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A Backsplash Bash

OUR 2nd HOUSE· TILE

Tiling.  Party of sixty-one.

Yup. That’s how many square feet of tile went into our new backsplash.  And just to get the awkward blind date feeling outta the way…here’s the before when our girl was plain Jane…

And here she is now after a little fairy dust…

Of course, that is groutless…and Frog Taped (every princess story has a frog in it, right?!)…oh and still lacking finishing…but the point is, the tile is up!  insert awkward homeschool dancing here.

So the tile before was a travertine….remember this?

With the help of 0ur little construction worker (or should I call him our ‘destruction’ worker?), the old tile came down and Jeremy installed some drywall.   

Then we did what we do best….fondled things we like in public…namely some very pretty pretties at The Tile Shop.  They surprised us with an amazing gift of free tile.  Yeah.  We still can’t believe it either.  And after a long time of star gazing…just so we could find that lucky one to thank…we picked out a beautiful marble hex shaped tile in polished finish.   

Then came the hard part….do we install it with the flat side up?

or the pointy side up? 

Decisions…decisions.  This is a prime example of a first world problem.  In the end and after a lot of photo analyzing, we decided that with the pointy side up, it looked very bee-hive-ish.  Not that I have anything against the bees.  I actually have a great fondness for the idea of bees in general (my mom’s name means “bee”, my mother-in-law goes by GrandBee, and my best friend is so into them, she even had them on her wedding invite…and then there is honey of course…which can make anything better)…but as much as I like the design associated with bees, I didn’t really want my kitchen to be a hive.  No offense to any apiarists out there.

Oh and I made it a point that I absolutely needed to start centered over the middle of the range top.  There is no excuse for an off center backsplash.     

The hardest part about the process was the fact that the tile was glued to mesh sheets…so each tile could slump down into the next and the spacing was really difficult.  I ended up using a TON of spacers.

Behind our range hood, we had left just a sliver of a space for the tile to slide up and behind.  That made it easy for a seamless look and a few less cuts.

I would slide it up and then push. 

See how annoying the spacing is?  Each tile had uneven spaces.

I spent probably two thirds of the first tile day just learning how to space the best way and to do it quickly. 

I did all the thinsetting and tiling and spacing while Jeremy cut tile.  And yes, this is the famous “I cut tile with a wet saw” look.  Not to be confused with “I was so distracted with my fantasy football team that I failed myself” look.   There is a difference.

So five hours in…this is how far we got…

And then another three hours the next day…

and then we started working on the big wall…we knew this one would take at least four hours. 

The hardest part was getting all the cuts just right and making sure everything was flush and spaced correctly.  I had to work under the cabinets…bending over was just so ridiculous being full term.  I’m kinda surprised Weston didn’t come out with a countertop dent in his head. 

Will was at Cole’s house for a few hours so it helped tremendously to not worry about him while we worked.  I got under the windows done pretty fast… 

And then Jer got back home (had to pick up Will) and I was down to the biggest area…I like to call it the great wall of tile.

Basically I just started at the bottom and worked up and then over.

It’s pretty self explanatory…smear, spacers, tile, level, more spacers, repeat.

Tomorrow I can share the how-I-tile post…this is more like here-is-the-progress post.

Nice undercarriage Katie.

This is my ‘look happy Katie’ face.  I look slightly crazy. 

And then here we have the finished product….

See my wall of tile?  Beautiful.  Makes me wanna break out in a Whitney Houston song.

Oh and yes, eventually we will have a few shelves there…here are some slightly doctored photos to show ya what we are thinking.

That’s with corbels and here’s just floating shelves.  I’m still undecided.  Jeremy votes corbels because he thinks they will be sturdier.  He’s all about the sturdy.  He wants to be able to sleep on those shelves.   I’m not kidding.

So that’s how it looks with the tile up…next up – how I do it.  and then grouting.  seriously…this kitchen is gonna last me till next year.  You think I’m kidding.  It’s still not done…just so you know. 

disclaimer – The Tile Shop provided me with some GORG tile for my kitchen.  All opinions are my own.  I highly recommend using The Tile Shop and I am a huge fan.  I have not been bribed, coerced or paid to say anything positive…this love is unadulterated.

