REFASHIONABLY LATE

Learn to beautifully decorate and refurbish your space on an everyday budget without compromising the look!

  • BLOG
  • HOME TOUR
  • SHOP MY HOME
  • RESOURCES
  • LESSONS BY RUTHIE
  • ABOUT
    • BARBERSHOP
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • AFFILIATES & ADVERTISING POLICY
    • COMMENT POLICY
  • CONTACT
  • SERVICES


You are here: Home / DIY / Painting a Tile Backsplash

Painting a Tile Backsplash

December 1, 2014 DIY

18 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

When my husband and I bought our house our kitchen was fairly updated.  It had granite counter tops, new laminate flooring, and a tile backsplash.  It wasn’t that bad of a kitchen but I knew that I wanted to do little things to update it a bit.

(previous owners furniture)

(previous owners furniture)

After a lot of convincing my husband and lots of research, I decided to start by painting the tile.  We couldn’t afford a whole new backsplash so we figured we could make a small change and if we hated it we could eventually replace the backsplash.  Thankfully, we ended up loving it and have no plans to replace it at this point.  I got the idea of painting the backsplash from 11 Magnolia Lane’s Blog from a pin on Pinterest.  It was a small budgeted tile transformation that we loved!

11 Magnolia Lane’s blog said she didn’t sand the tiles before priming them so I did the same.  The tiles already had a fairly rough ceramic finish so I thought it would be alright to skip the sanding step.  I decided to use a primer that worked well with tough to paint surfaces.  I used XIM Primer in white.  We didn’t like the dark brown tiles but we did like the small strip of multi-colored tiles so we decided to paint around them.  We taped over the small tiles and it did end up leaking so we used a razor blade to scrape off the excess paint.  When we painted the top color on the tile we ended up free handing it so we could ensure it wouldn’t leak.

IMG_0401

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

I am in love with the color Accessible Beige by Sherwin Williams so I was certain that it was the color I wanted to paint the tiles.  While my husband was working late one night I went to town and started painting the top coat.  After doing half of the kitchen I was pretty sure that it wasn’t the right color.  (Although it has been the perfect color for other projects in my home).  I thought it made the kitchen look dated and it didn’t do much for me.  We were originally trying to lighten up the room but that color was a no go.

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

(Accessible Beige, excuse the mess)

I was talking with my mom and she suggested going to a darker gray.  After we finished painting the tile we knew we were going to paint the room Requisite Gray by Sherwin Williams so we wanted to stay within that gray family.  I grabbed the paint swatch and held it up next to the small tiles.  The color Backdrop, which was two shades darker, blended really well so the next day I went and bought the paint.  I used Sherwin Williams ProClassic Interior Oil-Based Semi-Gloss paint.

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

This time around my husband helped me paint the tiles and we were done in about an hour.  We let it dry for about 24 hours and the next night we applied a second coat.  We did not use a polyurethane top coat but haven’t really had a problem.  There are two spots that have chipped because a kitchen item rubbed up against it and scratched the paint.  Otherwise, it has held up great with all normal uses of a kitchen.

Last but not least we were trying to decide if we wanted the switch plates to blend or if we wanted to use stainless steel plates as we have in other areas of our house.  We painted the wall plates but it just didn’t have the effect we were looking for.

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

I couldn’t be happier with the final product!!  The color was perfect!  Not only did it match the smaller tiles but it really made the gray in our countertops stand out.  It was a fairly easy way to upgrade our kitchen in an affordable way.  I have lots more little projects to do in the kitchen, which will be up on the blog fairly soon!

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

What a huge difference, huh?!

Painted Tile Backsplash - www.refashionablylate.com

 

SHARE THIS POST
A Successful Thanksgiving! »
« Mirrored Madness

RELATED

  • Book Storage
  • various paint colors with a white backgroundThe Paint Colors of my Home
  • faded floral background with text reading 5 great gift guides for diyers and crafters5 Great Gift Guides for DIYers & Crafters
  • DIY Projects for Craft Lovers

Comments

  1. Hollidae Fairchild says

    May 12, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    WOW! What a transformation! I love it. That grey really makes things pop.

    Reply
    • Ruthie says

      May 12, 2015 at 2:52 pm

      Thank you Hollidae! I love how simple it was but how much of an impact in makes on our kitchen! Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  2. Chantal says

    May 19, 2015 at 8:41 pm

    Wow this really brightened up your kitchen, looks great! Thanks for linking-up this week, hope to see you again next week!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Kitchen Makeover Phase 1 - Refashionably Late says:
    January 29, 2016 at 12:43 am

    […] The first thing we did to update the space was paint our tile backsplash…yes PAINT!  Frankly, I was not in the mood to put in new backsplash nor was it in our budget.  It was a little trial and error but you can see the how to here. […]

    Reply
  2. Easy Front Door Face Lift says:
    July 25, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    […] on the doors.  You can see my previous post, one of my favorites, about my Tile Transformation here.  Sherwin Williams has been our go to for paint because their paint has great coverage and […]

    Reply
  3. Christmas Kitchen Home Tour says:
    November 29, 2018 at 4:00 am

    […] in the past 4 years we have lived in our home.  I’ve painted the kitchen cabinets, painted the tile backsplash, replaced the flooring, replaced the appliances and have added and changed many of the […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

mother holding baby in the air and going for a kiss

My name is Ruthie, I was born and raised in the Midwest.  I met the man of my dreams in Nashville, TN and decided to follow him back home to California.  First came love, then came marriage, then came the baby in the baby carriage.  My husband got a new job when my daughter was 2 months old and we packed up and moved halfway across the country to Minnesota, back to my homeland. We now have two beautiful little girls.

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?

CATEGORIES

Featured On

featured on house beautiful the huffington post apartment therapy shutterfly ana white wayfair homeright

[instagram-feed]

© 2018 REFASHIONABLY LATE

THEME BY ECLAIR DESIGNS