Recycled Glass Mosaiced Steps

My Husband and I decided we wanted to build a lasting memory together for our 15 Wedding Anniversary instead of spend a bunch of money on a fancy dinner. I have a favorite glass supplier in Seattle called Bedrock Industries. They use 100% recycled glass for their products and we love that they’re committed to sustainability. So we bought a lot of glass...it was fun! I wish I had photos of the project in process.
For the stair facings, we used all Bedrock Glass. For the top of the stairs, I picked up tile from Habitat for Humanity’s Resale Store here in Corvallis. I’ve used their tile for several projects. We were really pleased with the outcome. The only problem with the stairs is that we live in rainy Oregon and they get slippery when wet! My husband wanted to spray the edges of them with a black sanded paint and I was worried that would ruin our beautiful project so I came up with a fun solution!

I found out that 3M makes a tape called Safety Tape. You can pick it up at Home Depot. I bought the 4” wide variety to accommodate the design I came up with. When I was a child, my Mother hand painted this little dresser with beautiful Hungarian folk designs and I’ve loved folk embroidery patterns ever since. I searched online for images and came up with a derivative pattern that I thought would be bold enough to provide the amount of traction we would need to have safe steps.

After creating the pattern, I cut out a stencil in some thicker paper and transferred the design to the back of the tape.

It was a lot of cutting! I used some inexpensive kitchen scissors...they were pretty trashed by the time I was done. As I was cutting, the scissors gummed up from the tape adhesive pretty fast. I found it was really helpful to keep a bottle of orange oil and a rag nearby to wipe the adhesive off of the scissors regularly. Don’t use a pair of scissors you care about! We were really happy with the outcome and feel so much safer on the steps even when they’re not wet. Can’t believe we waited so long to do it. Sometimes it takes a long time for inspiration to gather itself together in a usable idea:)! Those pots on the steps have a story to tell in another blog, on another day...