Renovating Our Kitchen || Picking Out Our Backsplash Tile || Rusitc Modern Kitchen Ideas

Hey everyone! For those of you who are new here, this is what our kitchen looked like a couple of months ago when we first purchased our home. The island was a bit of an awkward shape and we had lots of dated appliances and our island countertop had a huge crack down the middle. We knew the bones of this space were really good but we just wanted to update it a little bit working with the floor plan that was already there. So the plan was to remove the center wall oven and then the wall cabinets on both sides just to give the space more open and airy feel and we also wanted to restructure this island so it had more of a rectangular shape. So once we had a rough plan in place, it was time to go pick out our countertops and we looked at a lot of different options but we ended up going with this gorgeous leather Taj Mahal quartzite and we also decided to save money by taking our existing microwave and putting it in an opening in the island as opposed to buying an expensive microwave drawer. No regrets on that! And we did actually ask for a two and a half inch miter on the edge of our countertops just to help make a statement with this beautiful natural stone. We also replaced the old divider sink with a big open farmhouse sink and then we paired that with a gorgeous brass faucet sprayer and disposal switch which I love to use and the whole reason that we wanted to remove the wall oven in the first place was because I envisioned a gorgeous custom range hood to act as a focal point and to center the space. So we kept the design pretty simple with just a subtle taper detail and then the plan is to eventually install long open shelving on both sides of the range hood for extra storage. And once drywall was installed, we didn't have the budget to install a backsplash so I just came up with a temporary solution that would still add interest and texture to the wall which was simply just give it a coat of a lime wash treatment and I love the subtle old world feel that this gives to the space and the way that it looks on a range hood and kind of gives it that plaster effect. I also purchased an old barn beam off of Etsy and had professionals cut it down and install it around the range hood for a more lived in rustic feel and then we removed all of the cabinet doors and sanded down the frames to prep them for restaining and refacing them with new doors. So I can link all of my renovation videos if you haven't seen those but that's kind of a quick catch-up on where we're at today and just as a quick reminder this is the space that we started with and this is what it's looking like just after our progress so far. Obviously we still have a ways to go with the cabinets but it's definitely come a long way from where we started and I'm happy to just have a functional kitchen as we continue through renovations. Okay so it's now present day and I figured I'd take you guys along with me this week and kind of show you our kitchen progress and some plans and even though the progress really hasn't been much I think we're going to make a couple of big decisions this week. We're going to do the backsplash. I thought it'd be fun to pick that out together because while we did do this beautiful lime wash backsplash it is just not holding up and it's not practical. Like I need something wipeable back here just because when we cook with all the grease it splatters it shows water stains so easily. I have to be so careful when I'm cleaning the countertops not to get spray on the lime wash so it's just not practical so I think we're going to just try to find something wipeable for a beautiful backsplash. So we'll go and find some options at the stores and pick out some things and maybe bring some samples back here and decide what we're doing together and then I think right now what I'm going to do is turn the camera around and show you guys the progress and like how I have it styled currently and what some of the plans are. Okay so this is currently how I have our countertop styled. Obviously we do not have kitchen cabinets down below or anywhere in this kitchen for that matter so I just really wanted to make this range area feel a little bit more homey and aesthetic. So what I did was I layered these vintage breadboards and these are my absolute favorite kitchen styling accessory of all time. These have come with us to every single home that we've been in in the last couple of years and they really do just help the space to feel really warm and rustic and adds that nice European kitchen feel to the space which I love. They typically are a little pricey to get like real rustic breadboards with that beautiful patina on them but in my opinion they're worth it because they're such a gorgeous display piece and I just keep them out there all the time. And then this is my all-time favorite olive tree. The leaves on here just look so realistic and I love the topiary shape. This guy was a little pricey again but it's one of those that I feel like is worth it. I actually used this in our bathroom in our last house and it looked really pretty just because it is taller so you know typically you don't have this much space in a kitchen unless you have no uppers or shelves but I think it looks nice here for now. I think some other sites do sell this. I think I have seen it online recently so I'll link it if I