Bitchin’ Kitchen

Wouldn’t that be an awesome name for an HGTV or DIY Network TV show–”Bitchin’ Kitchen”? Maybe my husband and I should pitch it, especially now that we’ve completed yet another project in our kitchen and raised it to “bitchin’” level. (My apologies to any readers that take offense with that word. I only mean it as in “super awesome” or “way amazing.”)

So what did we do? This past weekend we tiled the back splash in our kitchen. But we didn’t just choose any ordinary tile, such as the samples that my cousins saw when they came to visit me for a recent family get together. No, we went out on a limb and chose small, rectangular glass tiles in green, brown, gray and tan. Best of all, by tiling the back splash ourselves, I’m sure we saved ourselves a lot of money and we were completely in control of the project and how fast it moved.

Let me outline how we ended up doing this tile back splash on the cheap and the quick.

First, we bought one-foot by one-foot sheets of the tile at Home Depot–that is, they were already connected in foot-square squares. We spent about $8 per sheet and used 14 in the kitchen. Total cost: $112.

Next, because we didn’t want to deal with mastic, we instead opted to buy Simplemat, which is basically double-sided tape designed to stick to the wall and your tiles permanently. One box covers 10 square feet and costs $20. We ended up getting two and having a bunch left over. Total cost: $40.

Putting the tiles up on the Simplemat was easy and fast. It took maybe two hours. The only challenge came when we had to maneuver the tiles around the outlets and under the cabinets. Luckily, we could just cut the netting that held the tile squares on the one-foot-square sheet. In some instances, though, we needed half or a portion of the tile to fill in gaps, and Bill just used his Dremel tool to snap the tiles and fit them where they needed to go.

The final step in doing the tile backsplash was putting the grout in to hold the tiles in place and permanently affix them to the SimpleMat. This was the worse part of the job, not only because it was painstaking and a time suck but, frankly, the sound of the sandy grout going over the glass tiles brought back icky memories of nails on a chalkboard.

It took two coats of grout (we spent $26 on colored, premixed grout), applied with a grout float (purchased for $6), and then wiped off with a sponge. It took a bunch of wipes to get the residue off and to ensure that all the pockets between the tiles were filled in the end. Total cost: $32.

From start to finish–including a drive to Lowe’s to buy grout and the float–we started tiling the backsplash at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning and were done by 6 p.m. that night. Not bad for less than $200 spent and a day’s work.

Check out the results below.

Kitchen with tile backsplash done

Tile backsplash detail.

Tags: Home Depot, kitchen renovation, Lowe's, Simplemat, tile backsplash