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Has anyone done their own tile backsplash in their kitchen? Our kitchen is fairly small and the current backsplash area is just painted wall. I'd love to DIY but I'm not sure how hard it is. Thoughts?
I've done two, brother-in-law did his between mine and I'm going to do my Mother-in-laws here shortly.
If you've Ever done ANY tile work (showers, for instance), it's the exact same. Stupid easy, about a 2 on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being hanging a picture... okay, maybe not Quite that easy, but it's not difficult work. The hardest part is simply getting to the wall between the counter and cabinets.
As with any/every project, the devil is in the details and doing proper prep-work. Do your homework first, make sure you prep the wall for the best adhesion, use the appropriate mastic/thinset else the whole thing might come crashing down, quite literally.
DH did this years ago, and it turned out well. We also installed a tile floor a few years later. I imagine there is a tutorial on YouTube for this. But we got instruction from people at a tile store, I think. If we could do this, you can too. You do have to have the proper backing for this, if memory serves.
It is quite easy and straight-forward to do, and the tiles make a great upgraded look for a small cost.
I did ours a few years ago in my first house, never did any tile work before, and found it to be a piece of cake. I even picked up a cheap $30 tile saw at Home Depot, and we cut a fancy inset design over our oven area. The only area that took some extra thought and planning was around power outlets, but its still fairly forgiving. We worked with our local tile specialty store and they helped us pick out all the proper mastic adhesives, tiles and grout.
Hardest part will be to cut the holes for the outlets. Installing backsplash is pretty easy, if you use mosaic type squares it may be easier to cut them out of the mesh. If you're using brick or some irregular edge pattern you'll need to cut or arrange to make it work.
If you have laminate tops with integral backsplash- just leave the wall painted. There's nothing worse than tile backsplash on top/over integral backsplash!
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