can. And then also I got this on my most recent antiquing trip and oh my gosh I love this piece so much with the gorgeous cornflower blue detail that's hand painted on here and the rustic glaze. I just think that it's such a stunning piece and this for me was a bit of an inspiration piece like I thought it'd be really pretty to find a similar tile to this and then we could maybe put it like just here underneath the hood and then do like the rest like neutral tile or like a handmade kind of like rustic neutral maybe. I don't know that was kind of what I was thinking just to add like a fun punch of pattern that's still classic and kind of true to that like Spanish Southwestern vibe. This almost looks like a little French to me too which I also really like and then over here we have this artwork which actually serves as a little backsplash for me because this is the main burner that I use and this just prevents splatter you know when I'm cooking with oils and stuff. I'll typically like move it over a little bit and also this range has been really good. Like I said in a previous video we were trying to get induction and it just was not in the budget for a 36 inch size which is what we needed but this is electric and I will say it's been pretty good. The only thing is like these buttons are a little bit janky like when you have to put in the cooking temperature and stuff it's kind of annoying to like navigate through them because they don't always like you know register but it's it's okay. For the price it was fine and then it was funny because at first our burners weren't working and we had to like go through the warranty people and everything. Turns out it was just these two knobs were flipped on both sides so it was just put together incorrectly. We didn't know so that was an easy fix but then over here also another little tip that I have is just to put your wooden utensils in your crock and then store your unsightly ones down below in a drawer. Obviously we don't have a drawer right now but when we do that's where they'll go. Right now they're over here but you can see like these are our more practical utensils obviously. I still do use wood quite often but it's just nice to have those down there and then this just looks a little bit more aesthetic a little bit more warm a little bit more rustic and then I also mixed some antique ones in there so these I got at the antique store and they just have like that rustic patina on them so it makes you know these bamboo ones that I actually cook with just look worn and aged just gives it a nice little old world feel and then also these are my all-time favorite salt and pepper shakers. I got these on McGee and Co. also I usually use these out on my tablescape but I just figured they look so pretty here so I left them there and then it's nice because you know it's right by the burner so I season with those and then I got this on Etsy and I love anything handmade I think it just adds like that human element into your styling so I can link the Etsy shop that I got this on below and then I just fill that with my oil so again I have that right there when I'm cooking and then maybe a little olive overload but I just love this olive tree this was from Target years ago and I think they still sell it but it's really nice because it does fit under shelving which is great and I just love the rustic look of it the tone of this wood is super classic and it's one of my favorites I always switch it out for you know Christmas and fall with like seasonal things and then when it's time to put it back I get so excited because I just love the look of it and then I got these two canisters a long time ago and those are just like for my coffee things just so they're out here on the counter but you can hear Mike you can hear the saw out there maybe I don't know if you can hear it on the camera but he's cutting away all the pieces of wood for the cabinets he's done really good I think we have from here over all made which is really great so we still have quite a ways to go with all of these other cabinets but nice that we're getting there okay so now we're going to go head to the store and look at some samples I think we're going to go to a bunch of different stores and what I'm thinking for the backsplash is I want something that looks really rustic something kind of like handmade maybe like a clay tile I also want it to be unique like I don't want it to be super trendy and something you see in every kitchen I kind of want something like unique to this house and unique to this landscape so that's going to be a little bit of a challenge but I think I'll know when I see it so I figured just be fun to go to like a bunch of stores and see what they have and what the options are I don't know I haven't really looked at a ton of backsplash tiles lately so it'll be fun to just see what's even available and maybe we'll get inspired just by going to the stores or order something online or whatever but something that I want to keep in mind when I'm at the stores is really avoiding trends because when we picked out the tile for our last house white kitchens were really big and herringbone backsplashes were really big at the time and I remember a lot of people saying like oh don't go with the trends because that's going to date your kitchen in five years and I remember also hearing from people like it doesn't matter what the trends are just pick what