Young House Love

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Tips For Adding A Penny Tile Backsplash

Monday’s backsplash post kinda dove straight into the middle of the project, so we thought while we were back to share our progress we should rewind a smidge to explain a bit more about the process for anyone else out there who wants to tackle something similar. First we had to prep the room. So everything came off the counters.

Tile2 Room Before

Then down went the rosin paper (from Home Depot). It was recommended by our counter installation guy when we mentioned we were doing a backsplash. It’s basically like brown construction paper, but with an added moisture barrier that keeps any thinset drips from seeping through. We covered each of the counters with cardboard (for extra protection against sharp trowel corners) then taped rosin paper over it, with the painter’s tape going right up to the wall.

Tile2 Room With Rosin Paper

Finally we got to start planning our tile placement. We decided to start in the corner under the microwave because it felt like a nice fairly inconspicuous spot to learn the ropes. And it was basically three sheets wide in that area, so we took it as sign that it’d be an easy way to get our feet wet.

Tile2 3 Tiles Laid Out

Not knowing how long it would take to make cuts, we didn’t want our whole batch of thinset to dry out while we fumbled with the nippers for an hour (which happened, as you know from Monday’s post). I’m glad we took it slow to start, but we later learned it’s MUCH faster to put up as many full sheets as you can and then just backfill with cut pieces along your edge (even if you have to use some freshly mixed thinset to place those).

Tile2 All Tiles Laid Out

The staggered pattern is to help disguise the seams by alternating where they lie. So instead of your eye catching one long horizontal seam, things are mixed up a little so there’s hopefully a more seamless effect once it all gets grouted.

Anyways, now that we were FINALLY ready to put some tile on the wall, I had to mix up the thinset (we got this kind from The Tile Shop). Not gonn lie. This step made us nervous because we ruined a whole bag of grout during our first house’s bathroom project by misreading the label and pouring in too much water. Oops. So we read the bag about ten times and then found this Ask The Builder video on YouTube. And we’re happy to report that we had no trouble getting our thinset to the right consistency.

Tile2 Mixing Thinset

As we’ve heard, the thickness is supposed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of toothpaste or pancake batter. It should hold together, but still be loose enough to spread – and fall slowly off your putty knife like so:

Tile2 Thinset Dripping Off

With the thinset mixed, we spread it on the wall using the flat side of the 3/16″ notched trowel (from The Tile Shop). I also used the putty knife sometimes since it fit better in the tight space.

Tile2 Spreading Thinset

Once it was on and fairly even, we held the notched edge of the trowel at a 45-degree-ish angle and scraped along the thinset, creating little grooves to grab the tiles (we used a small 3/16″ trowel notch since we’ve got small tiles).

Tile2 Scraping Thinset

And at last, the first tile sheet was pressed into the wall. It was scary and awesome all at the same time.

Tile2 Placing First Tile

Oh, and we used a veryveryvery thin piece of scrap wood as a spacer against the bottom so that we’d be sure to leave some room between the tile and the counter for caulk (you don’t want tile resting right on your counter, so a tiny smidge of space akin to the spacing between each tile is ideal). So our wood spacer was about as thick as a paint stick if that helps you picture it. Maybe even a little thinner.

Tile2 Placing Second Tile

These pieces were fairly easy to lay because there was a lot of stuff (counter & cabinets) to help keep things straight. So once we actually started tiling, it didn’t take us too long to get to the point that you saw on Monday (maybe an hour and a half?). We had just spent so much time prepping that we were too spent to continue on into the night…

TileStart After 1

… but the next day we had our mojo back and made our way along the sink wall with renewed energy. We even removed the piece of molding under the window so we wouldn’t have to do any tile cuts around it (we’d just place the molding on top of the finished tile for a seamless look).

Tile2 Removing Window Moldi

This time we were a bit less type A and didn’t plan out all of our cuts ahead of time… we just removed the full tiles that would interfere with the disposal switch before mixing up thinset and back-filled the rest as we went (popping off half and full tiles and sticking them wherever we needed to fill those in).

Tile2 Laid Out Under Window

So this whole part went pretty quickly, especially in comparison to the day before.

