Honest Mixtiles Review – Our Living Room Gallery Wall

If you’re considering using Mixtiles for your gallery wall this honest Mixtiles review is for you!

When Jeff and I bought our house, the cutest little bungalow in central Tucson, I knew I wanted a living room gallery wall to be the center focus. We’d had a gallery wall at our apartment, using Ikea frames. I had planned on just rehanging those frames with new photos. But I didn’t wrap the frames up carefully enough. So when we unpacked I found several broken picture frames and pieces of glass.

The choice was then to order new frames and new photos, or ordering from a done for you company. It had taken us almost 6 months to actually hang our last gallery wall. So the done for us solution was the obvious choice! If you’re anything like me you like to read user experiences before making a big purchase. That’s why I wrote this Mixtiles review. I want to share an honest look at our experience from start to finish.

Top Tip for Ordering Mixtiles

You can order Mixtiles two places.

1. On their site where you can only order square photos.
2. They have a sister site Walnut where you can order different size photos. The only caveat to that tis that Walnut doesn’t have a website so you do need to use their app. All of the branding is still Mixtiles branding.

2 year update: The Walnut app doesn’t seem to be around anymore. But if you google Walnut by Mixtiles you can find different size frame options. 

What Did the Mixtiles Cost?

We bought 15 12″x16″ frames and the total was $396.00 including shipping.

If we had ordered 15 12×16″ frames from ikea it would have been $120 plus the $129 delivery fee. We live about 2 hours from the closest Ikea. The photos would’ve been $4.70 each from my professional lab which is a total of $70.50. The command strips would’ve been approximately $25.00 from Target. For a total cost of $344.50.

So the Mixttiles weren’t the least expensive option, but the convenience and time savings are definitely important factors.

 

Ordering and Delivery

Order the images was super easy. On the Mixtiles website it is a drag and drop uploader. On the app you just selected the images that you wanted included. 10/10 user experience.

Unfortunately, the delivery and customer service wasn’t as wonderful as the ordering experience. The mixtiles did not arrive by their guaranteed arrival date. So I emailed customer service asking for tracking information or an update. When they emailed me back it was to let me know that the order wouldn’t even be shipped for another week. To apologize for the inconvenience they offered a 10% refund on the order.

We ended up receiving the frames a few weeks after our original delivery date. That was super disappointing, but we were really excited to open up the boxes!

 

Packaging and First Impressions

We liked the packaging of the box! The frames were really secure and protected so none of the frames were broken. On the app there isn’t a ton of information about what the tiles are actually like.  So it was a bit of a surprise.

The Mixtiles are very lightweight with a plastic frame and the photo is printed directly onto the foam mat. The adhesive is on the top of the frame only, and the plastic very easily shows damage. Several of our frames came to us with little scratches along the edges. Unfortunately, because there is only adhesive on one side if your wall is uneven then the frame pops away from the wall! However, it does ensure that they are easy to peel off the wall without damaging it.

The photos themselves print a little soft. We did choose black and white images so that could be why! It’s a simple fix by just adding a bit of contrast!

Hanging the Mixtiles

The hanging process was actually super easy. All you need are a level, ruler, and a pencil to mark where you want the frames to hand. It took Jeff and myself approximately an hour to hang the entire wall!

I think part of that was because of our previous experience hanging a wall so we knew how to measure. But part of it was the ease of the pre-stick tiles! It was very quick to just peel off the protective paper. The adhesive on the tile is actually really strong. We tried knocking against the wall a couple of times and they didn’t move at all.

 

What the Frames Look Like on the Wall

And just for fun here’s our sweet brittanydoodle puppy watching us hang up the tiles!

 

Mixtiles Review: Final Verdict

Overall, we love our gallery wall and really enjoy having photos from the entire timeline of our relationship!  The process of ordering and receiving wasn’t the best, but the ease of hanging was definitely amazing, and they did apologize and provide a discount for the delay. We would order from them again.

 

Mixtiles Review: 2 Year Update

I had forgotten that the ordering experience wasn’t everything I would’ve wanted. So in the grand scheme of things, if you’re not in a hurry for them that probably isn’t that impactful.

The positive is that we have moved the Mixtiles twice and they’ve held up REALLY well. They were on the first wall for about a year before we took them down. It’s important to note that they didn’t damage our paint at all when they came down.

Then the Mixtiles original adhesive re-stuck easily and securely. The second wall we put them on was also not smooth/flat. Despite that and the fact that they had already been stuck once they stayed up without a problem for over 6 months before I took them down again.

Most recently we stored them for another 6 months and they still look amazing. The adhesive isn’t sticky anymore, but we can use a new adhesive and rehang them again.

Finally my most frequently asked question is why did you order the photos in black and white? That is because I want them to fit in perfectly with any decor and with each other. By making them black and white I can choose images I love without having to worry about the colors of the photos at all.