This project was built and designed by Mike Montgomery from Modern Builds.
Terrazzo tables usually mean a lot of grinding and specialty tools, but this build skips that entirely by using broken glass tile embedded in adhesive and grout instead of poured aggregate. The result is a colorful, round coffee table with a wooden border and hairpin legs that captures the terrazzo look with a fraction of the labor.
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Shaping the Tabletop Blank
The build starts with a plywood blank cut into a large circle using a simple shop-made compass. Mike marked the radius, cut the perimeter with a jigsaw, and cleaned up the edge with a random orbit sander to remove any blade deflection and smooth out the curve.
Before any tile went down, the entire blank got a couple coats of white paint. Since the glass tile he planned to use is transparent with color printed on the back, painting the substrate white ensures no wood grain or discoloration shows through at certain angles.
Choosing and Breaking the Tile
Mike explains why he chose colored glass tile over porcelain or ceramic for this style of terrazzo. Porcelain and ceramic tile show a cross-section when broken, which often reveals a plain body color rather than the finished face, while his glass tiles keep their color visible from the front no matter how they break.
Breaking the tile became part of the design process. He hit some pieces on the front and others on the back to avoid scratching the show face, aiming for a mix of large and small shards in a range of pastel and saturated colors.
Laying Out the Terrazzo Pattern
Instead of a rigid grid, the tile pieces were placed to look random while still keeping visual balance. Mike started with the biggest pieces spread evenly across the surface, then filled in with progressively smaller shards to build density and avoid large gaps.
A smooth tile adhesive was used instead of standard thin-set so all the pieces could sit on the same plane. He gave himself a wide window of working time to keep adjusting the layout before pressing everything down flat with a piece of melamine.
Adding a Bent Wood Border
To finish the edge, Mike sanded back the perimeter to expose fresh plywood and prepared a thin wooden strip to wrap around the table without steam or heat. A thicker strip snapped when he tried to bend it, but a thinner strip with clean, straight grain flexed around the curve successfully.
Glue was applied generously to both the plywood edge and the strip itself, and the ends were taped together under heavy pressure to create a nearly invisible seam. A ratchet strap clamped the border in place overnight, keeping the wood flush with the tile surface while it cured.
Grouting the Terrazzo Surface
Grouting followed a familiar tile process, but with a twist: Mike aimed to keep the grout perfectly flush with the tile surface instead of leaving the usual recessed line, which helps eliminate any sharp edges from the broken glass. He used a rubber grout float at an angle, working in multiple directions to fill the irregular gaps left by the random tile shapes.
Cleaning the haze off the glass proved to be the trickiest part. A lightly damp sponge wasn’t aggressive enough, so he switched to carefully scraping the cured haze away with a razor blade, which turned out to be far more effective than the cheesecloth method recommended in the grout instructions.
Sanding and Finishing
Once the grout cured, Mike cleaned up the wooden border by hand-sanding to avoid sanding through the thin strip, along with chiseling away small glue spots. A high-gloss lacquer-based sealer was then applied heavily and wiped back, letting it soak into the grout lines while avoiding pooling.
A light sanding between coats knocked down raised grain and any trapped dust, and a second thinner coat minimized brush marks for a smoother final finish. The result gave the glass tile extra depth and helped tie the wood border into the same glossy sheen.
Adding Legs and Final Thoughts
Three hairpin legs were chosen for stability, ensuring the table always sits flat regardless of small imperfections in the base. Mike painted the legs a soft pastel blue that closely matches one of the glass tile colors, tying the entire piece together.
This no-grind approach to terrazzo proves that the look doesn’t require heavy grinding or specialty aggregate work to achieve a colorful, professional-looking result. It’s a technique that opens the door to using tile scraps or leftover glass in future projects without the extensive labor of traditional terrazzo methods.
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Matt’s Take
These are my personal thoughts and tips based on my own experience in the shop. This section is not written, reviewed, or endorsed by the original creator of this project.
This is a clever workaround for a look that usually intimidates people right out of the gate. Traditional terrazzo scares folks off because of the grinding and polishing equipment involved, so using broken glass tile in adhesive is a smart way to get that same visual texture without needing a wet polisher or diamond pads sitting in your shop.
A couple things worth keeping in mind if you try this yourself: breaking glass tile means you’re going to have sharp edges everywhere, so safety glasses and gloves aren’t optional here. Glass shards love to fly further than you expect when you hit them with a hammer, so I’d throw a towel or cardboard barrier around your work area to contain the mess and protect your eyes from ricochet.
The choice to keep the grout flush instead of recessed is a nice detail — it’s a small design decision that has a real safety benefit too, since it knocks down any proud glass edges that could otherwise catch a hand or a sleeve on a coffee table people are going to be resting drinks and feet near constantly.
On the bent wood border, going thin instead of trying to force a thicker strip is generally the right call for tight radius bends like this. If you ever find yourself in that spot, kerf-cutting the back of a strip or laminating multiple thin layers are both solid alternatives to steam bending when you don’t have that equipment on hand.