you like and so I thought at the time I was picking what I liked but now looking back I was picking what I liked because the trends said that that looked good if that makes sense and I do really honestly think that that herringbone was the right move in that space just because if we had a regular lay with that tile it would have fallen flat a little bit just with an all-white kitchen I think it did need a little punch of fun pattern and unique lines with the herringbone I think that was the right move design-wise but it's funny because I think I liked it because it was a trend the herringbone as well as the all-white kitchen I do kind of agree with the sentiment of you need something warm in there just to make it feel a little bit homey you can still have a bright white airy feel in your kitchen but I just think the all-white was very trendy I think white kitchens are beautiful and they're really easy honestly to add elements of warmth into you know I had my rustic breadboards I had the woven backs on our bar stools we did do like that gray faux concrete quartz which I really liked and then if we were staying there for longer I think I would make that corner wall covered in stone and then swap out our pantry door for like an antique door I think that would have been a really easy fix just to add some warmth in there and make it a little bit more of like a classic kitchen but we knew we were leaving so we didn't do that so now we're going to focus our energy on this kitchen so those are kind of the things I want to keep in mind when I go to the store I want to avoid trends even if it's like in now and it's considered beautiful now I want to think like 10 years down the road is that going to date my kitchen and I want something a little bit more classic and a little bit more unique that I haven't seen in a bunch of homes and actually my first plan before we moved into this house we were going to do a stone wall which that was like hands down what we were doing like that was the plan I was like later we're going to do this but right now we'll just do the lime wash and then we'll install the stone later once we've saved up a little bit more but as we've lived in the house and I've looked at the wall every day I just feel like for me and my space it would be a little bit too rustic like we already have a lot of rustic elements in this space I have a lot of rustic furniture we have the old barn beams and I just don't want it to feel like you're literally in a barn or something like I still think it would be beautiful and it would be timeless and I really love the look of it but in my head I'm like I think we can do something different and I'm gonna love it more so what I'm going for is something classic unique and then also timeless which I feel like all those things may be oxymorons but that's kind of what we're going for so let's go head off to the store and see what we can find okay so these were roughly the vibes that I was thinking for our tile backsplash just something rustic and earthy looking with that handmade quality to it and I'm not gonna lie I love the neutral tile but when I pictured my dream kitchen in the desert it always had some sort of European accent tile with just a touch of color and pattern you know something kind of French or Spanish looking and I just love how it gives the kitchen some personality and color but it's also classic and timeless so what I was thinking to do is just do the area under the range hood in a fun patterned tile but then do the rest of the surrounding wall and area in a neutral rustic tile very similar to this photo I just think it gives the kitchen that wow moment without being too crazy and it's something unique that I know I'll love forever so that's kind of what we're in search of today I want to find a tile for underneath the range hood that looks distressed like it was pulled out of an old Spanish or French villa or something and then maybe surround it with something like a Zelige tile so I spotted this beautiful light blue gray patterned tile and I thought it might be pretty to pair with something like this creamy gray Zelige tile I just thought that combo might be kind of pretty the only thing is I didn't know if it would look weird that the pattern tile was matte and the cream tile was glossy and I also just kind of felt like it looked a bit fake like someone just took a printer to the tile so I kept looking they definitely had a lot of options and fun patterns here I thought that this black and white checkered one was actually really cool not for my space or for this project but I thought it might be cool to use something like a bathroom floor and it was just a pretty product with those beautiful like distressed edges I thought that was really neat so I kept looking and moved on to the next door and I spotted this stunning tumbled travertine mosaic tile I just thought this was so pretty with all of those gorgeous lines to help add interest but I love that the travertine material still gave off that earthy rustic look it was just a little bit too pricey for me at over $15 per square foot but it did come in these sheets that would make installation a lot easier than if all of those tiles were individual now this brown Zelige tile was a bit too dark for this project and it didn't really fit the vision but I thought it was so pretty maybe for somewhere like a bathroom paired with some lighter counters and