Hello Everyone, it is time for me to speak about our backsplash.

One day, as we were working on the kitchen makeover, I told John I would love to change our backsplash (it was 90′s tile with a floral border tile down the middle, picture is old but you can see it).

Backsplash - Before

He suggested; why don’t you plaster and faux it. I said, maybe that would be a good idea and the next thing I knew he primed the tile.  Now I had to do something, so I decided to add a coat of plaster and after a few days that was dry. Then I had to give it a light sanding to knock off any points on the plaster, primed and painted it an antique ivory color that we used with other projects.

Backsplash - After

Then came the fun part, fauxing! I fauxed it with paint we used in other rooms; Benjamin Moore Bleeker Beige mixed with Raw Umber and glaze.  The next step was to let that dry for a few days before I was able to do anything else. 

Backsplash - After - Faux Detail

During that time, I thought something was “missing” and decided to add a stencil treatment behind our cooktop using plaster and that took a few more days to dry! Again, sanding was needed to knock points off the plaster and age it a bit. The stenciled treatment needed to be primed as well, so I had to use the stencil so as to not get primer on the rest of the backsplash that was already finished.  I didn’t want to damage the finished product. 

Backsplash - After - Stencil Treatment

To add a little color and contrast, I painted the plaster relief area yellow umber free-hand, since the stencil was raised, with a fine craft brush, which took about four hours to paint carefully. 

Backsplash - Cooktop Area

The final application was polycrylic, since this was a backsplash and cooking oil and water would be touching it I needed to put five coats of that to really give it heavy protection. You can see we bought a new cooktop and microwave; after more than 12 years the original started to get worn from a lot of use (I’m an old-fashioned Italian cook – more on that in the future).  I love how our backsplash turned out and it is different from an ordinary tile look.

I’m Linking to:

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/03/wow-us-wednesdays-56.html

http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/2012/03/open-house-party.html

http://www.itsrobinwithani.com/2012/03/sunday-funday-link-party-4.html