Faux Tile Back Splash With Paint!
As you may remember from the house tour, this is my kitchen.
Why yes, it is always this clean. Not.
To be honest, I’ve never done any updates to my kitchen except paint the walls. I have kind of always dreamed of having a white back splash. I looked into tiling it with marble or subway tiles (some of my favorites) and the process seemed like the perfect DIY project. That was until I searched for the tools I would need and the cheapest tile cutting saw
I could find was $100. I’m not living in a high end house and I do not live in a high end neighborhood. I know a little something about resale value, and a $300 back splash would not be an update I would get my money’s worth. Besides, it is kind of scary to think about sinking that much money into a project you don’t know if you’ll like how it turns out.
I could find was $100. I’m not living in a high end house and I do not live in a high end neighborhood. I know a little something about resale value, and a $300 back splash would not be an update I would get my money’s worth. Besides, it is kind of scary to think about sinking that much money into a project you don’t know if you’ll like how it turns out.So that brings us to the project I’m sharing with you today. In order to create the look of a back splash and see if I would really even like what I was thinking of, I painted a faux tile on my walls! This project was long but yielded great results! And I happily did this project for a total cost of $2 since most tools (paintbrush, frog tape
, etc) I had left over from other projects. The paint I picked up for free at my local Household Hazardous Waste facility. Here’s the tutorial if you’d like to try this some day yourself!
Prep your wall and tape off back splash
The prep work is very important! First I washed the walls to remove any food residue. Then I taped off the area to be painted as back splash, making sure to use a level for straight lines. One trick is to use a butter knife to push your tape into hard to reach places.
For me, prepping also included sanding with a fine grit paper because I have a high gloss paint on my kitchen walls. Sanding ensures proper adhesion when the new layer of paint goes on. And finally, I washed the walls again.
You can see where I sanded the wall and removed some of the paint. This was my sand paper when I was done. Yuck!
Paint Grout Color
Be sure to use a flat finish like satin or eggshell.
Looking brighter already.
My mini roller was broken so I had to use my little wooster brush
(best paint brush ever!).
(best paint brush ever!).This meant it took not one…
Let it Cure for 3 Days
This part really tested my patience. You have this taped up kitchen and this blank slate of a back splash staring at you stirring spaghetti. But it is important to let your paint dry so that the tape for the grout lines doesn’t rip off any paint when it comes off. In the mean time, go to Amazon and buy this 1/8″ thick painters tape
. Being the frog tape lover I am, I thought I was initially going to score my roll of tape to 1/8″ thick. That turned out to not only be tedious, but dangerous.
. Being the frog tape lover I am, I thought I was initially going to score my roll of tape to 1/8″ thick. That turned out to not only be tedious, but dangerous. 
Don’t slice your thumb open like me, buy that $2 roll of tape. My husband, shaking his head, said, “It’s just not a project unless you injure yourself, huh?”
Tape off Grout Lines
Now you get to the hard part. Not only is the taping process long (took me 4 hours) but it is difficult to ensure parallel and level lines. I utilized a trick that made this fairly easy! I taped lines on a piece of cardboard and used that as my marker. I made small pencil marks every foot or so as guidelines of where to tape. I used the bottom of my cupboards as a guide because they are installed to be completely level whereas your counters can loose their “levelness” with wear. This eliminated the need for an actual level or tape measure.
I checked my lines when I was done taping and they were perfect!
Worked awesome!
Then I arbitrarily placed lines to define the tile length all over the place. I didn’t measure or think too hard because I wanted it to look random. I did check these lines against a square with my counters to make sure they were perfectly perpendicular. Don’t forget to tape lines on the outside of the back splash area, in corners, and really anywhere typical tiles would have grout.
Another tip to ensure straight and crisp paint lines: after taping, run a damp, not dripping washcloth over the tape to activate the edge sealant (kind of like a temporary tattoo).
Paint Tiles
Finally I got to the fun part!
For the “tiles” I went with a high gloss finish. High gloss makes it look more realistic, gives it contrast from the grout lines, and is highly durable. I used a cabinet and trim paint because that stuff is meant to withstand great wear and tear. I picked a greige (grayish beige) color + white with small paint brushes to get the look of stone tiles.I used dabbing motions to emulate an image of marble tiles I had pulled up on my computer to work from.
Remove Tape and You’re Done!
You’ll want to remove the tape immediately after painting the “tiles” to ensure clean paint lines. Leave the tape for the outside edges on because it is layered under much more paint. For this removal, wait until the back splash has dried at least an hour and then scour the edges of the painters tape so it comes off clean.
It certainly was a long process, but it was worth it!
I went for a faux marble tile, but picked a warmer tone instead of gray so that it matched my counter tops.
What do you think? Do you like my faux tile back splash? I’d love if you left me a comment or shared if you thought my faux tile back splash was cool!
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Your faux backsplash is beautiful. How did you get the color contrast on the “tiles?”
