Our Kitchen Backsplash Saga

I promised that I would tell you about our kitchen backsplash fiasco.

But first let me tell you about the backsplash that we put up and have loved since day one.

It started with some green beadboard we salvaged from the old place in Grapeland.

The beadboard was only about 3-1/2 feet in length and used as wainscotting in the old house — you can see a glimpse of them to the right of window in this photo:

I mention this only because the guys threw it away thinking it was way too short to keep!

Well, I wasn’t having any of that!   I grabbed it and saved it, knowing that I could use it for something.

And that something was the backsplash for my kitchen, everywhere except for behind the range.

I know that tile is the material of choice for most kitchens, but I had a beadboard backsplash in my Austin kitchen, and I just loved it.  It was easy to clean and I loved the look.

Now I used new beadboard planks for my Austin project and painted them white, but using reclaimed beadboard planks with original paint?  Even better.

Here’s what we did.

I sanded down the planks and cleaned them.    Here are my pretty boards, ready for install.

Mark cut them down to fit and installed them in a day.

After installation, I brushed on two coats of satin polyurethane to prevent paint from flaking off in the future.

I LOVE my green beadboard backsplash!!!!!

Love it, love it, love it.

Now the question was, what were we going to do for the backsplash behind the range?

I like to use a non-flammable material for behind a range, so we started shopping for tile.

And this is where the saga begins.

Before I go any further, I’d love to be able to tell you that I never, ever regret a design decision.   That I am steadfast in my design decisions and never look back.

Not.

It’s true most of the time.  What I think I’ll like, I do, in fact, like.

Or even love.

Unfortunately, sometimes that’s not the case.  I’m human and fallible.  I make mistakes.    And, I try to laugh and move on.

So … let me bare my soul and tell you the story.

We bought a green mosaic tile that I thought was so pretty.    An expensive green mosaic tile, I might add.

We had our tile guy install it.

I hated it.   That surprised me greatly, because I had used a mosaic tile with my white beadboard in my Austin kitchen.

Aha!  That was part of the problem:  color.     The emerald green in the tile clashed with the mint green in the beadboard backsplash.

Not only that, but the mosaic tile was way too modern-y next to the reclaimed beadboard.

One of them had to go, and it wasn’t going to be the beadboard that I loved instantly.

I hated it so much that I could barely look at it without cringing, and I certainly didn’t have any desire to reach for a camera to shoot a photo — remember I hadn’t started my blog back then!

Luckily, you can catch a glimpse of it when I shot this photo of painting our home office.

Yes, we had spent good money buying the tile and having it installed.  But I realized I was never going to be happy with it.

My husband didn’t care for it either.  Just as important, he just knows that his life is much more pleasant when I’m happy.

So, say bye-bye to the first iteration of the backsplash behind our range.

Next, we decided on a tile that we knew would not compete with the beadboard backsplash.  It’s also a classic look:  white subway tile.

It wasn’t terrible.

(I must say that if this is the best way you can think of to describe something, it must mean you didn’t hit the mark.)

I can’t really put my finger on the exact reason why, but much to our mutual dismay, neither of us liked it.

It was just too stark white.    Too plain.  Too blah.

It was beginning to look like tile wasn’t going to work, and we began searching for an alternative.  In the meantime, we decided to live with the white tile.

We found the perfect solution months later.

I knew it the minute I saw them at one of my favorite antique stores in Georgetown.

Salvaged roofing tins.

Yep, industrial metal perfection priced at only a few dollars each.

They were perfect.

We didn’t have measurements with us, so we weren’t sure how many we needed.    Turns out we needed only twelve of them.

Other than a little bit of grime that came off easily with dish soap, they were ready to install when we bought them.

The tins locked together like a puzzle.  Makes since since they were once used as roofing shingles.

They went up in a jiffy.

After that, all we needed to do was install trim around the edges.

This look may not work for everyone, but for me, vintage industrial is just my thing.

I suppose you could say I’m like the homeowner featured in a past Midwest Living article:  ““I didn’t want my house to look like anyone else’s house.   I wanted it to look like me.”

So that’s the story of our kitchen backsplash.

Hope you enjoyed it!

I have a few finishing touches to share with you next time, plus it’ll be time for ….. the kitchen reveal!!!!

 

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