Lastly, though I did get all of my supplies at Home Depot, Lowe’s has a great video on their YouTube channel that provided a ton of visual reference for me.įirst, tile needs some space. Homedit has another excellent and extremely detailed tutorial on their site – I especially found their overview on proper use of spacers and the trowel valuable. Young House Love has a great tutorial on their site, and although they used tile sheets, their kitchen setup was so similar to mine, I found it extremely valuable. I’m going share a couple of the tips I found super helpful at this stage, but first I should probably tell you where I got them! I consulted a lot of different DIY posts and videos on subway tile while putting this backsplash in, but I referred to three of them the most. When that was done, I laid out the tile on the counter so I could get a sense of how many tiles I would need per row, and how I would ensure I wasn’t ending with a tiny sliver of tile or something at the end. As a last step, I gave the drywall a very light sanding. Obviously the outlet and light switch covers had to come off, and I had to make sure the walls were nice and clean. (Here’s where I’ll give another disclaimer: this post is not sponsored or affiliated with any company, including Home Depot or Ryobi – although, HD or Ryobi, just give me a holler if you’re ever interested, ha!)Īs far as prep goes, I didn’t do a lot. So, we ended up using the standard, clean, white tile Home Depot sells, which happens to be cheap and exactly what we wanted (a combo that’s unusual and quite pleasant). We also considered sheets of subway tile, for an easier (and hopefully straighter) install, but we couldn’t find any that were the size of tile we wanted (the classic, traditional 3×6). Our situation was decidedly standard, so directly on the drywall it would go. I did some checking around before I got started to confirm that you can indeed just tile your backsplash over the drywall – unless it’s particularly heavy or an unusual situation, no need to use backer board, or anything like that. First, I’m an amateur! That will be obvious as we go forward, I’m sure! My goal here is not to instruct you on every aspect of how to execute a similar project, but merely to share my experiences, what seemed to work well and what didn’t, what resources I found helpful, what I would do differently, and so on, in an effort to make your experience better and easier should you embark on a project of your own! Naturally, any DIY project you take is always at your own risk, check your local building codes before you start, etc, etc – you know the drill (no pun intended). Above that, just textured and painted drywall.īefore we go any further, I’ll give you my standard disclaimer about my own DIY abilities and the purpose of this post. We had a bit of granite that ran around the base of the wall, creating a short backsplash of maybe four or five inches in height. Like most homes built as part of a large housing development, our backsplash was pretty run of the mill. What I did know was that Chels had always wanted a classic, clean subway tile backsplash in the kitchen. I mean, at least when you’re building a deck for the first time, you’ve probably cut wood before. Usually, when tackling a project, I’ve got some frame of reference. There were just a lot of never-evers here, and it made me nervous (as previously stated). I have never (ever) worked with tile in any way, shape, or form before. Okay, here’s the deal with this bit of the project. DIY Farmhouse Kitchen Counter Crossbucks.Painting our Kitchen Cabinets with White Milk Paint.I’ll link to the first three posts here, and then update with the last one after I get it written! This post about adding classic subway tile backsplash is the fourth in a series of about five articles sharing our learnings and experiences from this little project, which would be an easy, affordable one to tackle in any kitchen that needs a little breath of fresh air! We recently completed an ultra-low-budget “refresh” of our kitchen, which ran us about $500 all-in. The fourth post in a series on our ultra-low budget kitchen refresh – this is our experience putting in a DIY subway tile backsplash !
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