Back Splash

About two weeks ago we had beautiful counters and a new sink put it our kitchen. This left me wanting more. The back splash needed to be updated. I went back and forth on a lot of different options. I wanted something affordable and easy that I could do myself. I considered bead board, subway tile, and the beautiful mosaic glass tiles. All of these required more money and also more work than I wanted. I have a week off of work but I have more than one project I want to do this week. I needed something easy and affordable.

After a lot of looking on Pinterest I came upon Smart Tiles. They are peel and stick tiles that look like the expensive mosaic glass tiles. They are still quite pricey which is why I've only done the area around the sink and you will not see photos of the stove back splash. I will probably update that in another month or two.

I read a lot of blog posts from others who have used Smart Tiles and looked at a lot of photos. For an easy, affordable but not entirely cheap update they are a great option! These tiles are a 3D gel tile and easy to cut with both a razor or scissors!

First thing I had to do was rip off the silver wallpaper which was pretty easy. Then I cleaned it with a good degreaser. Blogs recommended TSP but I didn't have any so I just used the kitchen degreaser that we had on hand.Here is a bit of a before from this morning. Ignore the clutter, I hadn't started clearing off the counters yet.

Peeling away the silver.

 Another thing that will be updated are the outlets. They are old and almond colored. I bought new plates and outlets but I am nervous to try replacing them myself so I'm going to have my dad show me how.

This one is upside down and doesn't have a ground!

 

I started in this section first and it was very easy and went by pretty fast. 

 I continued on around to the next side of the wall. 

The area above the sink is where it got tricky. I had to do a lot of cutting and fitting in like a puzzle to get it to work. The area was 3 full pieces across but also left about 2 inches on one side open. So I had to cut other pieces and fit it in. Luckily, as I mentioned before these were easy to cut. 

 Above is the finished product! Below is a close up. I still need to add some trim around the base and along the edges of the wall. The current trim is almond/yellow on the edges and a little trim between the counter and the tile will hide any imperfections where it wasn't completely straight to the counter back splash.

Finally, I decided our counters were too messy and cluttered. We rarely use our toaster oven. I can't even tell you the last time I used it. So I decided to put it in the cabinet below so it's still accessible but not out on the counter. I also want to start making smoothies more so I put our fairly new blender in the corner. I also bought a tiny little gray basket to put our sponge and scrubbers in. They are still on the counter but I think it looks a bit more organized. 

New countertops!

Hello ! It's been a while since I've blogged. I started a new job on September 1st which has me working later days. So updates on the house dwindled. One great thing about the job is back when I interviewed with the company my husband told me that if I got the job we could get new counter tops and a faucet for the kitchen. Most of my home updates have been do it yourself and fairly budget/low cost. Counters are the biggest upgrade we have done...well other than the roof and the garage door but those were both necessary a not really blog worthy.

We decided to go for laminate because we have a small 3 bedroom ranch and don't plan on being in this house forever. The neighborhood we are in isn't bad but it isn't quite granite counter neighborhood. We're (I) am saving that for a future house. The wonderful thing about laminate nowadays is it is much nicer than years ago and has a stone look.

Since this was a bigger job, I opted to have Lowes do the tear out and install. Scheduling for this was quite a pain in the butt. They use subcontractors and the people were VERY nice but it was difficult and very frustrating to schedule both the measuring and the install. It all worked out.

Along with the countertop we got a new sink and a new faucet. My husband is pretty neutral on most of the home updates but since we don't have a dishwasher, a new higher, better faucet was definitely a welcome improvement that he was happy about.

Here are some before and after photos of the counters.

After putting in the  new counters I realized that the silver temporary wall paper back splash just wasn't cutting it. Here you can see what it originally looked like before I put the silver up. So I decided it was time to invest a little more money and update the back splash for real.