DIY White Subway Tile Backsplash

The backsplash is done-zo. Mr. B was totally dreading this portion of the kitchen remodel - he cut the first tile and it shattered. I cut the second tile and it didn't. So he threw his hands up in the air and said, "I'll take Thomas to the pool, you do this".  It was a tedious job - we probably didn't have the best tile saw and the outlet cuts just about did me in.  But, I perservered and made it through my first tile job.

I had originally planned on doing Carrara marble subway tile for the backsplash, but in comparing the cost and what we wanted to spend on this quick little kitchen project, we decided to hold off on the marble and spend a little extra on the counter tops and sink instead. And, with the number of mistakes I made while cutting, I'm so glad I went with Home Depot's $0.28/tile white subway tile instead of the pricier marble. But, when we ditched the idea of Carrara Marble, I was drawn to the idea of some dimension somewhere. It's a good thing, you guys all brought me back down to earth and reminded me that classic is better.  Thanks friends, I needed a reminder that I'm not trendy. Ask the skinny jeans I tried on last week.

I LOVE the pure white subway tile backsplash.  But, with the accent tile nixed, the next hiccup was that B and I disagreed on grout color - B (after seeing and really liking the mosaic option I brought home) wanted gray grout to differentiate the tiles while I preferred the look of white grout for our small kitchen. So we decided that we'd just start tiling, and if we thought the tiling job was perfect enough for gray grout, we would consider it carefully.


But the tiling job answered that question for us - it was our first tiling job, after all. Not that there are any glaring errors, but I wasn't confident enough in my seams to use anything but bright white grout. And I'm glad that we ended up with white because it just makes the tile so sparkly and bright, and I was concerned that in our kitchen - which lacks much natural light - the gray grout lines would 1) be too busy and 2) not allow the light to bounce quite as much.  I had no reason to believe these things, I just did. Sometimes our minds are funny things.

This backsplash was the project that unearthed other projects - like window trim. Our house didn't come with windowsills (thanks builder). It hadn't really bothered me, except that I knew how great window trim and sills would look on the big windows in our house. But with tile going up, we didn't want tile to trim the kitchen window, so our handy neighbor came over one Monday night and installed a windowsill. We're not done with the top of the window (we'll do a traditional craftsman window trim), but the windowsill is my most loved unexpected part of the reno. More on that when the window is done.

So that's the kitchen. Crown Moulding is still in the plans for the tops of the cabinets, we're just taking a little time off before we start that. What do you think?