Tile2 Thinsetting Window Si

But Clara didn’t give us much of a nap, so we had to call it quits and clean up before we could move our tiling party onto the big back wall. Sigh. At least we got one side done! It’s the easy side, but still. Oh and see how the widow looks off center? Once we add the open shelving to the stove wall there will be 14″ of space on either side of the window so it’ll look nice and balanced again. Note: we’ll share how we’ll be “capping” those 14 inches of tile on either side of the window that won’t be under a cabinet or shelf as soon as we can snap pics to explain things better.

Tile2 After Straight

We’re hoping the back wall goes relatively quickly. On the one hand, it’s a huge space to tile. On the other, we’re sort of getting the hang of it now AND the wall is pretty much all full tiles (aka: fewer cuts).

Tile2 After From Peninsula

Until then, we’re just enjoying the work we’ve already done. We’re pretty much obsessed with it actually. The weirdest thing is that our favorite thing to do is look at it in the dark. I can’t explain it, but it sort of gleams at night. Like it’s wet. We love that fancy shine. It definitely elevates things like our white Corian counter and our painted cabinets. Can’t wait to grout it and see the finished result. And replace that dishwasher with our stainless guy (just waiting to get the floor down so it runs under it).

Tile2 After Angle Closer

What penny tile lacks in quick application points, it makes up for in looks-good ones. We read so many things online about folks having issues lining them up and hiding seams but ours seem to be pretty easy to slide around in the thinset until we like how it’s all lining up.

Tile2 After Close Winow

So we just stand there and keep noodling until we get nice even rows. So as tedious as it can be, the result is 100% worth the finished result in our humble opinion.

Tile2 Extreme Close Up

In writing this post I also realize we mentioned that we’d make another video and completely spaced on that. Next post for sure! We wanted to show you how we spread and scrape the thinset and set (and scooch around) the tile. Good thing we still have an entire wall to do. Haha.

But wait, you don’t think we stopped there, do ya? Late last night we got a chance to start some of the back wall. Slowly but surely is the name of the game here (we wish we could snap our fingers and be done, but… we tried and there was still a whole wall to tile). Our goal is to be completely finished by the end of this weekend. We’ll just inch along through the weekend and hopefully be back with some wide shots of a fully-tiled-monty post on Monday! Look how serious Sherry is about it. Hah.

Tile2 Starting Back Wall

Anyone else doing tile stuff? We went into this project not knowing if it would take us three weeks or three days, so I’d say that we’re pretty excited if we get to share a completed tile job around a week after starting it. Not too bad for just stealing evenings and the occasional nap time to chip away at it. So if you’re wondering if you can do it, penny tile can be slow going, but it’s definitely not the hardest thing we’ve tackled. It’s probably not even in the top ten actually. So… you can do it.

Comments

  3. Angela says

    What did you guys do about outlets? We’re doing a backsplash soon and have seen so many suggestions as to how to deal with the depth difference of the tiles

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just tiled right up to the “outlet hole” (haha, that’s obviously a technical term) and once the face plates are put on they rest on the tile so they’re nice and fitted looking! We’ll try to snap some pics of that in our full monty reveal for Monday. Can’t wait!

      xo,
      s

    • Lizzy says

      i don’t know the proper name for them but most hardware stores sell extender thingys for outlets – they basically clip on and bump the outlet out a bit so that it isn’t sunken into the wall. also, we’ve even just used longer screws when screwing the actual outlet thingy into place. (i know, so many technical terms!) once the face plate is in, everything is flush!

  4. betty in munich says

    Hey Sherry, look at you and your gorgeous manicure! Love that nail polish color and love that you can tile and have pretty hands too!

    Reply

  5. jeannette says

    sue the napkin would be so proud. the pale grey/white/grellow/chocolate cork is worderfully exciting. the penny tile is visually/texturally very interesting. your fine arts eddication is shining thru, miss s. thanks for a good look at corian, too. granite is so 2008.

    Reply

  6. jeannette says

    i have another question. a lot of couples come to blows when working together on a house. y’all aren’t. (or maybe you are and you’re into it.) srsly, what are your top 10 hints for avoiding divorce during reno?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- we definitely can let the stress or frustration of something not going as planned get to us- and we definitely fight! We’re human! But we try to remember that we’re on the same team. We both want the same thing. So we’re frustrated at the situation, not each other. That helps to remember!

      xo,
      s

  7. Emily says

    It looks great, guys! The penny tile to the ceiling is going to look fabulous, especially over the sink! I can’t wait to see more progress :-)

    Reply

  9. Kim says

    I totally have “Furry Wall” from Get Him to the Greek in my head now–except now it’s “Penny Wall”!

