I Painted Our Kitchen Tile Backsplash!!
You may additionally have observed that I don't proportion a whole lot of snap shots of our kitchen.
It's not because it's an ugly kitchen by any means, but because it just doesn't fit my style. So I am on a mission to turn this kitchen into an Emily's cottage dream kitchen.
Therefor the dark tile had to go. Now I know when most people want new tile, they tare out the old and put in something pretty and new.
Well, I'm not much of a 'tare it out' kind of person, I'm more of a 'how can I take what I have and make it better?' kind of person, and usually always when I ask myself that question,
Paint is always the solution!
So Yes! I painted our kitchen tile backsplash and today I'm going to percentage with you the way I did it.
Paint Test
--------------------------
The first thing I did was test out the paint on an extra piece of tile we had laying around in our garage to make sure that the primer would adhere to it.
I did a test using Zinsser oil base primer. After one day I did a scratch test using my fingernail to see if the paint would scratch off and it did. Feeling frustrated I gave up on the idea of painting our tile and threw the tile back into the garage.
Weeks had past and then one day I was out in the garage and I spotted my failed tile. I picked it up, tried another scratch test and you know what? My fingernail didn't scratch off any of the primer this time. So what I learned was that the paint just needed time to cure.
Yay! It did paintings.
Remove Caulk
----------------------
But before I may want to paint I needed to perform a little prep paintings, and after I say a bit, I truly suggest a Lot!!
I had to remove the clear caulking that was on all of the edges where the backsplash met the granite counter tops. This caulk was on there so good that it actually took days to remove it. I used a raiser blade and scrapped, scrapped and scrapped some more until it was completely gone.
It is important to cast off ALL of the caulk, due to the fact paint will not persist with it.
Wash & Sand
------------------
Once I finally got all of the caulk off, the next step was to wash the tile down with a scrub brush and Dawn dish soap. It needed a good cleaning, especially above the stove top where it tends to collect the most grease.
I then sanded the tile down with my hand sander and a heavy grain of sand paper. I'm not sure if this helped all that much, but I wanted to do everything I could to get it ready to paint.
Prime
-------------
I removed all of the outlet plates, covered the counter top with a large trash bag and began brushing on the primer. I just used a large paint brush, being careful to brush in all one direction and avoiding any brush marks and drips.
After the first coat was on, I let it sit for a couple of days to Cure. Remember my sample? It's best to let it cure 3-7 days. I kept doing a scratch test on the tile to make sure it was cured before applying the second coat.
So keep in mind if you try this at home, this is not an overnight project. All in all it took me a couple of weeks to complete the job.
Also keep in mind, it's going to look way bad before it gets looking better.
I ran out of the Zinsser primer, so I switched over to Kilz primer (pictured above) which I had also tested out on a sample before hand. It works just as well as the Zinsser. So I'd say use whichever of the two primers you have on hand, but if you're needing to buy one, I'd say go with the Zinsser. Oil base is smelly, but I think it has the best adhesive.
- Tips for working with oil base paint:
1. When finished painting for the day, wrap brush in plastic grocery sack and place in freezer. When you are ready to paint again, pull it out and it's ready to go. Then when the whole project is complete you can choose to toss the brush or clean it up with mineral spirits.
2. Keep Mineral spirits on hand to clean up any messes, and to remove paint from hands.
Paint
-------------
I chose my favorite paint in the world to paint the tile backsplash. It is the same paint I used on my kitchen cabinets as well.
Olympic, off the shelf semi-gloss One Paint. It can be tinted in any color of course, but I think the white that it is already is perfect.
The Paint took 2-3 coats to fully cover. I let it dry 24 hours in between coats.
I'm very happy with how it turned out.
The only problem I've seen so far is that now that the backsplash is white, it tends to get dirty fast. The same thing happened when I painted the cabinets white. White shows dirt more easily, but with the semi-gloss finish, it's all really easy to wipe clean.
Now that the basksplash is painted white, I'm off to find a new color for the walls. You may notice I have a few samples on the walls already.
I'm also still debating on what to do with the wood stove mount and light fixtures.
But I'm liking how its coming along.
I also want to add something to the tile above the stove top, either hang something up there or add some kind of stencil detail. It just seems to need something, any thoughts?
I also want to get some new handles for the cabinets, or knowing me, 'work with what you have' kind of person, I'll probably just paint them. :)
So I hope this post is helpful for any of you thinking of painting your tile backsplash. If you follow my instructions you should be happy with the results as well.
Please stay tuned for more changes to come.
Thanks for stopping by
Emily