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  1. Looks so good. REALLY like the hex style. Wish I could do this in my kitchen! We just bought our first house and I can’t wait to be a DIY house person!

  3. Wowwwwweee! That marble tile is killing me…your kitchen is just GORGEOUS! I vote for corbels under the shelves so I can come over and sleep in that beauty of a space ;).

  4. Looks BEAUTIFUL!! Great work! As always, your hilaious commentary….and Jeremy’s pants made me crack up! Truly a great way to start my morning! Now…. If only my job was as fun as you guys!

  5. WOW!!! This looks amazing! I can’t wait to see more progress! You’re a tropper for tackling this full term.

    PS – I have the same PB lamp in my dining room! It even made it’s way into some of our engagement pictures that we took at our house.

  6. The kitchen looks AMAZING! And so much larger. Loving it.

    We redid ours a couple of years ago and put in marble subways and I love them. The marble is so warm and under cabinet lighting, particularly warmer xenon lightning, just makes the marble and the granite, for that matter, glow.

    Just make sure when you cook chili or spaghetti to wipe the spatters up immediately or you will have nice little orange grease stains on your pretty tile and grout. That goes for around the sink when you’re cleaning up too. 🙁 We got all our supplies, including the recommended sealant, from The Tile Shop, followed directions to a tee (’cause of the marble and all) but sometimes surprises still happen. We call it patina with love. No big deal, we knew this. But the quicker you can get to things, the slower patina will build. We have no regrets, whatsoever.

  7. Wow…it looks gorgeous, and look at you…a VERY busy pregnant lady. Great job!

  10. OMG! That tile is gorgeous!! I am amazed at your ability to acomplish such tasks while at the end of your pregnancy. You are one strong lady!!

  11. This looks so awesome!!!! I love the tile choice & the way you picked to lay it. It did sorta look like a beehive! not to mention you’re a pretty tough woman doing all that work full term! 🙂 Hope the family us well! Can’t wait to see it all finished!!!!

  14. I was wondering why you decided to go higher with the tiles next to the window. I think shelves will look great! And I like that you put the hex tiles flat. Pointy side up they looked like a bathroom floor to me (which is mostly where I’ve seen them). Major kudos to you for working to hard when you were so pregnant!

  17. LOVING the new tile! Great job Katie – and while you were 9 months pregnant?!! You are amazing. Can’t wait for the how-to tomorrow.

  22. Your family was just what that kitchen needed! Your kitchen makeover is stunning.

    I’m a fan of the corbels. The floating shelves seem a bit modern to me. I have corbels on my open shelves so I’m a little partial to ’em. It will look great either way!

  23. Love your tile! We installed the same type of tile on our bathroom floor. By the time we were finished, I think my Husband was about to kick me! I was sooo anal about the spacing between each.

  25. looking great!!! you are a superstar doing this so pregnant. really. wow.
    i think if you change out your pendants for polished nickel it would really give that sparkle to your kitchen. And i love the shelves…but maybe only two on the wall. all your plates/glasses/nicknacks would look better behind the marble instead of the drywall. just my thoughts.

  28. Katie, Oh my goodness its sooooo pretty!!! I am so so excited you guys! What a difference!!! I absolutely love it myself and can’t even imagine how happy you guys are…except that I have Whitney’s “Wanna Dance with Somebody” blaring in my head now. 🙂 Enjoy!!!

  29. WOWSA! I actually liked the travertine tile, but it totally pales in comparison to the marble. FABULOUS! Night and day. So beautiful. Even more marvelous with the price you paid! Jealous. Jus’ sayin’………. 😉

  31. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
    Thats all I keep saying as I scroll down the post 🙂

    I just finished my kitchen with off/white beveled subway tile & just need to grout. I’ll show you a photo when done!

    Great job! Love!

  33. Thanks for this post, we just bought our backsplash… and its been sitting in our basement. I’m motivated to try putting the tiles up now instead of waiting around for a professional. (Not the cutting…)

  34. I vote for floating shelves.
    This brings back memories of my husband installing our backsplash. But hard work always pays off, I say. Great job “guys”.

