Today I am going to share the drama that was my kitchen backsplash. Let’s start with a little backstory shall we. To do that I have to fill you in on my living situation. I am a second grade teacher at a private school and the school I work for owns the house that I live in. The house is actually broken into 4 separate apartments and I live in one of them. I’m lucky enough that I get to pretty much do what I want in this space as far as painting and all that goes. When things go wrong all I have to do is contact the maintenance guys and they come over and fix it. It’s a pretty sweet deal. Now about 1 year ago I had asked if it would be at all possible to get a backsplash put in the kitchen. At the time there was nothing on the walls. I dreamt of a beautiful glass subway tile but I knew that was way out of any budget I could be given so I found this cute glass mosaic tile at HD on sale for $5.99 sq/ft.
I was told yes but that it wouldn’t be right away, probably not for another month since the guys were working on a lot of projects. Well, that month turned into “They won’t get to it until the summer,” which turned into “October is looking like it might be a better time for them,” which then became “After the winter break,”…catch my drift? It just kept being put off and I so badly wanted to just DIY it and submit my receipts but at the same time I didn’t want to piss anyone off. So January rolls around and it looks like the ball is starting to roll on the install! I get a text saying that they are at HD and they no longer carry the tile I wanted, bummer! So I went searching online and came across this tile.
It had the glass but also some stone which I liked. So in my mind this was the tile I was going to be getting. Fast forward another month or so and still no word on the install. Then I get an email saying to go to the tile store at the bottom of my street…”there’s a tile store at the bottom of my street?” and pick the tile for my backsplash. This. is. so. exhausting. I wasn’t married to the glass and stone and in all honesty could care less what went up, it’s an apartment, I just wanted something! So I went in the store and apparently they were expecting me and I was told that I was given a generous budget. Hmm, someone must have been feeling bad for making me wait so long. So when they asked what I wanted I asked, “Do you have any glass subway tiles within my budget?” and they pulled out these gorgina 2″ x 16″ tiles.
So I chose the color I wanted and left feeling very happy. I guess waiting almost a year was worth it!
Now, just when you think the story is over there’s more to it. So let me show you what the area looks like. This is a super old and dark photo I was lucky enough to find since I never took a “before” shot.
When I was told the guys would be coming to do the tiles I had said that I wanted them staggered like bricks to the head maintenance guy. The day of the install came and I was sooo excited all day and when I got home I opened the door and felt a big whomp whomp. This was what I saw…
Why are the stacked? Who stacks tiles? I was pretty disappointed. I had an image of what I thought it was going to be and it wasn’t that at all. I decided I wasn’t going to judge it until it was all done. Nor was I going to complain about free tiles! I started to find that the more I stared at it the more I was beginning to like it. I even went on Pinterest and searched stacked tiles and the photos that came up helped me feel a lot better about it. I feels very modern to me now and once the grout was put in and I put all my stuff back I found that I actually love it. It’s completely different from the ordinary and not what you would expect and that is what I love about it. The guys said after searching online they read that long glass tiles should be stacked rather than staggered. It took forever to happen but now I finally have something to look at other then a white wall!
I find it to be a very clean look. What are your thoughts?