I've never been a dark granite type person. I have no clue why, but I just prefer lighter grays and beige tones when selecting granite. When we moved in, however, the house already had a dark (not fully black, however) granite. Pics below are from the second time we visited the house when it was up on the market...
Our cabinets are gorgeous and we both knew that we wanted tile backsplash. But before that, after doing some googling, I convinced Derek to pull off the 4 inch granite backsplash strip in order to minimize the darkness. It turned out to be a quite easy (and fun) project which left only a few small holes to fill in and sand!
Our little helper even had fun doing some sanding. And yes, those are exposed outlets, which is why we didn't leave his side and fully supervised him.
A couple weekends ago, a new neighborhood friend who has done tile-work before and Derek rented the tile saw and got to work!
We splurged on a travertine tile that has tons of texture and different colors. It's gorgeous and I love how it looks great with both the cabinets and the dark granite. Plus the undermount lighting looks even better on the tile than it did the wall!
Where we removed the original granite backsplash on the main wall, we had to mud it out a bit as it was really sunken back. Apparently we didn't do that enough as there was 8 tiles which we REALLY felt sat back farther. The undermount lighting only made them look even worse. Soooooo.... we pulled them out and re-did those.
Our painter comes next week to paint the walls, but I was excited to finally get this post up now. I'm absolutely in LOVE with how the kitchen looks now and I feel as though the tile reflects against the granite making it look a smidge lighter!
It turned out great! The sunken tiles would've bugged me too.
ReplyDeleteLooks great! Totally worth that extra 2 hours because it was pretty noticeable. Good call! :)
ReplyDeleteWow! That looks so good!
ReplyDeleteIt looks fantastic! I love it! Want to come work on my kitchen?
ReplyDeleteIt looks amazing! Love your choice! And I would have totally gone with the extra hours to make it perfect!! Well done!
ReplyDeleteYou definitely did the right thing by fixing those few tiles. It looks MOUNDS better.
ReplyDeleteI love it!! We have dark granite and travertine backsplash as well. But of course we do...b/c we are friggin similar!!
Such a great idea to remove the 4 inch strip. It looks so nice!
ReplyDeleteIt looks amazing! And I'm right there with you on those tiles that were sticking out! I would have re-done them too!
ReplyDeleteOh man, I LOVE it!! It looks fantastic! And good call fixing that row of 8. We have a few areas in our house that we could have fixed like that, but chose to leave it, and...yeah. It didn't magically get better with age, shockingly!! Wish I'd done it right the first time!!!
ReplyDeleteVery pretty. A small change but a huge payoff.
ReplyDeleteLooks great!!! Y'all did an awesome job!
ReplyDeleteLooks gorgeous! My husband and I are in the process of house hunting, and I'm hoping we don't have to do too much rehabbing in the kitchen or bathrooms. Fingers crossed! You guys did a great job, though, and it looks like it wasn't too terribly difficult. Can't wait to see the rest of the reveal as you share it. :)
ReplyDeleteGORGEOUS! The tile adds a whole new demention to your kitchen. Love it.
ReplyDeleteIt's looks great!
ReplyDeleteWow! That looks so good!! Totally lightens it up!!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! I love it. And I'm glad you spent the extra two hours to fix the sunken tiles. I would have stared at it all day and just kick myself if I didn't fix it. It's looks wonderful!
ReplyDeleteIt looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat's absolutely gorgeous!! I'm debating a backsplash in our new house- so I love seeing what other people choose to do!
ReplyDeleteWow! It looks great Sarah!!
ReplyDeleteWow -- it looks BEAUTIFUL! There is seriously something about a great looking kitchen that just makes you want to spend time there cooking!!
ReplyDeleteIt looks fantastic! We did our backsplash a couple years ago and realized quickly the corners weren't square, the window wasn't level, it was fun times let me tell ya, ha! I would have had to pull out those tiles too, good call! :)
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I love it!! Replacing those eight really made a big difference.
ReplyDeleteThat looks awesome! And I agree, those sunken tiles would have haunted you!
ReplyDeleteIt looks perfect! Great job! :)
ReplyDeleteWow! That turned out wonderful! I love kitchen back splashes ( haha..is that how you would say it?!). Very lovely!
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I love those cabinets!!
ReplyDeleteI love that tile backsplash! marking this for ideas for our house (when we get to that point)! are your cabinets maple or hickory? because they are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLove it! That looks so good! I think we are going with light granite in our new house. Now we have dark and I just would rather have light granite!
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing!!! It's amazing what a small difference one change can make in a space. I can't wait till we can do projects like that in our own home one day :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks awesome!!! Great job =)
ReplyDeleteoh, it is beautiful! It looks really great with the dark counters! Oh yeah, you can totally see the different between the sunken tiles and the fixed tiles - excellent idea on fixing it up so you love it!
ReplyDeleteI love it. Looks awesome and goes together well. Hope you have a great weekend.
ReplyDeletehttp://hotpinkowl02.blogspot.com/2014/03/frozen_21.html
Looks amazing! We have very similar countertops and backsplash.
ReplyDeleteThat looks so nice! It definitely lightens it up. I'm not a fan of all dark either, especially as we have a small kitchen. I can't wait to remodel ours. It's very 80s!
ReplyDeleteLooks beautiful! I wish my hubs was that handy!!! Enjoy your "new" kitchen.
ReplyDeletexoxo, S
It looks great! Mic and I would have been the same way about fixing the tiles. We woud have gone crazy looking at the difference every day! Good choice to take the time to fix it :)
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't it funny that you had to say that you supervised Drew by the outlets. I think I always feel the need to explain myself like that too! lol!
Have a great weekend Sarah!
The lighter backsplash has turned the dark granite into a reflecting pool! It really brightens up the kitchen. Good choice - and good work by Derek and your neighbor! Aunt Karen
ReplyDeleteWow, it looks amazing! I love, love it!
ReplyDeleteLove it!! The light tiles offsets the dark granite perfectly. It's awesome that you did it yourself. We did not even attempt that and it would have been nice to save some money.
ReplyDeleteThat looks really nice! I think you did lighten up the kitchen quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteWow that looks great!!! Good job! :)
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! Love it.
ReplyDeleteYou just solved my brain-fart...and you weren't even intending to!
ReplyDeleteWe're starting our kitchen in the next few weeks, and I could not decide what to do on the end of one of the cabinets, and I realized what we need to do, and it's not even in your picture, but a picture made me realize it!
Your kitchen looks awesome! I think we're going with ceramic white subway tile, but my husband wants to do a dark grout. We're having medium brown cabinets, with black countertops....so it's great to see your's!
This looks so good! It really lightens everything up. Your kitchen looks beautiful. So happy to be introduced to your blog. :)
ReplyDeletexo
Daniela
Put A Bird On It
http://iputabirdonit.blogspot.com
Oooh I love how it turned out!
ReplyDeleteThis looks great!!! Love the whole kitchen!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful kitchen! I love the way the backsplash looks with the cabinets. (Thanks for coming to say hello on my blog, by the way ;) )
ReplyDeleteso pretty! If I were you I would just sit in that kitchen all day long. It looks so good!
ReplyDelete