Back Splash

This little kitchen of ours is moving right along. 

After the first week of demo and cabinet installation, and then having the counters installed, we are now moving more in baby steps.

But it is finally time to get the back splash up!

Remember we sort of ended up here. That wall....

It is not pretty, but it holds the ceiling up.

First step in making it lovely - We decided to use bead board paneling for our back splash. 

We seriously thought about subway tiles like these beauties.

But we were very much inspired by this kitchen, too. We really loved the cottage-y feel of this one.

And a bonus - bead board would be less work and less money. Perfect.

(And love the little 'm' stool, too!)

After measuring and making templates of our little spaces, Hero cut the panels to fit just about right. "Just about" meaning "there is not a single thing in this kitchen that is square and it is a darn good thing we have caulk and trim pieces".

Or something like that.

Instead of the back splash stopping at the end of the counter top, which we thought might look a little funny, we took it out to the edge of the wall. It feels like it flows just a little bit better that way.

 Taping off the (brand new) counter was a good idea. I think the conversation went something like this:

Hero: You are going to tape the counters off, aren't you?

Me (with paint brush in hand): Um, yep, just about to do that.

I get a little impatient sometimes.

I put the paint brush down and taped it all up quick. Really, it takes about 5 minutes. Now I could caulk and paint without worrying. And then just pull away the mess. Worth doing for sure.

Look at that!

And see that gap under the upper cabinet? We will get on that, too, with very small trim. I painted the trim pieces after I painted the back splash, and we thought we would wait until they were good and dry before nailing them up. 

But because I can get a little impatient sometimes, we pushed on with another little project.

Check out these little goodies!

We are loving these wall mounted racks for all kinds of goodness to hang from. Time to bring in some personality and charm!

The little blue tea cup is from a set that my parent's had when they first got married. Love the sweet color and shape.

And while we are working on adding a little charm,we added these cafe curtains, too.

We did not really need to have anything on this window for privacy or sun, but I did want to bring in a little softness and color. I found this great fabric online, whipped up 2 hemmed rectangles and clipped them up. The colors tie in the few colors found in the kitchen - The light blue overhead light, the yellow utensil holder, the red "m" on the plate rack and a fun green handled antique mallet that will hang on the rod.

We let that bead board wrap all around the little window. (Not to worry - we are all over that gap up at the top.)

There's the trim! We did not want anything too crazy or big - Just something to finish the space. What a difference it makes. 

This kitchen is feeling more and more like ours each day.

Love how it's moving right along.