Make a Splash! Fake Apartment Backsplash

Living in an apartment has its obvious disadvantages...noisy neighbors, shared laundry, the awkwardness when you can't remember someone's name who shares a mailbox with you. But for the domestic diehard in all of us with tons of projects itching at the tips of their fingers, the worst by far has to be the lack of being able to personalize and decorate your home (and thus create equity into your living space). For awhile now I've been wanting to try my luck at tiling, especially after seeing countless episodes of 'I Hate My Kitchen' and having a brother just getting into a tile work apprenticeship. How card can it really be, will the suffering be worth the rewards?

Unfortunately one of the stipulations of our complex is no hole-drilling past tiny nail heads (drats!). My original plan was to tile an entire piece of plywood then affix it to the wall behind our bland sink area, but my ever practical better half advised against it since it would be too heavy to be held up by traditional nails. Moving forward with my idea, I decided the best way to go would be a small accent piece using a cheap frame from Goodwill (which just so happened to be new in the wrapping!).

The basic plan was to affix mosaic tile onto the picture cardboard with a strong glue (hint, don't use Gorilla Glue as it expands!), then grouting, then hanging. Simple! And it only caused me some grief when I had chosen the wrong glue and it started seeping out the edges.

Grouting was simple as buying a cheap ready made tube and following the directions, then realizing that traverteen tiles are super annoying once the grout dries on them, and I should have been wiping it up more as I went along (on those DIY shows they always just let it dry first, which seems like way more work). No problems at all with the cardboard backing feeling too heavy or soggy during the process. Beware the grout tube has gross watery stuff that comes out at first, much like a bottle of ketchup.

The finished product was a small, lightweight, hanging 'backsplash' made from cool glass and stone mosaic tiles with my amateur grouting job an only two tiny nail holes. I can't wait to tackle a bigger project next time to practice more!

2 x Mosaic Tiles - $15
1 x Grout Tube - $4
1 x Frame - $4
Total Cost: $24 bucks

Then it looked so nice over there I decided to buy an $8 sink caddy from Target to get everything off the counter.