My DIY Backsplash

Ive been soooo busy lately, that I haven't had much time at all to do any projects at really. And I've truly been missing it. So two weekends ago while my hubby was out of town, I decided to tackle doing backsplash in our kitchen!

Ive been wanting to try it for quite awhile now but never had the motivation. Its definitely time consuming but the outcome is well worth it. I used less expensive tiles because my rule is to never spend too too much on a DIY project I'm trying for the first time. No need to lose unnecessary money if it doesn't come out well! But thank God, we LOVE the way it turned out!

All in all, it cost under $200 to do it.

I will have to scan the full before picture but here is a pic of one of the walls before the backsplash.

 

I got all my materials together...the backsplash tiles, thin set mortar, trowel, grout, rubber grout float, sponges, buckets, and gloves. 

A quick tip I learned is that you should never use pre-mixed grout.  Of course, I bought that first but luckily I researched it before opening so I took it back and got a bag of powdered grout that has to be mixed with water. Its an extra step but apparently it holds up better. Here is the bag of grout I got ... it was about $14 from Home Depot. 

 

 Next you pretty much follow the instructions on bag for mixing the grout... they don't really tell you how much water to mix in..you kinda just have to figure it out. As long as you get the consistency of peanut butter you are good. The goal is to mix it up thick enough where it wont be runny.  Start off with a little bit of water and powder and add each as needed to get to desired consistency. Here is how my grout look as I started mixing it.

After I applied the adhesive/thin set mortar to the wall and affixed the tiles, you let it set for 24-48 hrs. Make sure you clean up any adhesive that is oozing through the tiles.   I let it sit for about 24 hours then applied grout. Here is how the grout looked when I applied it on the tiles. The key when applying grout is to make sure you get it in all the cracks.  

 After I applied grout, I let it sit for about 10-15 min, then wiped it down with a sponge and clean water. Make sure you wring out the sponge really well. After that, let it sit for awhile then take a soft cloth and go back over tiles to get the glaze off.  Here is how it looked after it was wiped down:

 Here is how it looked after!

Next project is a DIY kitchen island...will post ya on how it turns out! :)