Economical Tile Fix

How to Redo Your Kitchen Backsplash 

for under $20

Last week I shared my kitchen makeover. 

I came up with this idea a few months ago and decided to try it and it worked perfectly.

My kitchen before.

Black and white tile that I hated.

I would have loved to have just retiled my whole kitchen with white marble subway tile 

but I couldn't afford that. I can't even afford regular subway tile at the moment.

Since I really like white tile...and most of my tile was white...I thought it really wasn't 

necessary to change out all my tile. Since it was only the black ones that I found offensive.

Buying white tiles to replace only the black ones would not have been expensive 

but I was worried about damaging the white tile trying to remove the black tile 

and if they didn't get damaged, I was worried about

getting the walls prepped inside the just removed black tile space.

I'd thought about painting only the black ones...but was afraid they would look painted.

It came to me that if I had a Silhouette machine maybe I could cut squares to cover the black tiles.

I didn't have a Silhouette machine though...and getting one was more than I could spend on my tile redo.

That led me to this place -

I just did a quick search on Ebay for sign vinyl. 

Link to the product on Ebay - click here

Cost for a roll 24" x 10' was $7.99

plus shipping of $8.90

So for just under $17...I had my kitchen tile fix.

If you go there and buy vinyl from them, don't ask them about this project because they know 

nothing about it. They aren't selling this stuff for redoing tile. That was all my idea.

Feel free to email me with any questions you might have.

That's a new tile just like my tile. I made a pattern of the tile on light weight cardboard. 

I traced my pattern on to the back of the vinyl and then just cut out all the squares. 

Make your vinyl squares about 1/4 inch larger all around than the actual size of the tile.

You need a little extra because its very hard to lay them exactly on the wall perfectly.

You need a little extra vinyl to play with. After cutting out all my squares, 

I then drew a line catty corner across and cut that too so that I had triangles. 

This is how it looked as some tiles were covered and some were not.

The vinyl is very glossy and once smoothed in place looks just like real tile.

I started by lining up the long edge. I used two hands to do this...but here I had the camera in one hand.

Once it's lined up covering all the unwanted colored tile at the long edge....

you smooth up and out carefully...smoothing out any air bubbles.

This stuff is very forgiving. If you get it on crooked...you can pull it up and try again.

Or if you get air bubbles...pull till you get to the bubble and smooth again.

I found that I could correct a mistake about three times before I decided I better scrap that piece and try a new one.

Continue smoothing.

No bubbles.

Then take an exacto blade and trim off any excess.

I found I needed to aim towards the meeting tile. If I trimmed right on the edge of the covered tile...

I ended up with a little of the black edge showing and I'd have to redo.

See the excess? Make sure to use a very sharp blade. 

I changed mine out about four times during the 

this project. I wanted to make sure my edges were clean.

I'm cutting on the grout which leads to a little bit of grout crumbles but not enough to damage.

I also found that the exacto did not scratch the existing tiles. Thank goodness.

Done this way, trimming each tile as you go...they look like real tile.

Before I did this project, I did one tile only and left it up for about two months and found 

that it wore well...just like tile and when I went to pull it off...it leaves no residue.

There is no damage to the tile it covers.

It took me a couple of hours to cut out all the pieces I needed and about seven hours to stick them all on.

Much less than it would have taken to demo, prep and retile.

Someday I will get a new retiled backsplash but this has worked out to be a perfect 

temporary solution till I can afford to do so.

I like my kitchen so much more with the solid white backsplash.

This vinyl comes in lots of colors including metallics too.

So actually a person could get very creative.

I did come across this solution for tile backsplashes the other day.

http://www.thesmarttiles.com

Self adhesive tiles that just stick to the wall. 

This would be perfect for anyone with a plain wall that they want tile on.

They have lots of different options. Doesn't this look great?

I'd so do this...if I had a kitchen with no backsplash.

It appears to be very easy to install.

Anyway...I'm sure happy with my results. Email me if you have any questions.

You can see more of my kitchen...here.

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