Hicks House

If you dropped in last week for the most amazing backsplash ever, then you are well aware that we are in the midst of a love affair with white marble. It was difficult to refrain myself from covering every surface with the gorgeousness that is cararra marble. But before we held ourselves back we committed to refacing the fireplace. I mean why not, the tile guy was going to be at the house… it was now or never…

Before I break out the step by step, how about a little before and after comparison:

We were never huge fans of the “poop brown” tile. It just wasn’t our style and it didn’t fit our decor. But before we could put up the new… we had to take down the old. This was accomplished with the use of a mini jackhammer. Luckily it only took a few (of the most terrifying for Chloe) minutes.

Unfortunately in the process, the drywall on the sides was damaged. Apparently it was secured very well (a rare thing to find around this house)

However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for when we removed the damaged drywall we found this:

Yes, that’s a HOLE. A HOLE!!! ON BOTH SIDES!!! We had brought up to builder on several occasions that is was overly drafty over by the fireplace only to be told repeatedly that that was how fireplaces were because they are vented through the back outside. This explanation never jived well wih us, because it just didn’t seem to explain why there were cold spots.

So before we replaced the drywall we took advantage of this moment to fill the holes with some insulation, then used some leftover pieces of drywall we had in the basement to patch up the holes. It didn’t need to be perfect, it was getting tiled over anyway.

Then the magical moment of tiling began…

The top tiles were extremely heavy and had to be held in place with some painters tape overnight. After everything dried it was grouted with the same grout we used in the kitchen and the room was put back together.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It’s so classy and elegant and the gray veining in the tiles is so interesting. It’s such a dramatic difference I don’t know how we ever even considered keeping the old tile. It is probably our favorite update so far.

So what do you think? