DIY Tiling a Backsplash

In the past couple of weeks I have shown you how we prepared our kitchen to tile the backsplash. Then, I shared the thought process behind our choice of tile. Finally, I am ready to reveal the process of tiling our kitchen backsplash by ourselves. Douglas will be adding his commentary in italics again.

This was the first time that either of us had ever put tile on a wall. In fact, we had only done one other tile job by ourselves when we tiled the kitchen floor in March of 2013. This was a whole new challenge. (and a whole new divorce opportunity…)

I started by trying to back butter the tiles by spreading the mortar on the back of the tiles, but I found that too much mortar was seeping through the tiles. I think that process would work better with single tiles rather than sheets of tile. I then resorted to spreading a strip of mortar on the wall and then putting up the tile.

I flew through the first row of tiles. The most time consuming part was pressing down each tile to insure that it was properly adhered to the wall and inserting spacers to make sure that the spacing was correct on all of the tiles.

Then, I started on the second row of tiles, which were black. These larger square tiles were much easier to install, but it took more time because each one covered a lot less space than the larger sheets. (I know, her husband was slacking).

When I was about halfway through the second row on the first wall, we decided that it would be easier for Douglas to spread the mortar while I laid the tiles.

We continued in this manner on the final row of white tiles above the black. The challenge here was that something was not level. We often find this to be the case in this old house. That meant that while there was a large gap at the top of the tiles to the left, we had to squeeze the tiles together in order to get them to fit on the right.

The tiles on the top rows are therefore not completely evenly spaced, but I do not think that it is obvious. Here is the first wall after completion.

We continued on with the north wall but quickly ran into a challenge. The black tiles needed to be cut around the window sill. I tried to use my little handheld tile cutter. According to this video, it is supposed to be able to cut curves, but I ended up with a pile of broken tiles.

Finally, Douglas took matters into his own hands. He used a file to carve a notch in the tile. The tile fit perfectly, but it cost him a file. It was completely worn down by the time he finished. (Fricking hardest part of the whole tile job. Went well at first and then as file wore down became really tough to finish).

For the other side he used a file attachment on his drill. The result was perfect, but it took a long time. (Wish I would have remembered I had this attachment on the first tile. Still took a lot of time, but was much easier).

Once the tiles around the window sill were fitted, the main tiling on the north wall went much faster. Douglas and I were both working in tight quarters, but we did not meet any large challenges. It was getting late, however. (Nothing wrong with working late in tight quarters when was has such a good looking partner. Probably not the case in most construction jobs though…)

The biggest difficulty on this wall was that it required a lot more cutting.  It was not difficult but rather time consuming.

Finally, about ten o’clock, we laid the last little sliver of tile. Douglas cut it with great concentration, and then we placed it together. (Cut it, ground it, filed it, swore at it, and finally got it to the correct size).

Then, all that was left was the clean up. Crème helped.

Here is our beautiful backsplash the next morning. At least I think that it looks great. Remember it still needs to be grouted and caulked and get the trim back under the window sill, but it is going to be wonderful.

Come back next week for the episode on the grouting of the tile. We were rebels and went with black grout. Would you ever consider black grout with white tiles? Douglas was not sure, but I convinced him.

Happy Homemaking!