cabinetry I just love the way that these tiles reflect the light and how each one has its own unique coloring so when they're all paired together it looks like a gorgeous handmade tile quilt or something I also looked around for some of the pattern tile options but I wasn't finding much at first I thought some of these were interesting and I like that when you looked close they had like a faux hand-painted glaze look to them thought that was kind of pretty and then I also spotted these pretty terracotta and white ones which wasn't really what I had in mind color-wise but it had me rethinking everything for a second because I really liked them they also had these hand-painted effect blue ones but they were a little bit too small for the scale of the space and also a little bold color-wise and these reminded me of something you'd see in a desert retreat like in my JTH vacation blog so I thought those were really pretty and then Mike's favorite were actually these sandstone tiles and I did think that the earthy color and texture on these were absolutely beautiful but I was just looking for something a little bit brighter and lighter for the natural tile as opposed to like earthy and warm so we continued on with our search and we spotted some pretty blue and white tiles and again I love that these ones had that hand-painted look to them and it was actually really hard to find a glossy pattern tile so these were lovely but I just felt like they were a little bit too bold color-wise and they didn't have any distressing on them which I really wanted I just wanted the accent tiles to feel like they were salvaged from an old building in the Mediterranean and these didn't quite feel like that I also noticed some floral tiles making their way onto the scene which is most likely a trend but I thought that these navy ones were kind of tasteful and fun for a little accent tile and I also spotted these floral printed ones with more of a vintage look to them and while I wouldn't use either of these in my space I just thought they were kind of interesting and fun to look at and I also loved this terracotta brown tile and like I said it's not quite the right like light and airy feel that I'm looking for but still really beautiful and I could see myself using this in another area of our home eventually okay so it's a couple days later and we're back from the store now unfortunately I did not find anything that I loved in store which I was a little bit bummed about because I was hopeful I'd find something in person I just personally love to feel the texture and see the finish and the size and like the variation of the tiles within the box in person but that's just how it goes sometimes you got to take a chance with something that you find online so I found this gorgeous tile you guys like I was like stopped in my scrolling tracks when I saw it and it does come in a couple different patterns so I ordered samples of three of the patterns so we can kind of hold them up and decide but they are gorgeous so let me show you so just to clarify there's two different tiles there's one that I want to use throughout the rest of the backsplash right here and then there's one that I want to use under the range hood which is like the pattern tile so there's two pattern tiles and then there's the rustic one so this is one of the patterned tiles and this is exactly what I was talking about I just love how it has all of this beautiful distressing on there so it really does look like it's aged and it's old and it's salvaged from like an old building somewhere and honestly what's great about this is it's not a flat tile the surface actually has divots and like distress marks in it which I love because it doesn't just look like it's a flat tile with a distressed print on top even though that is what it is it is a printed tile there's actually texture within the tile and the surface does taper down a little bit I really like the pattern on this one like I like the shape of this and I like how it kind of fades to this creamy white on the edges so it's a nice little concentration of color in the middle but then you know it still kind of fades to that neutral and would blend in really well with like a neutral tile I just can't get over how gorgeous this is especially with these really beautiful like crack marks on the end I just think it is so unique and beautiful so this is one of the pattern tiles let me show you the other one okay so this is the second tile that's patterned and I love this one I love the tone of the blue on this and honestly it's so funny because I think I said earlier in this video that this little crock here was kind of like an inspiration piece like I wanted to find something similar to this and I feel like this really does look similar to that crock just with the color and the distressing and I love the combo of this distressing that kind of has like a little bit of like a brown terracotta hue and how that pairs with the blue I just think it's so pretty and unique and I was getting a little worried when I was in the store because I was like I have this vision of a tile but like maybe I'm just making this up in my head and a tile like this doesn't exist so I'm really happy that I found it but I definitely want to put both of the blue tiles up against the wall so we can kind of decide and see which one looks better I love all of these little faux crack details on here and