Kitchen Upgrade - Part 3

This Saturday in Minneapolis started out pretty dang gloomy. Both myself and my husband were feeling motivated to get something done. So....we decided to tile the backsplash in the kitchen.

Here is what the backsplash used to look like:

Plain Jane with some paint splotches (no surprise there)

We found some affordable tile, online at Home Depot, that we thought would pair nicely with the cabinets, appliances and counter. Once we confirmed that they were in stock at our local store, we headed to HD to get all the necessary supplies.

We started the project by cleaning off the walls, making sure dust, dirt, & oils were removed. Then we put up the tile backing. Due to the fact that we were only tiling 5 square feet (give or take) and because the cost of the easy stuff (peel-and-stick) was very much in-line with the other not as easy/messier stuff, we chose to use the peel and sticks.

It's basically double sided tape on a bigger scale. We measured the walls and cut the paper to size and mounted it to the wall using the easy-to-follow instructions.

Here I am measuring for the outlet and window frame. 

Here is the paper stuck to the wall, with the other sticky side (to stick to tiles) not yet exposed. 

Once the paper was up, it was just a matter of removing the protective paper and pressing-up the tile. Again, we measured the wall (one more time, just to be safe), and then the tile, and removed the excess tiles (i.e. our wall was 7.75 inches, and the tile sheets were 12 inches, so we removed the necessary number of rows to ensure that the tile would fit correctly).

Here I am counting the number of rows I wanted to remove, before cutting.

Once all the tiles were cut, we put them up on the wall. Easy as press on nails!

Now onto the messy and more difficult stuff. Grout! 

Here is Jeff (my hubby) mixing the stuff up.

Here he is applying it to the tile.

He is SO good :)

While we were slaving away, Max was doing this. We love our lazy dog.

Now comes the most painful part....waiting.....You have to wait for the grout to set, before you can remove the excess grout. Instead of sitting around, watching paint grout dry, we took the dog for long walk.

Once back at the house, we used sponges to remove the excess grout. Sorry there aren't any pictures of this step. It was a two man job. After gently scrubbing off the excess, we used a soft rag and went over the tiles one last time, buffing them, just to make sure they would sparkle.

Here is a close-up of the finished product.

Let's see that before again, just to jog our memories.....

Before

After!

We LOVE it. It is subtle, but is totally the new focal point of the room. As an added bonus, the tile, along with a reader suggestion (thanks Abby), has inspired me with regards to paint color! We are planning on painting the walls an almost white gray color.  

Once we get around to painting, I will post more pics. 

Subway Tiles

One of my favorite parts of the kitchen is the subway tile back splash.  Look at the before - just the paint (or bare wall from where the old countertop was)

So boring!

 So - enter homies, you may know her as Home Depot - but as I frequent her shop often, we have nicknames for eachother. She probably calls me 'Frequent but cheapo'.  We were able to get this 3x6 subway tiles for all less than $40! Also enter my dad. He is the tiling expert of the family - so he agreed to help me. Thanks dad!!

While I had never tiled before, I was surprised at how quickly I picked it up... it was actually really fun!

My dad had to help with the tricky corners - he was better at cutting the tile than I was.

I had originally rented a wet saw for the day from Homies, but my dad showed up and said I could have used a much smaller one - a scorer.  Then looking at the wet saw - they hadn't given us all the parts. So back to HD we went - to return the wet saw.  They felt bad at their mistake - so I didn't pay anything to rent the scorer - score!

Finally the white grout (again - applied with a lesson by my dad) really made it look polished!

I learned a few things from this:

1. Parents who love to help you DIY are simply the best - hands down!!! 

2. Tiling is not scary - I really enjoyed it, and can't wait to do it again.

3. Simple is better when it comes to tiles - I debated on a few different types of tiles and patterns, but the subway are perfect.

Any of you take on tiling projects lately? Comment with the link - I would love to see them