A Small Kitchen Update

When we built our house six-years-ago, we decided not to pay to have the builder install a backsplash.  We felt their price was way too high, and we said we would just install one ourselves after moving in.  Well, fast forward six years, and we still hadn't done it.  By this point, our kitchen had become very out of style.  When we originally built our house, the "Tuscan Style" was the cool thing to do, and I loved it.  I designed our entire house to look very Tuscan.  Everything is very dark and heavy.  Well, again fast forward six years, and the Tuscan style is totally out.  In fact, the complete opposite is in style--everything is now bright, light, and white.  Sigh...  I didn't want to do a full kitchen remodel just yet, so I decided to see if we couldn't spruce up and modernize our kitchen a little bit with something as simple as a backsplash.  Maybe it could make me hate my kitchen a little less for another several years until a complete kitchen remodel can be done.  So, we decided to try it.

Here are some before pictures of the kitchen.  Well, they're almost before pictures.  Mike had already started ripping off part of the granite backsplash at this point, but you get the idea.

It was pretty plain jane, as you can probably tell.  Time to give this place a little character.  As mentioned earlier, Mike started by ripping the granite backsplash off, but we did run into a problem.  Do you see how the countetop steps down on the left side of this picture?  That's considered our desk area.  Well, the granite backsplash from that part actually goes behind the higher countertop, so it couldn't be removed without leaving a big hole...

We ended up leaving it in place and just installing the new colored glass and travertine backsplash right on top of it, so it goes straight across this section...

We ran into another problem on the other side of the kitchen as well.  Once the granite backsplash was torn off, we realized that the granite didn't actually go all the way to the wall on one section.  We never knew this because the granite backsplash always covered it up.  But, the new backsplash wouldn't be thick enough to cover it up.  Sigh...

Mike and his dad came up with the idea of building a faux wall that would sit at a slight angle.  It is such a slight angle that you really can't tell it's not straight, but it covers up the gap between the granite and the wall...

Then Mike installed the backsplash.  See...you can't even tell that the wall is slightly crooked back there...

Here's the finished product on this side of the kitchen...

We ran into another problem on the other side of the sink too.  There was never a cabinet on this side of the sink.  I always thought it was weird, but it didn't really bother me.  Well, once the backsplash went up, it really accentuated the fact that there was no cabinet here, and it really started bothering me...

So, Mike came up with the idea of installing a few open shelves on this side of the sink.  Open shelving is all the rage right now, so we decided to try it.  We stained the shelves to match the rest of the cabinets and then decorated them with lots of colorful, fun things...

Here's how it looks in relation to the cabinets.  I think it's a fun (and inexpensive) addition...

And here's some pictures of the final product.  I decided to take some pictures during the day, so you can see the true colors in the backsplash.  The ones taken at night make the colors look a little funky, so I wanted a more true representation.  So, here you go!  The final product...

It's not a perfect solution...that would be a full remodel.  But, until then, this has helped modernize the space a little bit, and made me hate my kitchen a little less.  --Lindsay