Has anyone put up a backsplash?

[underwaterrhymes]

Was it a pain in the ass? Did you regret doing it yourself?

I like to put together furniture, but usually wind up having to backtrack once or twice to fix something I screwed up.

Also, we don't have a saw and I'm skeered to use one.

This means we should probably hire a professional, right?

[underwaterrhymes]

Jul 11, 2013 14:20:40 GMT -5 Loco Coco said:

We did it! It wasn't hard, but our kitchen isn't huge either. I love that we did ourselves. I 'll try to find a pic and come back.

Ooh, are you guys naturally handy?

I am. H is not, but H has infinitely more patience than I do. We might piss each other off doing this project together.

Do post a pic, though! Where did you get your tiles? Did you rent a saw, or did you have one?

[lightbulbsun]

I did it. It was a pain in the ass, but I don't regret it.

ETA: It depends on what kind of tile you're putting up, but I installed glass tile and just got a $30 tile cutter from home depot.

[underwaterrhymes]

Loco Coco - That looks great!

lightbulbsun and @themommymonster - Do you have pics? Any tips?

[lightbulbsun]

Here's a blog post I wrote about it (lol) oneuglyhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/backsplash

I used thinset to stick the tiles up, but kaylie just did hers with the sticky paper stuff and her's looks awesome.

It wasn't difficult, it just required patience. I watched about 80 youtube videos before I started, so I had a good idea of what to do.

I got my tiles at home depot or lowes, can't remember now. I used this tool to cut the tiles: www.amazon.com/Jennifers-Mosaics-Mosaic-Scorer-Breaker/dp/B0044S9CRG/ref=lp_553184_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373572330&sr=1-2

When I did slightly larger porcelein tiles in my bathroom I used something like this: www.amazon.com/Nattco-aluminum-interchangable-popular-sold-US/dp/B000KKT7FO/ref=lp_553184_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1373572330&sr=1-4

[kaylie]

I used a Bondera mat which sticks to the wall and you tile over it. Lowes sells it here. It was very easy to use, but you do have to grout the same day (within 6 hours I think). That worked great for me because I wanted to pound it out, but it's good to be aware of that going in.

I found the project easier than I'd expected mostly because lighbulbsun told me tiling sucked big time =). I also used an easier material than she did; mine is ceramic subway tile and her mosaic had stone in it. If you're cutting glass or ceramic you should be okay with an inexpensive tile cutter, for stone or marble you'll need a tile saw to get the cleanest cuts. I got mine done in one day, including the grout (it's a ~30 sq ft backsplash). I do not regret doing it myself at all. It looks great and it was a good way to save money.

Here are a couple "finished" pictures:

[underwaterrhymes]

lightbulbsun - I love that backsplash! That's similar to what we want to do.

specialk - that's cool! I'm not sure it would work in our kitchen, but I really like it.

kaylie - I LOVE your kitchen. I really want white cabinets, but it's not in the budget right now. The subway tile really works.

[kaylie]

Thanks, we did most of it ourselves including the cabinet painting. Do you currently have wood cabinets? It's an undertaking for sure, but I think I only spent a few hundred dollars on paint and a paint sprayer to do mine.

[pantsparty]

I am uber impressed with you ladies! We will definitely want a backsplash, I'm not much of a DIYer, but these look great!

[eb777888]

kaylie, I adore your kitchen. ADORE. That's exactly what I'm looking to do with mine.

[underwaterrhymes]

Jul 11, 2013 18:44:58 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Thanks, we did most of it ourselves including the cabinet painting. Do you currently have wood cabinets? It's an undertaking for sure, but I think I only spent a few hundred dollars on paint and a paint sprayer to do mine.

You did that yourself? Wow.

I posted this yesterday, but this is what the kitchen looks like in the house we're moving into. We have a dark wood table, so I'm coming up with ways of making it look awesome in such a light, airy space.

I don't know that us painting the cabinets would work very well. I think we'll have to wait on that project.


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[2boys2danes]

We THOUGHT my husband was going to do ours and we ordered the 12 in by 12 in small glass tiles on a mesh type material from the www.glasstilestore.com and got a really good price... cheaper than lowes and HD and a lot more selection. We ended up having our handyman neighbor do ours, pretty big kitchen for about 300 bucks. I'll try to pip at some point but I'm not very techy that way.

If you are handy, its probably something you can do fairly easily... good luck!

[kaylie]

Jul 11, 2013 19:33:40 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

Jul 11, 2013 18:44:58 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Thanks, we did most of it ourselves including the cabinet painting. Do you currently have wood cabinets? It's an undertaking for sure, but I think I only spent a few hundred dollars on paint and a paint sprayer to do mine.

You did that yourself? Wow.

I posted this yesterday, but this is what the kitchen looks like in the house we're moving into. We have a dark wood table, so I'm coming up with ways of making it look awesome in such a light, airy space.

I don't know that us painting the cabinets would work very well. I think we'll have to wait on that project.

That is an amazing amount of light - you're lucky! You might want to post over on the H&G board - those ladies have a ton of ideas and a lot of them have done mini kitchen makeovers. My initial urge would be to paint the walls, put an area rug under the table and change out the light fixture over the table.

[underwaterrhymes]

Jul 12, 2013 4:41:38 GMT -5 kaylie said:

Jul 11, 2013 19:33:40 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

You did that yourself? Wow.

I posted this yesterday, but this is what the kitchen looks like in the house we're moving into. We have a dark wood table, so I'm coming up with ways of making it look awesome in such a light, airy space.

I don't know that us painting the cabinets would work very well. I think we'll have to wait on that project.

That is an amazing amount of light - you're lucky! You might want to post over on the H&G board - those ladies have a ton of ideas and a lot of them have done mini kitchen makeovers. My initial urge would be to paint the walls, put an area rug under the table and change out the light fixture over the table.

Thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely post over there later today. (What color would you paint?)

[underwaterrhymes]

oooh, bricco! I love how you have it above the shelving!

ribollita - how did you find someone for $300? I've been seeing a lot higher than that.

[Monica Geller]

We also did it.  We used the 12" mesh, used the tile-wall-glue strip thing.  Basically we stuck the glue-strip thing to the wall; pressed the tile into it and then grouted over it.  We did have to use a tile-cutter.  I'll see if I can find some pictures on the other laptop. It was easy and only took us about 2 days.  

[kaylie]

I would do a light aqua. Maybe BM Paladian Blue or SW Sea Salt.