Friends, we have entered the era of Peel & Stick, and I am fully on board with this.
As much as I love my new digs, there are a few things that fell kind of flat. The drywall and the paint were disappointing. I keep finding evidence of sloppy mudding and orange peel-like areas. There's a softball sized area in the media room that actually looks like a close up of skin pores, and it's smack in the middle of the wall. The paint they used is simply awful; if you so much as look at it, it will leave a mark. It was sprayed on in two thin coats, so if you try to remove any blemishes, with a few gentle swipes you're suddenly peeling off the outer part of the drywall. This has presented a huge issue around the stove and the sink areas in the kitchen, as they are most prone to be splattered or splashed with water, grease, or what have you.
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| pre-backsplash |
I had been toying with the idea of a four inch butcher block backsplash around the kitchen counters, and in searching for materials I came across peel & stick tiles. Further investigation into that led me to peel & stick faux tile sheets. This material is much more budget friendly, so I decided to give it a try.
I measured the area and ordered my sheets. Originally I had only intended to do the length from the kitchen door to around the corner to behind the stove and end at the refrigerator in one tile height, which was 12". Once the sheets arrived I started taping the tiles up with painter's tape to see how it looked. I ran the one tile length, then tried taping up to the bottom of the floating shelf to see how that looked.
I decided that I did prefer the tiles all the way to the underneath of the cabinets, but I didn't relish the thought of all the cutting involved to make it look right if it went to the underside of the floating shelf.
I cleaned off the counter and began by cutting the first tile so it would line up flush to the trim on the left side, and then started lining up the sheets. The nice thing about these thick sheets is that they will kind of clip together before you peel off the backing, which makes it much easier to do templates around outlets without committing to sticking the sheet to the wall. I used the thin cardboard insert that came in the package of sheets to make templates. By turning it upside down I was able to use it twice and sometimes three times to mark out outlets.
The reviews I read about most peel & stick items almost always suggested using a secondary adhesive to ensure the sheets actually stick to the walls. Many people finished a job and within 24 hours the tiles began peeling off the walls like crazy. Whether that was due to not cleaning their walls enough or poor adhesive on the tiles, I can't say, but I used a commercial grade spray adhesive on the backs of my tiles to be safe. If I worked quickly enough, I was able to peel off tiles that didn't set right and realign them.
When I came to the corner, I thought my best bet would be to score the tile so it would fit neatly into the corner and wrap around to the other wall. I did that for the bottom tile, but for the top half tile, I put it into place without scoring it, and used a squeegee tool to press it into place. Both strategies worked, but i think the scoring will probably hold better.
Here to the right you can see how the sheets fit together before you glue them on.
Because I decided to go with one and a half sheets all the way around, I didn't have enough to finish to the refrigerator. I've ordered two more boxes and will hopefully have this done in a few days. I still don't have a hood vent, so I'm toying with the idea of just leaving the border or maybe going up the wall with more sheets. My other thought is to get a washable paint that matches the tile color and paint a section of the wall behind the stove. Without a hood vent, it's difficult to picture the different options.
For now, I'm very happy with the end result. It gives the kitchen area a little more oomf with that pop of color. So far between the 5 packs of tile, the wallpaper kit, and the spray adhesive, I'm at $150.93. My meager budget thanks me for that! I didn't track my time, but I would say I probably have five or six hours into the project so far. Laying out the tiles and making the templates was definitely the most time consuming part, but also the most important. I only had one section, just after the corner, where my tiles started to become misaligned. Thankfully the microwave hides that part. If you look closely, you can see the seams where the tiles don't quite butt together, and I'm not sure if I'll address that or not. I need to live with it for a while and then I'll decide.