    It’s looking so good! :)

    Reply

  11. Priscilla says

    What are you guys going to use as edging along the wall where you cut the tiles? When I did a mosaic tile shower in 2005, they didn’t sell Schluter strips in that depth (1/8 inch or something like that), but they do now. I ended up not using anything and it doesn’t look as finished as I would have liked. I have seen people put molding up along the edge (in a restaurant) but didn’t think that was a good solution for a wet area. http://www.schluter.com/6846.aspx

    Reply

  12. Alexis Peck says

    i LOVE it.. its comming along so nice. while my husband was deployed i re-did the bath room. tiled the floors, put subway white tiles on all the walls with blue glass tile… it can be a pain in the butt.. but the results are soo worth the time… and doing your homework ahead of time helpls.. IE mesuring EVERYTHNG twice maybe three times and cut onece :)

    Reply

  13. samantha says

    I have to say that the whole kitchen is coming along nicely, I have to admit that I did have my doubts as to how it would look, but now that the kitchen doors are painted and the tiles are on the way up, its looking pretty good! :)In fact the whole house is coming along nicely, (I got use to the old one with its Young house love style)

    Reply

  14. Maggie says

    Please post on your blog how it goes when you grout. I helped my brother use mosaic tile in his bathroom, and grouting with all those spaces between the tiles was a really time consuming process, plus we didn’t know there was grout with sealer already in it, so we ended up having to grout and seal about a million joints, and it took (it seemed) forever. So your experiences in this part of your kitchen tiling project would be just as helpful as your posts on the first part of your backsplash/wall job. Thanks.

    Reply

  15. Heather says

    Thank you so much for your blog. Not only is it extremely helpful, but also inspiring! I decided to tackle my powder room and a little over a week ago I ripped everything out of it and started with bare walls and floor. Hubby and i wanted 1″ hex tiles, so we bought them, bought all the supplies and I watched the same video you did … last Friday I mixed up my thinset and went to work. It is lovely!! I hope to have pix up soon on my blog, but I just wanted to say thanks … have fun … looks great!!!

    Reply

  16. Shavonda says

    The tiling is looking great guys! We are planning on tiling a backsplash in our kitchen next month actually, so Im soaking up all the great info. Ill be on the look out for that video soon as well. Looking at your kitchen makes me want to paint my cabinets white so badly. Been wanting to for a while but now im even more convinced that it would be the best decision for us. Anway great post and great tile!!

    Reply

  17. Megan says

    We have a shower to tile. The hubs has done the inset soap / shampoo holder, but we still have the rest to go (he installed the tub awhile back). I told him “I bet Sherry tiles, so I can do it too!” Now onto cutting our travertine and getting our thinset on! haha

    Also, I realize that could have sounded mean. It was supposed to be a compliment. Like you have inspired me to work around the house. :)

    Lastly, the hubby appreciates that through your blog I have started wanting to work with him on the house. So thanks for sharing your lives with us — and how working together is fun (and brings you closer together)!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, that’s so sweet! That really is one of the most rewarding things about blogging – all the folks who get excited to do stuff to make their own house a home. Totally makes me all warm and fuzzy. Happy tiling!

      xo,
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yup, in person we love it! It adds some color to an otherwise white/neutral space and it ties into the dining room, living room, etc. It definitely can look funky on certain monitors though- but in real life we’re into it!

      xo,
      s

  21. heather says

    First – that penny tile is pretty! It fits you guys so so so so so well. I love that it just screams John and $herdog. I’ve been ogling some seaglass subway tile that we will likely never be able to afford (I have no idea how much it costs – next time I see one of the tile subcontractors I’m going to ask him haha.)

