colored grout that would make them prettier, too.

[monkm]

The mesh backing is flexible so I doubt grout would last very long. I see how these could be useful for protecting a tabletop or kitchen counter from hot things (taken directly from your microwave or stove). But for cold glasses or bottles, I can think of many things better suited to repurpose as a coaster.

[neoplasm]

I would go for a clear resin epoxy to serve as the grout.

In my experience, the glue used to hold the mesh and mosaic together doesn't hold well to repeated handling and moisture, so a hard filler would solve any durability, moisture, and slippage concerns.

[zyx296]

Put a few dad or stripes of hot glue or silicone sealer , let set and its nonskid. R Mitobe

[Battlespeed]

Or, just buy a cheap package of the little self-adhesive rubber/cork feet from a dollar store or hardware store.

[merik64]

Or use the rubber non-slip drawer liners instead of the woven grid.

[Joekevdv]

Very smart, thank you for sharing.

[Bannockburn]

Cool idea! It's also pretty cool how you could have multiples that sort of "puzzle" together to be used as a trivet. Or if you could get different colors it would make intricate colored patterns.

[Belzebebpr]

I was thinking this, but possibly routing some of them underneath and gluing magnets so they can stick to eachother. this could let you be creative with the amount of tiles you keep grouped together (as if you were creating Tetris pieces that you can put together). Then just lay them out and let people create their own coaster in the general shape they desire (not just hexagons, maybe letter shapes, etc)

[zyx296]

On the mesh bottom ***

[copperaxe]

very cool, wish I didnt throw out those last few mosaic sheets.

[KataNinja]

These look amazing and are extremely simple, thanks for sharing.