Before and After: Kitchen Conundrum

Before: See what I mean? How is this acceptable??

When I first found my apartment, I had some serious doubts. There are no closets. The appliances are really old and the floors had some pretty noticeable nails sticking out. Also, the bathroom was (and still is) in serious need of new grout.  However there was one feature of the apartment that was almost a deal-breaker for me: the back splash in the kitchen. I have documented my hatred of these tiles on several occasions but it finally caught up with me over the summer when I realized that I simply could not go another day looking at bathroom tiles in my kitchen.

SO.

What is a girl to do when she doesn't own the place and therefore cannot replace said tiles? She covers them up! I investigated several ideas. Victoria of sfgirlbybay had a wonderful idea that involved covering her back splash with a laminate and I'd seen several versions of Tile Tattoos that I liked but which sadly didn't fit the abnormal size of ours. I had just about given up when it dawned on me: I should make my own! Cue Amazon.com.

Five minutes and about $20 later, I was the soon-to-be owner of two dozen sheets of blue and white vinyl.

One extremely hot day this past August, I set to work. Now, I probably should have planned this more but a girl has her limits and I had reached mine. I half-measured a few sheets and started cutting and applying, doing my best to smooth out any air pockets along the way.

It turns out, vinyl isn't as clingy during a heat wave so they started falling down about five minutes after I applied them. I can't even begin to describe the miniature tantrum I threw. Hey, it was a really hot day.

After: Better! But still a work in progress...

Long story short, I wound up resorting to good old packing tape to keep it all up. It doesn't look as clean and neat nor as professional as I would like and you can still see a bit of the old tiles peaking out from the side of the fridge because I ran out of vinyl but overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. At least I don't have to look at boats and trees and ships while I heat up tomato soup anymore!

Photos Courtesy of: Mia G for w*ink