the texture on this like it is so so beautiful and also timeless like this totally looks like it was salvaged out of an old European villa or something and that's exactly what we're going for in this house it's just kind of like an old rustic Spanish villa so this might be a little bit more French but I don't know I still just love the pattern on it and I feel like it's super unique and I love the coloring and all of that so let me show you guys the main tile that's more neutral and then we'll put them up against the wall and decide okay so this is like the main neutral tile that would go right here along the back and I think that this is so beautiful I love like the creamy warm white color of it and then how that's contrasted with this pretty like warm brown distressing on there and I also like that they're unique but they're not overdone like I have not seen tile like this in many spaces if at all that I can recall so I like that it has its own unique vibe but it's still really classic and timeless looking and just has that beautiful rustic look that I was going for like it's so perfect so let's put it up against the backsplash and see how it looks I should probably move this stuff I feel like I want to put them back after I lay the tile out just so I could see like the final vibe but gotta take it all away for now okay so that's probably good enough okay so I'm like I might like the other one better but you never know sometimes you gotta see it in the space and it changes your mind and I'm gonna center these on the center burner so that way it's like centered with the oven they also only let me purchase four of these so like for the sample they'll say like the max you can purchase is four unless you want to get like an entire crate so that's what we got to work with so I don't know it's kind of fun to play with the because they are all different well they're not all different but they have a lot of variations in the tiles like they're different prints oh my gosh that's so pretty okay so like I said I only have four so I'm gonna hold this up so you guys can kind of visualize but I can't leave it there because it will fall but how freaking pretty is that now I'm second guessing myself if even like I like this one I don't want to scratch my lime wash but oh my gosh it's so pretty oh I'm so obsessed with this tile like I didn't think I would have this problem deciding between the two now I'm second guessing myself so actually what I think will be perfect is what we can do is like cut this tile in half and that's going to be the perfect amount of room up here so it can kind of look like it's not awkwardly cut off you know what I mean yeah wow that's really pretty okay that's this one maybe I should put the like rustic one on both sides so we can kind of visualize it with both of the centered ones yeah let's put this here oh my gosh I love it it's exactly what I was hoping for just something that kind of blended together but then this still could have its wow moment but then all of the rest of the area could be something you know a little bit more neutral and a little bit more subdued but still you get this like pop of pattern and statement right here which I love I don't know if I've talked about it enough in this video but we are planning to do open shelving so there will be open shelving right here and right here and I think what the plan is is just to do the tile to the open shelving like to save money we don't need to do the entire wall and I really love the plastery look of this lime wash I just don't want it in the immediate cooking zone so I think that will be nice just to have the tile go to the first open shelf so like I just love these distressed edges it looks so authentic which is crazy because I feel like I looked through so many at the store that just looked really fakey and I don't know I just think these look really good okay so obviously we'll have the patterned one go up here and then these will go to the first open shelves and the open shelves are going to go all the way on this side to the cabinets and on this way to the other wall so I think that's going to be so good now we have to decide on this so I'm going to swap these out for the other ones but these are really beautiful my only concern is I don't know if it's like too light blue like we don't have a lot of light blue in our house there is like a darker tone of blue mixed in but it almost feels a little bit teal which we have a lot more navy and kind of like cornflower colors especially like with my dishes I have a lot of like that cornflower glaze color so I don't know how well this would go but I love the pattern itself like this is totally that kind of cross between Spanish, Southwestern, French that I was looking for so I really love the pattern on that but let's switch it out for the other one and see so again let's center it I also love how there's variation within the tiles like as you can see this one has a pretty faux crack in it this one doesn't have that that has like more of the distressing there so there's actual variation within each one I forget it said on the website how many different prints there were but I think that just helps to make it look so authentic and realistic which I really appreciate I don't know you guys what do you think I think the other one is really beautiful but I feel like this goes a little bit more with our space you know we have our navy