  35. Katie you are just plain amazing…when i got to that point in my pregnancy I could hardly walk into the house every night after work, much less tile my kitchen. I am in awe…oh and the tile…not to shabby 😉

  36. Thank you for showing us the tile…finally!!! I know you’ve been kinda busy (pushing a baby out, taking care of a newborn, trying to sleep, toddler care, etc) BUT I have been waiting and waiting to see it!

    It was DEFINITELY worth the wait…good job Katie.

  37. Classic and gorgeous! Love the look! We just added a back splash and it totally changes the look of your kitchen. Next up for us is cabinet painting. Maybe you could send your boyfriend our way, he did a great job on yours!

  38. Your backsplash looks AMAZING, KB!! I’m leaning no-corbels on your shelves, but the molding in your kitchen seems pretty traditional, so the corbels would look good. My husband is all about overkill/things being ridiculously sturdy, too! When we build our entryway console in January he used about a zillion tapcon screws. He now describes it by saying “you could bounce on it”. Helpful? My purse is not quite that heavy.

    We recently visited The Tile Shop near us, and I was in love with those marble hex tiles! Tragically my husband didn’t share the sentiment. (Apparently he doesn’t like marble?! How did I not know this for 4 years?) He did like the black 2′ hex tiles, though, so we might be using them in our hall bathroom.

  41. finally!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been waiting for this post!!! I’m gonna go put on lipstick before I read it, I’ll be right back…..

  42. Wow, it looks amazing, my dream kitchen…. think im going to steal your paint color for my kitchen 🙂

  43. Your kitchen looks so pretty–such a huge difference! Y’all did a great job of picking everything out, and I am impressed that you and Jeremy were able to pull off such a big job while being busy with work, pregnancy, and a busy little boy!

  44. Your kitchen is lovely, you are so stinkin’ adorable, and I think you only want two shelves. Picture it…the stuff on that top shelf wont have the same backdrop as the stuff on the other two shelves.

  45. OK, I read and loved!!!! Can’t wait to see the grout, etc. Will there be a trim pieces? oh wait, I see, the shelves….yes. And for the record, my husband and having the best and strongest and most supported,….. could we park a dumptruck safely on our deck? why yes we could. thanks Katie for doing this post, I was just getting ready to beg to see the tile, lol.

  46. WOW… what a difference. Love it all. You guys did a great job…. and Katie ~ you go girl for taking on this huge project while you were 9 months pregnant!!! =)

  49. I was totally prepared to see the “after” at the end of the post, so I started scrolling to read the process and BAM, there it was. The difference is AMAZING, and I love how high you took the tile. Awesome awesome awesome.

  50. I think the shelves will look better with corbels, to match the fanciness of the cornice at the top of the cabinets.

    I’m excited to see the photos of your black and white kitchen progress. I keep trying to convince my husband that the orange-y oak needs to go, but he likes color our rooms. I keep telling him that the color comes in with the accessories, but he’s a visual learner. I think it looks gorgeous so far, hopefully my husband will also agree and let me paint!

  53. I love that backsplash. I have been waiting for your update ever since you showed a tile on Instagram a while back. I’ll cut you a break since you have been pretty busy on the home front. You are so lucky that you had the dark counters. I got a new kitchen with my house, but I’m not in love with it. I have cherry cabinets a the same type of backsplash that you used to have and light tanish marble. The room is just so dark because there was an addition added to the house that knocked out the back wall to add a large family room. So the wall of windows that used to be in the kitchen are now 24′ away from the kitchen. I wanted to go with the white cabinets and I swear I looked at that exact backsplash, but I’d have to replaced the marble. It just wouldn’t go. I’m sad.

  54. When I was a kid, my dad’s thing with hanging anything was that we “could do gymnastics on it”. Must be a guy thing…

  55. Hahaha I love that you think you weren’t “nesting” but you redid your freakin’ kitchen at full term. It looks fabulous and I hope you are really enjoying it now!

  56. I don’t think I’ve seen this tile on a kitchen backsplash before, and I love it! I think the tile wall with the shelves is a great idea, too. Nicely done. Enjoy!

  59. how bout breaking up the shelves to 2 and instead of white using stainless and darker wood corbels – just a thought to tie in the floor and the appliances… love the backsplash… kitchen is gorgeous katie!! love love love..