    Also, has opening your kitchen changed the look of the sesame paint? I know natural light vs. non natural can change the look entirely. For example, we put a sample of Koi Pond (SW) in our kitchen and during the day it looked like uh…a hiney blowout but at night under the light it looked like a beautiful green color. We definitely didn’t use it for our kitchen but I have up in my office and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. All green and pretty since almost zero natural light gets in there, and the light that does hits the opposite wall. I noticed on Clara’s play kitchen the sesame looks more golden/yellow than green. Just curious if it’s starting to do that in the kitchen too now that it’s all open?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It seems to look a bit lighter with more natural light- and maybe a bit more golden-green than grellow (it’s definitely not super yellow looking like her play kitchen is for some reason). It’s one of those colors that changes a ton, so sometimes it’s yellower and sometimes it’s greener.

      xo,
      s

  22. Meaghan says

    Wow! It looks amazing guys! I love the penny tile. When we did our backspalsh I picked a larger tile with glas mosiac accent totally wished we had used a smaller non-accent tile. The larger ones just look a little odd in such a small kitchen.

    http://diybymrc.blogspot.com/2011/06/kitchen-update.html

    A quick question for you – are you tiling behind the stove and rangehood? I can’t tell if the range hood is hanging from the ceiling or attached to the wall and am wondering how you’ll handle that.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, your kitchen looks fabulous! What a great bang for your buck! As for our tile, we’ll be tiling the entire wall that will be seen, so the slice of wall behind where that range hood duct comes won’t be tiled (since there will be a big hood in front of it).

      xo,
      s

  24. Jacqueline says

    Looks great guys!!! Can’t wait to see it finished.

    We (well, my hubby) just tiled our kitchen too – white subway tile.

    And our laundry too.

    We are at the tail-end of a complete (year-long) renovation of our entire house. Which slowed down for the past few months with the arrival of our first baby last August.

    Reply

  26. Amy says

    Great post! So this isn’t in your top ten hardest projects? Please share that top ten list! And maybe your top ten easiest, highest pay-off projects as well! :D

    Reply

  27. Megan says

    Your penny tile is JUST BEEEAUTIFUL! Keep on keepin’ on.

    You say at the end of this post that this is not the most difficult thing you’ve tackled. Not even in the top 10.

    You make everything look so approachable and simple, so I’m curious…what ARE the top 10 most difficult DIY projects you’ve tackled? The ones you weren’t sure you could make it through (but you did, of course)??

    Reply

  28. Larkin Garbee says

    This looks great! I’ve been stalking the site waiting for this to go up. A little tip if you feel like doing it: Add 1 more sheet to the areas to the left and right of the window and it will draw your eye up a bit more. Otherwise, great job! Penny rounds are certainly not the easiest to do (especially under the window where there wasn’t any durock to bond to). Keep up the good work. I always enjoy reading your blog.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Larkin! We decided to stop the backsplash on the sink wall at the standard 18″ mark since we wanted the tile to line up all the way around (not be taller on either side of the sink) – then the wall o’ tile above the stove can be the star!

      xo,
      s

  31. Monique says

    John, I laughed when I read the last line of your post, “…you can do it.” I am all thumbs at home improvement stuff. But I do admire the accomplishments you both have made in both homes. Personally, I think I’d better stick to sewing. This I can do. :-)

    Reply

  33. Anna says

    Hi Sherry! Love the tile! Quick question – are your outlets spun sideways and pushed to the bottom so as to not break up the tile? I’ve heard of people spinning them and tucking them up under their light rail… Just wondering if there is an advantage to either way… I’m tiling soon! :) Cant wait to see the big wall!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Our outlets were just like that when we got the house so we kept them, but it’s very nice to have them low and horizontal so they don’t stick up very much and break things up!

      xo,
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We didn’t but it was because we had so many lines to work off of (the top of the counter is level, the cabinet above that are is level, the windowsill is level, etc). For the big wall we actually plan to break it out to check ourselves as we go!

      xo,
      s

  37. Meredith @ La Buena Vida says

    You guys have probably already answered this, so I apologize in advance if you have, but do you guys think this will be your “forever” home? Do you guys take things like a potential re-sale into account when you do bigger projects like tile, or just do whatever you guys love, regardless of whether it’ll sell well or not?