sofa I have a lot of navy dishes and things that I want to display out on the open shelving and I don't know I think there's just something about this color that I love let's hold this guy up there so you can kind of visualize obviously this is all the tile that we have but it's kind of the biggest visual that you can get with the tile that I ordered I don't know I just think that this is so beautiful and it's so unique like it's not all the way a floral or botanical like it kind of has that vibe to it which I like but it also looks you know just looks like a simple hand-painted pattern and if you look really closely each one of these little details looks to be hand-painted and different so I'm sure the print that they made was from like a hand-painted pattern which I just think is really cool like these are different sizes than these and I don't know I love the natural variation in it and like how some tiles even look dirty which is really beautiful oh this is so exactly what I was looking for but I don't know I can't decide what do you guys think you'll have to let me know in the comments which one you would pick okay so I'm really glad that we were able to find a backsplash tile that we love I do just want to say though it will probably be a while before we have this kitchen like all finished and done and the backsplash goes up just because the cabinets themselves are super time consuming Mike is making each one from scratch so he has to like sand them down and glue them up and each one takes a while to set and they do take a really long time to make and you know a lot of times not all the time but a lot of times when you guys see projects being done at a large scale in a quick video a lot of times those content creators are full-time content creators and Mike works a full-time job he works a very demanding job he's a nurse so he has a lot going on and then we have time off I don't want him to just feel like he has to have his head down and making cabinets the whole time so it's really important that we pace ourselves and we just you know we have a functional kitchen it works well so we're just going to kind of slowly add in the aesthetic finishing touches like as we're able to finish them so it might be a little bit more of a slower process and I just say this because I know I'm going to get comments like when are you finishing the kitchen so I don't want you guys to think just because we're ordering the tile that it's going to be done next week or anything like that we do have quite a bit of a Mike has spent probably the last month making just these cabinets right here so it'll probably be a while we still have to figure out the stain because there's a whole issue of staining maple cabinets they do tend to blotch and so we're currently problem solving that right now and seeing like if we're going to do painting or if there's a way to prevent the blotch and it just takes a lot of time and research and testing we got to make tester cabinets and then you got to those down and you know it does take a long time so that's kind of where we're at with like the rest of the renovations but hopefully within the next couple of months we should see the finish line figures crossed also something that I wanted to say too was I know I mentioned like the herring bone trend or like trying to avoid trends when picking up the backsplash and I just wanted to clarify like obviously if you're going for a more modern updated look to your kitchen and you're it's usually like gonna be trendy it just kind of goes hand in hand with like picking out current materials like they usually do come and go so I didn't mean that you know I just want it to be totally avoidant of the trends I guess what I was trying to say was like I'm just trying to avoid the things that everyone is doing and you see in so many kitchens that's what I'm trying to avoid so even too with like the herringbone herringbone is still a classic light and they were doing that in the 1920s like with flooring and all of that so I don't think like herringbone is necessarily out it was just like there was a time when everyone was doing herringbone with that subway tile and it was like such a thing so that's just kind of what I'm trying to avoid so I kind of wanted to clarify that a little bit and not saying that like this is going to be a trendless kitchen because it's not and also another reason that we went with the tile was because we figured hey later on we want to do another quick easy update we can just swap out the backsplash which is a lot easier than stone like a full entire wall of stone this little backsplash area will be a lot easier to switch out later on which honestly after finding this tile I don't foresee us needing to do that but yeah that was just another positive for going with a tile backsplash versus the stone but anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you're still here thank you for listening to me ramble on I appreciate you all being here and just coming along for the process these kinds of videos just make this part of the process so fun for me and I do really love getting to share little things like this such as picking out the tile and just like our progress so I hope you guys enjoyed seeing it even though it wasn't a full like start to finish makeover so I hope you guys have a wonderful week I want to thank you all for being here and I will see you guys in my next one bye