My wife Gwen and I updated our kitchen last year, we'd been searching for an art piece to to fill up the long wall separating the kitchen from adjoining famiily room.

Gwen didn't want yet another framed picture behind glass, and we didn't want a metal wall hanging either, because we have a large one in the family room. We wanted something unique and colorful that was a blend of the modern and the traditional. We never found what we wanted in any of the stores we visited, so we kicked around the idea of designing and making something ourselves.

One part of our kitchen update was a new tile backsplash. At the time, I searched the web for interesting tiles. I remembered seeing some really beautiful, interesting, hand-painted, brushed-aluminum tiles from Carina Works, Inc. in Austin, Texas. Those tiles weren't right for our backsplash, but they seemed like a good candidate for our DIY art project, if we could devise a suitable way to display them.

Gwen didn't want the tiles covered by glass, so that ruled out traditional framing. Eventually we came up with the idea of mounting them on square wooden slabs (like plaques), and creating a grouping of these slab-plus-tile pieces. That would give each tile a background, visually tie the tiles together, and create some 3D layering.

The only factor that made us hestitate a bit before committing to the project was the cost of the project. The Carina tiles are insanely expensive, but they are most definitely not run-of-the-mill. But nice wall art isn't exactly cheap either, and we liked the idea of having our own one-of-a-kind piece on the wall. So we decided to forge ahead with the project.

The photos below show what we created. The square 6" tiles are attached to simple 7 1/2" square wooden frames that I built and stained a dark color to match the dining table and another piece of furniture in the room. The tiles in each vertical group of three are joined by a pair of 1/4" aluminum rods, spaced 1" apart.

We're very happy with the results. The paint on the tiles is translucent, allowing the brushed metal to show through a bit. As a result, there is some depth to each pattern, not unlike that of an oil painting. Also, the light reflects off the tiles, making them almost seem to glow. You can see a bit of that in the two close-ups below.

The only thing Gwen doesn't like too much is the brightness of the aluminum rods. I cleaned them with steel wool, and that made them a bit too shiny. I think they will oxidize over time, and that will dull their finish.

From the construction side, the frames aren't perfectly square, and not all of the holes I drilled in them are perfectly perpendicular. As a result, I had to slightly bend most of the rods to try to make everything line up. I got pretty close, but one of the frames is slightly tilted with respect to the others. If I had to build them again, I think I know a better way, but that's always how it goes.

Full shot of the entire set.

Close-up of a pair tiles.

Close-up of a single tile #1.

Close-up of a single tile #2.

Close-up of a single tile #3.

Close-up of a single tile #4.

Close-up of a single tile #5.