    Some day, I want to do a turquoise backsplash in the kitchen. But, it just doesn’t seem like a good idea to do now because this probably isn’t the house we’ll be in forever…and turquoise tile is a lot more difficult to change than turquoise paint, you know?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I have learned never to declare that anything will be my forever house to the internet at large ever again (haha, I did that with our last house and John rolled his eyes… and sure enough he was right). The thing is that we love this house and I’d love to be here forever (or at least a decade or two) but John knows me better than I know myself and his best summary of things is that “we love house hunting and house fixing-up too much to stop here.” So we plan to be here a while (at least 10 years or so) but who knows what could happen! I know what you mean about doing what you want to a house vs. worrying about resale though! We generally try not to do anything that would completely sabotage resale (ex: turn a bedroom into a moon bounce room) but when it comes to adding personal touches in the form of paint and easily-change-able things we’re all for it! As for the turquoise backsplash it’s so hard because you’re right about it being difficult to change out but I can see how you’d want to make your house feel like yours. Maybe try a bunch of turquoise accents like paint or a window treatment or art or a turquoise tea kettle and fruit bowl and see if that tides you over?

      xo,
      s

  38. heather says

    I think this is such a massive improvement, and I’m in awe that you can do this yourselves. But…. I just want to voice that my eyes are being drawn to your cabinet hardware in a way that makes me think it’s too busy. I know y’all are more ocd about your stuff than anyone else could be. Don’t resist the impulse to replace the cabinet pulls with knobs in order to reduce the clutter of it all. Solid nickel finish, not the eyeball thing.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We love our new hardware but it’s definitely one of those personal preference things for sure! Once we grout the tile you’ll see if soften a bit and look less busy (without grout it’s a little more contrasty) so maybe that’ll help ya!

      xo,
      s

  40. Danielle says

    I love it already! Looks gorgeous guys! Can’t wait to see the finished project – and I’m sure, neither can you!

    Reply

  42. karla says

    It looks beautiful! Your kitchen has come such a long way! You are doing a great job!!

    May I ask though, Why did you have to stop when Clara woke up from nap? Have you ever considered just having her going off and playing on her own? It may be good to have her explore and play on her own and gain some independance! Just a thought! :) Although, I must say it seems like you two are very loving, caring, parents!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It’s just too messy to do with a toddler running around! The whole floor gets coated with thinset dust and she’s just 20 months old so we don’t leave her alone in her room with the door shut or anything quite yet!

      xo,
      s

  45. Sarah Jane says

    I’m getting ready to tile! :) from the tile shop too, pumped to use your 10% off code, thank you thank you thank you. (http://m.tileshop.com/aHR0cDovL3d3dy50aWxlc2hvcC5jb20vbmF0dXJhbHN0b25lL29ueXgvSG9uZXktT255eC1NZWRsZXktTW9zYWljcy8xOTkyLmFzcHg%3D)

    i’m a month or so behind you guys in the kitchen renovation process…and moving much slower. but it’ll get done one of these days! Last weekend we built the cabinet/panel surround for the fridge, thanks for that post! It was good to have your pictures to reference and confirm we were on the right track.
    I’m sure when the backsplash is ready to go up i’ll be revisiting these posts!

    Reply

  46. Linda @ It All Started with Paint says

    I’m following along on your journey here … exciting to be near the finish line!

    You two play so nice with your diy. My husband spent an hour-and-a-half last weekend putting up a new extension rod for the shower curtain. Yep. You read that right. ONE-AND-A-HALF HOURS. The trip to the hardware store. Half an hour trying to get the plastic wrap off. Then he broke it when putting it up (he blamed it on faulty equipment). Back to the store. Another half hour getting plastic wrap off. And success. He’s cursing and I’m stifling a laugh. I insist that he guest posts on my blog about the experience …

    … yeah, that’s why I wield the nail gun … and he does the laundry.

    Linda
    [email protected]

    Reply

  47. katelyn says

    ooooo, i’m intrigued.. i’d totally read a blog post about your top ten hardest projects you’ve tackled. well, actually i’ll read anything you write. annnnyyythhaanng. ;)

    Reply

  49. Alexis says

    I feel like i’m waiting with bated breath for your kitchen reveals. I had no idea that you’d need to stagger the penny tiles to hide seams. I guess I just thought it was a little zig-zag-gy on it’s own and would hide seams naturally (if that makes sense). I’ve been dying to put up some white subway tile in our kitchen, but y’all are giving me penny tile ideas!

    BTW Sherry I showed my husband the reply you wrote to my comment yesterday excitedly saying “Sherry typed my name!” and he promptly called me a nerd. :) You and John are neck and neck with Beyonce in terms of famous people I would love to meet.

    Reply

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