Spring Break Project

My mom was wanting a kitchen island and new backsplash for her kitchen. Well, you know me, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to come help. This started back during Spring Break. We wanted an island that would be 2 feet by 3 feet and on wheels so it could easily be moved around the kitchen. So me and my mom headed up to Billings one day to see if we could find something. Any kitchen islands that were in stores were way too expensive, so we first looked at maybe finding something to convert into an island. We found some things that might work, but they weren't exactly right. So we started looking at building one from scratch. We couldn't find anyone that could tell us exactly what we needed to build it, so after an entire day of searching for an island, we came up empty-handed. We did get tile for the backsplash though, so we could at least get started. We got home and remembered some cabinets I had found last summer that someone was throwing out. We thought just maybe we could turn those into the island. And wouldn't you know it, the cabinets fit together perfect. It made a 3x2 island. How lucky could we get?
The old "backsplash" consisted of a textured wall with a piece of wood trim running along the counter. So we ripped out the wood and scraped all the texture off the wall. Then, all the light switches and outlets had to be switched out. The old ones were a cream color, and it would look really bad with the white tile we picked out. My dad did that part because he was afraid we were going to electrocute ourselves. We also had to put extenders in the outlets so the tile would fit behind them.

We decided to start behind the stove. I made up a pattern, and my mom loved it, so we went with it. I don't think it turned out too bad considering it's the first real tile job I've ever done.There was only one problem. For the rest of the backsplash, we were going to run just the big white tiles around the kitchen with the small glass tiles. But after my mom saw the tile with the black bordering the glass tiles, she wanted that for the rest of the kitchen. It wouldn't have been a very big deal, except for the fact that those little 6-inch black trim tiles cost almost $2 each, which would add on an extra two or three hundred dollars. I can't remember the exact amount. But it wasn't in the budget. I agreed that it looked a ton better, so I got on Ebay and was able to find something fairly similar, and it only cost about $40, and that included plenty of extra in case we messed up. We could do a whole lot until those tiles cam in, so it was just a waiting game. It came time to go back home, and the tile still hadn't showed up, so I had to leave. They came in about 2 hours after I left :(
I made plans to come back a few weeks later to finish the project. Our plan was to do 2 rows of white tiles, then the glass tile, and another 2 rows of white tile. It just so happened that the row of glass tile went right through all the outlets, which meant a lot of meticulous cuts on very small tiles.
The only way we could think of to keep the tile up on the wall to see where cuts went was to tape it up with painter's tape. It worked for the most part.



Next was grout.

Here's the end product:
My mom found a white trim tile to go around all the raw edges of tile. You can see it





Next came the island. We had to figure a way to turn this......into a kitchen island. I went up to Billings one day and spent about 3 hours shopping for (hopefully) all the materials we would need. We were really just winging it. The thing that took the longest was probably taking off the paint from the cabinets. This was done by my mom. I think she said that there was a coat of paint, a couple coats of varnish, and a couple coats of stain. But the wood was so pretty underneath all that. The bottom section of the wood here is completely stripped.

Another thing that took a while was deciding on a pattern for the top. I liked it one way, but my mom liked it another. We finally figured out the problem. I liked the look of random. My mom preferred a more symmetrical look. So we compromised: Random, but with a symmetry, if that makes any sense.Here it is actually glued down and grouted.


After weeks of work, everything was finished. I actually had to leave again before it was all done, but it got done. The cabinets were actually wall cabinets, so we had to put them back to back to make them wide enough. We also had to add wood to the tops and bottoms to make it tall enough. We also put beadboard on the sides. Since they had been on the wall previously, the sides weren't finished and didn't look good, so it was an easy solution.We also put beadboard on the sides. Since they had been on the wall previously, the sides weren't finished and didn't look good, so it was an easy solution.

There's a section in between these cabinets to put cookie sheets etc.
Sam did really well keeping himself occupied. While my dad was home, Sam had someone to play with, but the rest of the time, he basically had to entertain himself.

He loves playing with my mom's Ipod :)I had a lot of fun, even if it was really frustrating at times :)