Tile Looking Backsplash--On a Budget

I am SO EXCITED about how this project turned out!!! 

And because I am SO EXCITED--I took about a Bazillion pictures --so be prepared!

Ok--let me start at the beginning.  I stumbled upon THIS awesome blog (Sawdust and Embryos) a while ago--and have been CRUSHING on all of the AMAZING PAINTED BACKSPASH'S that this gal and her man do up!  And since she lives too far away to do mine--I decided I would just have to do it myself.

And then I remembered that my AWESOME FRIEND Jaime (from I'm a Mom not a Professional)--did the same thing HERE in her house several years ago.  So I called her up and asked her to help me with my kitchen.  And she said YES!!  Isn't she the best?

So here we go:

Here are a few pictures of my kitchen in all its BEFORE glory.  For 8 years I have lived with the Orangey cabinets and grey/blue counters (and I'm not even going to mention the retched white and blue flowered vinyl flooring!) and wondered WHY someone would choose this color scheme?

So to do this project I started gathering my needed supplies.

I stocked up on a bunch of sponge brushes and fine brushes for the detail work. (I spent about $5 on sponge brushes--I found I needed quite a few of them for mixing colors and such).

I couldn't find any 1/4 inch Painters tape (for the grout lines) anywhere--so I went to Joann's and got 1/4 inch quilters tape.  (The Big roll--which I used ALL of--was $5.99)

The quilters tape worked great--the only downside for me was that it was EXACTLY the same color as my existing wall--so it was harder to apply and to see what I was doing!  It was Camouflage!

Then for the paint.  I decided on five colors to mix and match to create my tile looking back splash.  I tried to get a color that was close to the cabinets and one that was close to the counter top--and then some others that I thought contrasted nicely with those.  AND A LITTLE FYI--I spent probably around $10-13 on the paint (two bottles of each color).

These are what I decided on:

Then Jaime and I started choosing our color combinations for our tiles.  We used several colors on each tile to add dimension.

These are the combinations we came up with:

Next came the WORST part.  Figuring out the lines and doing the taping.

I unfortunately did this part all by my little lonesome.  And consequently it took me FOREVER (and a lot of pencil marks were erased and redrawn and a lot of tape was wasted) and by the end my brain was tied in a knot.  But  I DID IT!!!!

See how the tape lines are invisible?  Accept for the ones that I started to paint over--but then decided against it. 

And then came the fun part.  PAINTING. 

Jaime made me promise not to put any pictures of her in this post--I don't think this counts do you?

She did take a few of me though.

And I took a few of what 7 kids did while we were painting:

Anyhoo--Back to the painting. 

It doesn't look like much while you are doing it.  You have to keep telling yourself it will look awesome when the tape comes off.

See--it looks SO MUCH BETTER with the tape off.  Now I just need to do some touch up painting in the grout lines.

Making my way all around the kitchen.  ALMOST DONE!!!

It was funny to live with my stove in the middle of the kitchen for a couple days while I finished this project. 

And FINALLY--all the hard work (HOURS of measuring and taping--and pulling it all off to measure and tape all over again, TWO COATS of paint on every square, TOUCH UP PAINT over EVERY GROUT LINE, and then some miscellaneous REPAINTING OF SOME OF THE SQUARES that I wanted a different color--do you know how hard it is to do "RANDOM" evenly?) has finally paid off. 

IT IS DONE!!!

AND it only cost me around $25!!

And I couldn't be happier!  FINALLY the cabinets don't scream ORANGE.  I know longer hate the counters.  They all just go together in one cohesive color scheme.  (Minus the white and blue flower linoleum--but we still aren't talking about that right now).  (Oh--And Minus the Black and White curtains that I will now have to change.)

And just because I am a sucker for BEFORE & AFTER shots.

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

Now life makes sense. 

At least in my kitchen.

Linking to THESE parties.