A Little Something Extra

Have you been tortured by anticipation for the last week and a half? Sorry for not posting sooner, lately most of my attention has been on making a few decisions for our new house, but I’m putting that on pause for a few minutes while I catch you all up on the backsplash situation over at my parent’s house.

First of all, it’s amazing how much a backsplash can add to a kitchen. No, seriously, if you think that putting a huge wall between the kitchen and the adjoining sunroom, like this, was a big change

Well, I think the new backsplash makes just as much of an impact.

When I was initially deciding on a backsplash for this kitchen I knew I wanted something that added a little bit of texture to a kitchen with shiny granite and stainless steel appliances. I love how tumbled stone looks in a kitchen with these elements, we had tumbled marble in our last kitchen and we installed it in my aunt’s kitchen that we renovated last year

after doing it twice already you would have thought I’d be over it and ready for something different. Well, you’re kind of right, which is why I chose to go with much smaller tiles and adding some glass tiles into the mix. Both of these things give a slightly more contemporary twist to a traditional look.

For the main field tiles I selected these 1″ by 2″ tumbled travertine tiles

Then, I went on a massive hunt for just one 12″ by 12″ sheet of brown glass tiles (also 1″ by 2″ a piece) but had no luck finding it in stock at any local stores. Even though ordering it would have saved about $15, I didn’t think that was worth it for something we really wanted to get rolling on. Instead I bought 3 sheets of this mosaic mix and cut out every single dark brown tile

It literally cost me less than $15 more than a sheet of the brown glass tiles would have after shipping was taken into consideration. Purchasing these mosaic sheets were definitely worth the few extra bucks!

As Pavlo installed the field tile

I followed behind and cut out the travertine tiles in a random and scattered pattern. These would later be replaced with the glass tiles.

After finishing with the tiling, but before grouting, it looked like this

Two evenings later Pavlo grouted and caulked giving us this final result (just ignore the blue painters tape, it’s there from caulking).

Doesn’t the glass tile really add a little something extra? I definitely think so and truly wish I could take complete credit for thinking up this design. However, I have to give credit to Gravena Tile whose website I found the inspiration for my parent’s backsplash.

Ahh, let’s just sit and admire my parent’s new backsplash one more time…

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