  61. No offense taken.

    (My hubby is a beekeeper) 🙂

    Your kitchen is looking so good now! I have dreams of turning my ugly green travesty of a kitchen into a brighter whiter dream kitchen. Someday…

    Great job!

  62. HOLY BEAUTIFUL! Seriously, gorgeous. Please hand me your kitchen over 😉

    Oh and I vote floating shelves, love the simpleness of it 🙂

  63. Katie! We are tile twinsies! We used that family of tile in our downstairs bathroom– we went a little crazy and used four different sizes. And then we used your hex tile in our upstairs bathroom for the floor along with oversized white subway tile on the walls and aloe green glass in the shower (purrrrrty). LOVE the hex for your backsplash. Very nice!

  64. Normally I would be all about the floating shelves, but I think I have to side with Jer here. Something about the thought of adding heavy dishes and such to a shelf like that just mentally thinks “more support”.

    I also want to really commend you on tiling while you were so ready to pop with that bundle of joy. Where you find the energy I can only wish and hope I have when I finally have baby numero uno (SOON hubbie?). Hope the family is doing well!

  66. Your kitchen is AMAZE-BALLS!!! That tile is perfection! I have to say that I agree with Jeremy based on your mock-up of the shelves. Can’t wait ’til the next post!

  67. Wow, it looks awesome! It’s crazy how some paint and new tile can make your kitchen look so much brighter and bigger!

  69. GORGEOUS! Love the larger hex tiles with all of the marbley swirlies! So pretty.

    Love both types of shelves, but depending upon what you plan on putting on them.. agree that corbels might be best. But… be careful with your spacing because the corbels will block a lot of room on the shelves below them.

    Beautiful job!

  71. SO glad to hear I’m not the only one with a “boyfriend” who is fantasy football obsessed. Is it okay for me to admit that I kind of follow along with him? 😉 Your backsplash looks beautiful.. what a complete transformation of your kitchen! And the fact that you’re doing it full term and you still look amazing.. very jelly.

  72. It looks gorgeous… I love it! So much brighter and just plain pretty!

    If you go with shelves and corbels, I think just two shelves would look best. Less crowded.

    Can’t wait to see all the finishing touches.

  74. Totally ok. I actually played in a league one year with the boys and when I beat them, they kicked me out…aka didn’t invite me to play again the following year.
    xo – ego bruiser

  75. SHUT UP. This is gorgeous!!! I love your color scheme. I’m so very into gray and white these days, and your choice of tile is fabo. A much improved kitchen. YAY!

  78. Katie…I’m a long-time reader and rare commenter on your blog. (Maybe a never-commenter…but there’s a first for everything!) I love your kitchen. We have a similar layout in our kitchen, and we painted the cabinets white this fall. We’re still waiting on hardware and I’m still trying to decide what to do about the backsplash. Our tile would end at the end of a wall like yours does on the left. How did you finish off that edge? I’d love to see how you did it! Merry Christmas!

  79. LOOKS FAB! Are you planning on putting any roman shades/window treatments on the sink windows? Will red be an accent color in the kitchen? I bet it is gonna look smokin’ hot when the hardware gets put back on.

  81. Love the tile choice, and had it been my choice, I would have totally picked the same orientation! For the shelves I vote for the corbels. Since you have corbels supporting your island counter top, using corbels on the shelves would be a nice repetition that adds a sense of unity to the space and makes the design decision feel more intentional. Just my two cents. 😉

  82. Looks fantastic! It’s amazing that you didn’t go early. You would think that with all the work you did, Weston would have came early. They say if your active, your baby comes early, guess not with you:)

  85. I must admit that my first thought was….”Bathroom tile in the kitchen?”…but it looks amazing. I vote corbels, but not for the strength factor, but for the visual…it will balance the room better, imho. A compliment to the substantial crown moulding on the cupboards. I can’t wait to see the finished product!! Well done!!!

  86. meant using white shelves with stainless corbels… or med tone reused wood floating or stainless corbels to keep it light looking. tie in the floors and stainless somehow…. beautiful!!

  87. W-O-W. Seriously. Just wow. Each change you make to your kitchen makes me drool a little more. And that hexagon tile? Just put a bib on me already. Another great post!

