Kitchen Backsplash

After completing our kitchen cabinets we started on our backsplash.

I was actually surprised at how inexpensive it was to tile the black splash. We spent about $100 dollars on the tile for the back splash and the majority of that went to our decorative tiles.

 We bought all our tile at a tile outlet down in Las Vegas called Floor and Decor. We paid $4.38 per tile. At Lowes these tiles are $26.60 per tile!!!!!! I know I couldn't believe it either but here is the link@ Lowes.com I saved $22.22 per tile. I bought $20 of these tiles which means overall I saved $444.44 dollars!! The lesson I learned from this is that I will NEVER buy tile from Lowes or Home Depot again and you shouldn't either! Find a tile outlet store and compare their prices. Make sure you are not paying outrageously marked up prices for the convience of buying from your local hardware store!

 So to start on our back splash we needed to plan out our layout. You will especially want to do this if you are using decorative tiles. This was the hardest part of completing the back splash. You don't want to cut into your decorative tiles so you have to position them just right working around the outlets on your wall. To be sure that you have the right layout lay out your entire black splash on your counter tops to be positive that your decorative tiles are not covering any outlets. We had a really difficult time trying to get our tiles to sit in the correct places. Take your time and be creative to make sure you are getting the look you want. When you are positive of your back splash layout you are ready to begin. We sanded our wall down a bit and then applied a generous amount of thin set to a small working area of the wall with a trowel. Do Not apply thin set to the entire back splash and then go back and start tiling . Your thin set may dry before you can get your tiles on it! This is a great video That will go over everything you need to know about tiling your back splash. 

Here is our after picture of our tiled back splash.

Our total cost for the back splash was around $150 dollars. $100 of that went to tile and the other $50 went to thin set, spacers, a sealer and other supplies. Of our $100 that went to tile $75 of that was spent on our decorative tiles. The cost of a tile back splash can be reduce tremendously if a much simpler design had been used such as taking out any decorative tiles or using some sort of subway tile. I love my kitchen and would not change a thing about it but I want all you readers to see that I was able to renovate my kitchen for really cheap. However, had I chosen something with more simplicity is could have been done for even cheaper!