Tile, Tile and More Tile

Our new house doesn't have a back splash in the kitchen. I know this isn't something that is essential, but we had one in all of the rental properties that we've lived in previously and I knew that was something I wanted to do. Because it wasn't an essential item for the house, I put it to the back of my mind and told myself we'd be able to do it 'one day'.

A little while after we moved in, my parents came over for tea. My Mom handed me a card. I never expected anything to be in it, as they had already done so much to help us with the move and redecorating. When I opened it, it was a nice little card to welcome us into our new home, and it had a cheque in it. They let us know that they would like to see us use it for a back splash (they knew how much I really wanted one). I was thrilled to know that I could start doing some serious searching on the internet for some tile ideas and get started on the project.

I knew that I wanted something like a mosaic tile, but I was open to different colours and materials. I was looking through the hundreds of tile options on the Home Depot website and came across one that I really liked. It was a 2''x2'' slate tile (shown in the picture below).

I liked that it had so many different colours in it and would match almost anything. They were also a really good price for tile ($9.99 per square foot)

I let my Mom know that I thought I had found the tile I wanted, and measured the walls so I knew how much tile I needed to buy. After measuring, I worked out that I needed 20 square feet, including 10% waste for cuts etc. It seemed like a lot more than I needed, but it's probably better to have too many tiles than too few. This is a picture of our kitchen before. 

I might be wrong, but 20 square feet? Really??

 We went out shopping recently, and I suggested that we stop at Lowes to see their selection before making the final decision.

Low and behold, Lowes had a very similar tile, but it was 1''x1'' tile instead of the 2 inch option at Home Depot. I liked the look of it even more because it was smaller and looked more like mosaic tile. It also has less blue-ish tones in it than the picture above,which I preferred. Another bonus was that it was $8.99 per square foot instead. I got the required square footage, the mortar and the grout (a charcoal grey) and we were on our way.

I've decided that if we have a lot of tiles left after completing the the back splash, I might look into replacing the tile around the fireplace in the kitchen to match (shown below) that way it would tie everything together nicely.

Real Estate Photo of the fireplace area (not our furniture)

I'm really excited to see how this turns out. I've never tiled before, but my parents are going to help out. What would I do without them? They are pretty amazing people.