What’s The Deal With The Joanna Gaines Saltillo Tile & Hot Sauce House?
Our phone lines and emails are overloaded with questions about the Octagon Terracotta tile. So, after doing about 4 seconds of googling, I discovered Episode 14 of Fixer Upper – The Hot Sauce House. This is why people are loving the Octagon pattern on terracotta floors.

Joanna Gaines selected this beautiful Octagon Saltillo tile for the homeowners’ Laundry & Mudroom. This look is achieved through the artistic approach of staining unsealed Saltillo tile. But you can achieve this through the more straightforward method of installing presealed Manganese Saltillo tile.
The Octagon Tile Breakdown
Do you see the muddled layers of colors and weathered appearance in the Joanna Gaines Saltillo tile floor? While I don’t have her project notes, being the industry leader in handmade Saltillo tile gives me some insight.

This photo illustrates the stained Octagon Saltillo Tile floor. The 12×12 Octagon Saltillo tiles partner with corresponding 4×4 square Saltillo tiles. Thus, this is a 1:1 tile pattern – 1 octagon tile for 1 square tile.
Further, these were initially unsealed Saltillo tiles before the stain made magic! If you’ve read my previous post about Why to Buy Presealed Saltillo Tile, you’ll know where I’m going with this.
Unsealed Saltillo tile is excellent if you want to customize your floor with a specific look. But the process is more involved and more costly than people expect. We recommend hiring an experienced painter for any stain work. These guys and gals know how to work with colors on various substrates. Plus, they also have experience in keeping chemicals compatible.
Unsealed Saltillo tile absorbs any stain – concrete, wood, paint, etc. But once it’s successfully stained, the tile must be adequately sealed to lock in the stain. (Some stains mix with sealer too.) Because there are so many options to stain a clay floor, this requires a lot of experimentation to land on the perfect look for your space.
Want to See It In Your Room?
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Also, because unsealed Saltillo tile is porous, it will likely take several coats of stain & sealer to get the job done. Between the experimentation process, materials, and labor to complete this task, it is expensive and leaves a lot of margin for error.
What’s a Less Expensive Octagon Pattern Alternative?

How can you get this same look of Joanna Gaines Saltillo tile floor without the price tag? Check out the Manganese Saltillo tile. We produce Manganese Saltillo tile to look similar to the Hot Sauce House Octagon Saltillo tile floors.
We produce Manganese Saltillo tile with warm tones of brown and terracotta shades. You can see the resemblance between this Octagon Saltillo tile floor and the Joanna Gaines Saltillo Tile floor.
Not so crazy about the Octagon pattern? Check out these tips for picking the best Saltillo floor tile pattern for your project.

What’s the most significant difference between a custom-stained terracotta tile floor and a prefinished Manganese tile floor? The price tag. Custom staining a Saltillo tile floor is approximately 60% more expensive than buying a finished presealed Saltillo tile floor.
Do you want more or less color variation in your floor than the presealed tile photos illustrate? Before jumping to the staining process to solve that issue, consider your project overage.
The standard overage for waste, cuts, and borders for an octagon pattern Saltillo tile is 15%. To allow for extra color control, consider increasing your overage to 20-25% so colors can be culled through on the job site. Yes, you will have more tile that you will install, but this process is still less expensive than custom staining a Saltillo tile floor.
Photos of Brown Terracotta Tiles
Manganese Saltillo Floor Tiles




Houston Tile Works does excellent work installing our tile on Texas floors! Thanks for sharing the photos, friends. Thanks, too, to Joanna Gaines and her team for showing the beauty and versatility of handmade Saltillo tile in the Hot Sauce House.
If you want to create a similar look, browse our Saltillo tile Shapes & Sizes. Any of our Saltillo tiles are available in the Manganese Saltillo color finish. This color finish is excellent for the trend of Modern Rustic Style Home Decor.