  89. Katie, it is gorgeous!! You’re making me want to paint my cabinets white and slap up a new backsplash!

  90. I. can. not. believe. you tiled an entire kitchen with a belly that big! You are my hero! I hope Jeremy gave you lots of back rubs!

  91. My vote – floating shelves will balance out the space whereas the corbel shelves will look lopsided due to the underside. I wouldn’t put anything too heavy on them anyway…

  92. Wow! That changed the whole look of your kitchen. I love it. I’m trying to convince my wife right now to paint our cabinets white and go with a light grey backsplash like yours. She is afraid of painting the cabinets a solid color though and maybe later wishing she could have the wood look back. Personally, I don’t think we’d ever regret it.

  94. Hi Katie-
    Have to comment after reading/seeing this…kitchen looks FAN-freakin-TASTIC!
    Other thoughts that came to mind as I was reading:
    1. Thank God you were homeschooled – the visual that goes with “insert awkward homeschool dancing here.” wouldn’t be the same as ‘insert awkward dancing here”. Love it!
    2. Does Jeremy know that you posted the famous “I cut tile with a wet saw” look photo??? Dying here. Not to mention the ‘fantasy football…failed myself’ comment. Just DYING!
    3. Who decides to tile their kitchen this late in pregnancy??? crazy girl.
    4. Thanks for always being fun, amusing, real, and brave in your DIY escapades and blogging.
    All the best,
    Kristin
    (regular reader, irregular commenter)
    [irregular commenter sounds funny, but I like it so I’m leaving it]

  95. So pretty, so pretty, so pretty. Love the kitchen. Love the size of those tiles. (I saw the beehive angle from the pointy side on the bottom. I would’ve chosen like you did.)

    Such a beautiful kitchen, Katie and Jeremy.

  96. I never knew it was possible to salivate over a kitchen like I am now, but lo and behold, it’s happening. I LOVE everything you guys are doing – it looks stunning and already pin-worthy. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

  97. I love the backsplash. I liked the before as well but it is so much brighter now.
    I think two shelves would be better. I think three makes it a bit crowded looking.
    But that is just my opinion! 🙂

  99. Ohhhhh I love it!! Now ya got me thinking! My kitchen is from the 90’s and it has…. Ahem…. Bathroom tile for the backsplash – not kidding!

  100. For the first time ever, I would also vote corbels. I usually strongly prefer the less-busy look of floating shelves, but the cabinetry to the right of the window just has so much PRESENCE. It’s all big and has molding and generally is THERE.

    With just the floating shelves on the left, that side is all light and airy, and the two things on either side of the window are just totally unbalanced. The corbels give the left side a bit more oomph to balance out the right side’s extreme oomph.

    Oomph oomph oomph.

  101. Also, what were your final thoughts about the cabinet paint finish? I remember you picked it because it was supposed to dry so hard & durable, but then it wasn’t doing that when you were in the process of painting.

  102. Beautiful! Just amazing. And special too… Not so pedestrian anymore. Nice vision and nice work.

    Two pieces opinion:
    – go with the corbels, the mock up is great
    – not to add more work, but have you considered raising the tile line on the wall up just a tad to visually line up with the crown molding across the window? My eye seems to like that idea (says the casual voyeur who doesn’t have to do the work 😉

    Great job guys. Can’t wait for more.

  104. Looks awesome!!! So classy. I feel like you may have mentioned this in another post but are you guys going to put hardware on the cabinets or go hardware-less?

  105. No – we are using the hardware that we bought before…just haven’t gotten around to blogging about that yet…kinda trying to go in chronological order since the photos make sense that way 🙂
    xo – kb

  106. It has definitely firmed up. We are overall really happy with it…I think that the cure time is ridiculously long and we were like crazy protective anytime Will came in the room…but now we don’t worry about it.
    xo – kb

  109. Not sure if you are soliciting votes for the corbels vs floating question, but I guess I’m putting my vote out there. Corbels! If it were me, I dig on the slightly traditional aspects of your kitchen, and the corbels would fit right in with that, even if they were sleek and not ornate. (Although I’m loving the modern tile and color choices!) If you are still thinking floating, though, HouseTweaking posted recently about their floating shelves and said they were quite sturdy, by screwing into studs and using heavy duty anchors. http://www.housetweaking.com/2012/12/06/random-tidbits/