Thanks Charlene! I painted a flat white for the grout and used glossy finish paint for the tiles to give contrast. As far as the greige color, I just arbitrarily painted splotches and lines with my paint brush. I hope that answers your question. I appreciate you taking the time to leave me a note!
I really want to try this. Did you top coat it with anything…like polyurethane? Thanks!
Hey Chris!
I didn’t coat it with poly because I chose a high gloss paint. Plus I don’t think backsplashes take much wear besides washing. It’s actually been three years now since I did this and it has held up great!
Thanks for your comment!
Melissa
I love it! Wanna come do mine? LOL
Lol! It is a lot of work, so no. But thanks for commenting!
Thank you so much for the how to. I really need an upgrade and money is tight .Love the look of tile but can’t afford it.Can’t wait to get started
Best of luck to you!
WOW ~ I like this better than any tile backsplash I’ve seen! This is exactly what I have been looking for! Can you (please, please, please) do a more detailed tutorial on how you created your ’tile’? Did you thicken the paint to get the stone texture? Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Teresa! It was a lot of work, but it did turn out nicely. The tiles were created by just using high gloss interior latex paint, no thickener. I used two different colors, white and a grayish beige, and a paintbrush to create splotches, lines, and marble-looking characteristics. I just freehanded it. It’s easier to use small artist brushes so that you can more easily stay within the tape lines if each “tile”. Hope this helped!! Thank you for leaving your comment!
THIS IS FANTASTIC. I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO USE THE IDEA, MAYBE WITH DIFFERENT LOOKING TILES. TOO EXPENSIVE TO DO REAL TILE. WOW. YOU MADE MY DAY
Thank you Sandy! I’m so glad you were inspired!
This is great. I just painted my kitchen cabinets with Behr Mythic Forest (Blue/Green). Our backsplash now is white laminate with gold veins in it. Yeah, it’s old. I’ve tossed around the idea of using tile for my backslpash. But then I would have to move all the electrical outlets out so they are flush with the tile, along with the window trim. Painting like you have done would eliminate that altogether. Plus tile is expensive. Also thought about sheet metal backsplash. But would still have to remove window trim. I just need to come up with a color scheme that works with my new paint. Seems like white is the most chosen color to go with blue. But a brown wooden color would look nice too. I’m not sure I could paint ours to look like tile. You did a great job with it. To get it to look like stone and not just a painted surface might be out of my talents. Nice job.
Your backslash does sound like it could use an update! I would love to see what you do with it. Keep me updated!
Thanks for commenting!
Could u use this on shower walls. I really like the look of this. The walls have plain white shower panels in it but it is so plain. I cannot afford the tile but this looks great.
Pat, I don’t think a shower wall would hold up with paint nearly as well as tile. The paint would bubble and peel with constant water running on it. Perhaps peel and stick tile would be a better route for you? Or perhaps this wallpaper idea from the blog frugal ain’t cheap, http://frugalaintcheap.blogspot.com/2013/04/kitchen-backsplash-great-for-renters-too.html?m=1
Good luck to you!
Labor intensive, but gorgeous. For a less artistic person, a cut up sponge might work for the mottled stone “tiles”. What do you think?
Thanks Linda! I think a cut up sponge would probably work even better than what I did freehand with a brush. Thank you for the idea!
Beautiful!
Thanks!
I really love this and the look. But having a hard time with visualizing how you created the tiles. You mentioned blotching and marbleizing with a paint brush. Would you be willing to do a short video on a sample board and sharing it? #begging 😜
Paula – I had a picture of marble tiles pulled up on the internet and used that as inspiration as I went, just trying to make it look as similar as I could. It was very easy! I’m sure you could do it 🙂
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog, hope you come back again sometime!
Melissa
Looks beautiful! Never thought of painting a backsplash but I love that it’s cheap. We just bought a house in MN so I love all the DIY/remodel ideas for not so expensive.. thank you.
Thanks Madelynn! That’s where I live, too! Minnesota. I hope you are inspired and come back for more in the future!
Melissa
I see that you got your paint for free. What is an HHW facility?
Many cities have a recycling center for hazardous materials like paint. You bring leftover paint there and others can pick up the paint if they have a use for it — for free! It’s called a household hazardous waste facility, you should look if your area has one!
Melissa
Wondered why you would paint the grout lines white and then use white on the tiles. Think I would use a pale color so the grout lines could be seen better.
I just wanted a subtle difference which the matte vs gloss paint gives. I think it would look potentially even more realistic if you went with a full color tile so the grout really showed up!
Melissa
Beautiful job!!! Did you only have horizontal grout lines? I could not detect grout between tiles (up and down).
Thank you.
I see that you got your paint free of charge. What is an HHW office?
Our area has a facility for “Household Hazard Waste” that you can drop off any chemicals and paints you haven’t used. They recycle them and offer them for free for anyone to come in and take. This idea was lobbied for by awesome residents of Minnesota and we pay for it via a tax on new paints/stains you buy. I’m sure other areas and states have something similar, but you’d have to look into it.