Recently, I’ve been fortunate enough (hint hint - I’m totally being sarcastic but blogs don’t really translate sarcasm) to have to look for pool tiles. All of sudden, after three years of living in my new house and enjoying my pool, the damn things just suddenly started falling off! That and then a mysterious black mold began to cover my entire pool. It was not in good shape. And then when it was at its worse (and not a second later), my pool guy broke up with me via text a la Berger and Carrie on Sex and the City.

So I started my intrepid journey into the world of pool tiles. There are a few different factors when considering pool tiles, but let’s just say the best looking and most durable start at $18 a piece. And I have a 40’x20’ pool. With a large wall of tile.

I also wanted to get ceramic tile vs. cement tile. But I have news for you — the ceramic tile selection is incredibly lacking in style and color. I had seen this lovely photo in Domino:

And my interest was piqued. I saw that the company that manufactured the tile was located in Los Angeles, so I gave them a call to schedule a site visit. Dennis, the owner, told me over the phone that yes, they could do any design I wanted AND in any color. Sold! Mostly… but first I wanted to go down and pick out the colors.

Friends, let me tell you — if you have never seen how the tile sausage is made, you should definitely check it out. Dennis is an artisan of the highest degree and the factory is basically him and 9 other individuals in the middle of a run down DTLA neighborhood, complete with friendly stray dogs and illegible storefront signs (if any at all). Dennis quickly identified the PERFECT colors based off of this photo I provided:

Then Dennis lowered the boom: it would be $20K for just the tile, my face went white and I couldn’t feel my feet.

All the blood had drained my body and I thought, “Dear God. I’m in the wrong business.” I then asked him, “What’s the average budget for people who shop for pool tile?” He very coolly replied “Sixty thousand.”

Who are these millionaires?

I then thought — wow, I bet there are other people out there who have even smaller budgets that are currently looking for tile RIGHT NOW. They might not be looking for their pool, but all tile is deceptively expensive and can run you deep into debt.

I’ve gathered my favorite options below — all for less than $15 per square foot. While this is not exactly CHEAP, it does offer an alternative to all of those $25 and up per square foot options you see all over the magazines.