I am working on a front porch addition for a client. We built shelf and sitting walls with exterior siding around the perimeter.

She wants to do a plaster with tile mosaic on the inside, but is not convinced that it can be done at a low cost.

I like the idea of 1x wood lath with a couple coats of plaster and then a finish coat with broken tiles.

I have little experience with tile mosaics, but I did assist a mason in building the flagstone platform for this project, which seems to be a similar concept: embed the pieces into wet mortar, allow to dry, point with white mortar.

Here is my proposal: Do a keyed scratch coat of fibrous (straw chaff, cellulose or hair) sand/clay plaster over wood slat lath before applying a brown coat, into which the tiles will be pushed. I would imagine the pointing could be some sort of lime mortar.

Anyone have experiences to share? Or just common sense advice?