  111. I am thoroughly enjoying these updates on your kitchen! My husband and I moved into our house a year ago, learned immediately that the 70’s wall oven didn’t work any longer, so we just demoed out the entire part wall that it was in – along with the stove-top (that had 3 fire-hazards and we are so glad we removed it right away). Since then we’ve been making the microwave, toaster-oven, and a hot plate work for us instead (& the parent’s ovens when I want to bake). And with our first little one on the way it’s so inspiring to see how you’ve been making things work for you! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

    My unsolicited two cents on the shelves, if you went with the shelves with the corbels then you could use the corbels to lean a few cookbooks on, or maybe flip them upside-down and they would still hold up some books. Just my thoughts, I think it will mostly depend on what you want to use them to hold. You’ve done such a great job on all the other parts of the kitchen I know whatever you choose will look great!

  112. That tile is perfect for this kitchen – the size is just right for all that wall space! Well done 🙂

  113. Looks great!

    I’ll admit, I thought you had gone a little crazy with the wall-o-tile, but then I saw that you were going to put up shelving and it made perfect sense.

  115. Your kitchen looks AMAZING!! I’m actually having my house built right now and kicking myself for not going with a white kitchen, but thank you for all the incredible ideas! 🙂 I simply adore your blog and your sweet family xoxo

  116. We have a painting company spraying our cabinets with Ben Moore Advance right now! You’ve mentioned curing time a few times. Did you let your cabinets fully cure before putting them back on? They are going to put the cabinet doors back on next week. Wondering how you worked around the curing time. Thx…and love how your kitchen is coming along.

  117. We waited a few weeks…and just recently do I feel like they are hard enough to be considered cured. I would definitely wait a longer time if I did it again because I was like a crazy person trying to protect them.
    xo – kb

  121. Comparing the before & after, your pendant lights have become a whole new focus point against that white. They look great!

  122. LOVE LOVE LOVE errr sexy tile i want to rub my face on you!!

    so jealous that you have the perfect breaking spots for your tile- we dont have very obvious nice places to stop so we are still undecided.

    what do i have to do to get some free tile? im not above any of it. not at all.

  126. Question about your counters: do they get lots of water spots? Are they hard to keep clean looking? I have black granite in my bathroom, and it is a pain to keep looking spotless. So I LOVE black granite, but I am really hesitant to put it in the kitchen. What are your thoughts?

    I really love your kitchen makeover! It looks amazing.

  127. We didn’t have as much a problem with our granite in our old house (it was called Black Galaxy) and we loved it. This granite is a little more dark with less speckles…so it shows more. I don’t know if this helps but I hope so.
    xo – kb

  129. We already installed the hardware before painting the cabinets (we wanted to know what it would look like) so we took it off and then popped it back on after 🙂
    xo – kb

  133. Hi, I’m in the process of buying the same tiles but I can’t decide between 1 inch and 2 inch. What size are yours?
    P.S. Your kitchen looks great!

  136. looks wonderful. How did Jeremy manage to cut the tiles for the bottom and other places. I am using a wet saw table but the tiles split, cut unevenly etc. We have just started but can’t get going because of cutting issues.

  137. We placed the tiles upside down and used a piece of fleece under them so that the surface wouldn’t get scratched. It also is very helpful to make sure your wet tile saw blade is sharp.
    xo – kb

  139. Would you recommend this as a doable project for a first time tiler? As a follow up question…we just bought out first house in Atlanta. Want to come over and show us how to do this? 🙂

  140. A backsplash of this size…probably not. I would start with a floor and larger tiles…like a laundry room or a small bathroom. I think in the beginning a smaller tile job that doesn’t require as many elaborate cuts would be the best and one that doesn’t have many grout lines because that is really what can make or break a tile job. Also – CONGRATS!
    xo – kb

  141. I know I am late to this party but I am loving the kitchen. I went to the tile shop’s web site to find your backsplash. There are a lot of 1″ polished hex tiles. Can you provide the specific name of yours? Love your blog and your growing family. Thanks for sharing it with all of us.

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