Using Vinyl Smart Tiles to Update My Kitchen
by
Pinspired to DIY
(IC: blogger)
1 Material
$300
6 Hours
Easy
My kitchen had a hideous green paint that looks like it survived a time machine trip from the 1970s! That paint, along with the Formica counter tops and oak builder grade kitchen cabinets made me cringe every time I walked into the kitchen.
Here are some pics of our hideous kitchen:
We do plan on remodeling the kitchen at some point in the future, once we have time and funds to do so, but in the meantime, I wanted to do something to make the kitchen look at least a little more up-to-date. As I was searching Pinterest and reading other blogs, I found quite a few people using Smart Tiles, which are adhesive vinyl back splash tiles. They looked easy to install and since they are just adhesive, they won’t be too hard to take down when we finally do remodel the kitchen someday, unlike a real tile back splash which would be much more time and labor intensive to put up and take down. So, off to Home Depot I went… And unfortunately my local Home Depot doesn’t carry them in-stock, only online. So… off to Lowe’s I went! And I found one pattern of Smart Tiles there that was on clearance, and luckily I liked the pattern, so….. SCORE! (Although even on clearance they were still around $7 for each 10x10 “tile”. I purchased what they had left in stock, and then the rest I had to purchase from the Smart Tiles website.
Once I had most of the tiles up behind the sink, I realized the green molding above the Formica counters stood out big time, so I decided to paint the molding prior to finishing off the “tile” work (that way I wouldn’t have to tape off the walls, only the formica, since the walls would soon be covered in “tile”. I used a tan color Behr paint (same color we used in our front bathroom remodel), and it matched wonderfully!
To “tile” the whole kitchen back splash, it cost about $300 total for all the tiles. It only took a few hours to complete the kitchen (I worked on it for a few hours over two days). But the difference in my kitchen is pretty dramatic and now I don’t have to cringe when I walk into my kitchen! To see more details on how I put up the back splash and for more pictures, please visit my blog at the link below!
Enjoyed the project?
Suggested materials:
- Smart Tiles (Lowe's and Smart Tiles website)
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Published April 4th, 2016 1:12 AM
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Do you think peal and stick floor tiles would work? I gave my eye on a box of black and white checkered board.
Now that it's been about a year how are they holding up still? Any issues with sticking around your stove/oven due to heat?
did you have to pull out the appliances (oven) or did you just work around them?