That Time I Tiled the Kitchen

So, in my last post I talked about the kitchen and how I wanted to make it pretty.  Well I got it to look like this.  I successfully created a kitchen fit for a horror movie!!

I was ready to start the transformation of the kitchen and got my hands on some tile at a great price,  free from a friend!!  It looks like this...

White Glass Instant Mosaic Wall Tile available at Lowe's

It was not exactly planned, or thought out, on how, or when, I was going to tackle this project.  Usually, Josh and I talk through a project, that is new for us, and come up with a plan on how to get it done.  But he was not home so, I skipped that part.  Instead it went like this...  It was a Wednesday and I had my morning coffee, dropped my kiddos off at school, and was going to head to the gym.  But really, I did not want to go to the gym.  Instead I went home to be creative and get involved in a project.  I found myself standing in my kitchen staring at it for a minute, and then I put a small plan together.  It was simple!  I would take down the existing tile, repair any holes from removing the tile, and put up the new tile.  In my head I had worked this out to be a one day project.

Well, when I started taking down the tile the wall, the entire wall, came with it.  I knew that taking down tile could result in some damage to the wall it was attached to.  But this, this was crazy!!!  I ended up with a ginormous hole in the wall!!!  Now when standing in the kitchen you were looking at the backside of the bathtub in our bathroom.

At this point, I was a bit in over my head and a little panicky.  I could not call my Dad for help.  He was recovering from having both of his knees replaced, how dare he!.  I  finally pulled myself together and headed to the local hardware store to buy some drywall.  I was going to take down the mangled drywall, patch it up, and tile over it.  I did patch it and it looked a little less scary.  I also found I hate working with drywall!  It is something I should never do.  It is hard to do!  And I am bad at it.  But the wall was patched and I was ready to tile in the morning.

Ok, so when I woke up with with some new perspective and fresh eyes, I realized how absolutely awful that patch job was.  There was no way I could tile over it, and feel good about it.  The best thing to do would be to take it all down and start over.  Even though I knew I had no business touching drywall, I did it anyway.  The new patch job was a little bit better!  

You will notice I also got started on painting the cabinets.  I did that while I was trying to figure out how the heck I was going to fix the mess I had made of the wall.  Maybe I thought thought the painted cabinets would make the wall look better!

It’s day three now and at this point, it was as good as it was going to get, I was ready to tile.  I felt good about the peel and stick tile.  I had never tiled before and felt confident I could do this!  It had to be easier than working with drywall!  And it was.  As long as you suck the right where you wanted it.  There was no moving it once it was stuck to the wall.  After I had all the tile up I grouted it with a clean white grout.  I am pretty happy with the way it turned outWhile this post is not exactly a DIY, I hope it inspires to tackle a project in your home!P.S.  I know these picture are not the best, better camera and pics is on my to do list!