A Tile Test
First, some great news: we close Thursday!
I’ve been thinking a lot about our game plan going forward. We have such a tight timeline before I have to take an extended work trip. Prioritizing updates and reno-projects has become very important. One room I know I want to start with is the kitchen. It’s basically needs everything, but a few of the update items can be done fairly quickly and hopefully easily (?). So this room—along with a lot of painting—has become my priority one.
Ross will be putting flooring into either the laundry room or the master bedroom. Our goal is to get one of these two rooms completely finished so we can move the majority of our things there. We will be putting new flooring through the entire house later this summer so we don’t want to move our stuff in to everyone room just to move it around again when we are ready to complete flooring.
Anyway, back to the kitchen.
1. I have decided no upper cabinets. There’s the demo portion. we will save the open shelving install for a later time.
2. Wallpaper removal—boo. And paint.
3. Concrete over tile countertops—eep! This one I’m nervous about. I’m just gonna go for it.
4. Pattern tile backsplash. This is the step this post is actually about. Nothing like burying the lede, right?
This is what our kitchen looks like now:
See all the tile? (Ross actually likes it.) Something must be done. Granted the 80s cabinets along with the fleshy-brownish colored walls, tile, and floor combined makes the whole kitchen overwhelmly dark and dated. Kind of like cooking in a cave. And that’s why the whole kitchen eventually gets a makeover, but the tile I can tackle now.
After I conquer the concrete overlay project. I’ll be left with just the back wall tiles making up the backsplash. These are an odd 13x13 size. I would love white subway tile or a white herringbone pattern, but for budgets sake the existing tile will get a makeover.
I’ve been loving the pattern cement tile backsplashes on Pinterest. Fixer Upper used it, and if Jo used it then it’s as good as gold. I also came across a few DIY-ers who have stenciled their own tile—mostly on their floors. I worked on my iPad for about 2 days making a stencil pattern to cut with my cricut. I loved it. I wanted to end up with something similar to this:
I came up with this:
Again, I loved it. I finally tweaked it perfectly where it was symmetrical, it had enough variation to make an interesting pattern. I was so happy and proud. Ross did not like it. He was very nice about it, but I could tell he didn’t. I want him to love the kitchen too because he cooks a lot. We are both excited about getting a kitchen we will be happy to spend time in. So because I’m selfless and wonderful I went back and drew a different pattern:
We both really like it. And because it’s a little more earthly and primary (I guess?) I think it’ll actually work right on top of the tile as is. With my original pattern I was going to paint the tiles a creamy white before stenciling. So maybe I’ve saved myself a step. I think it’ll end up a bit more rustic than my original concept, but hey no worries. Rustic is good.
Last night I cut the design on contact paper and painted it on a small sample tile I picked up at Lowes. I love it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about our game plan going forward. We have such a tight timeline before I have to take an extended work trip. Prioritizing updates and reno-projects has become very important. One room I know I want to start with is the kitchen. It’s basically needs everything, but a few of the update items can be done fairly quickly and hopefully easily (?). So this room—along with a lot of painting—has become my priority one.
Ross will be putting flooring into either the laundry room or the master bedroom. Our goal is to get one of these two rooms completely finished so we can move the majority of our things there. We will be putting new flooring through the entire house later this summer so we don’t want to move our stuff in to everyone room just to move it around again when we are ready to complete flooring.
Anyway, back to the kitchen.
1. I have decided no upper cabinets. There’s the demo portion. we will save the open shelving install for a later time.
2. Wallpaper removal—boo. And paint.
3. Concrete over tile countertops—eep! This one I’m nervous about. I’m just gonna go for it.
4. Pattern tile backsplash. This is the step this post is actually about. Nothing like burying the lede, right?
This is what our kitchen looks like now:
See all the tile? (Ross actually likes it.) Something must be done. Granted the 80s cabinets along with the fleshy-brownish colored walls, tile, and floor combined makes the whole kitchen overwhelmly dark and dated. Kind of like cooking in a cave. And that’s why the whole kitchen eventually gets a makeover, but the tile I can tackle now.
After I conquer the concrete overlay project. I’ll be left with just the back wall tiles making up the backsplash. These are an odd 13x13 size. I would love white subway tile or a white herringbone pattern, but for budgets sake the existing tile will get a makeover.
I’ve been loving the pattern cement tile backsplashes on Pinterest. Fixer Upper used it, and if Jo used it then it’s as good as gold. I also came across a few DIY-ers who have stenciled their own tile—mostly on their floors. I worked on my iPad for about 2 days making a stencil pattern to cut with my cricut. I loved it. I wanted to end up with something similar to this:
I came up with this:
Again, I loved it. I finally tweaked it perfectly where it was symmetrical, it had enough variation to make an interesting pattern. I was so happy and proud. Ross did not like it. He was very nice about it, but I could tell he didn’t. I want him to love the kitchen too because he cooks a lot. We are both excited about getting a kitchen we will be happy to spend time in. So because I’m selfless and wonderful I went back and drew a different pattern:
We both really like it. And because it’s a little more earthly and primary (I guess?) I think it’ll actually work right on top of the tile as is. With my original pattern I was going to paint the tiles a creamy white before stenciling. So maybe I’ve saved myself a step. I think it’ll end up a bit more rustic than my original concept, but hey no worries. Rustic is good.
Last night I cut the design on contact paper and painted it on a small sample tile I picked up at Lowes. I love it.
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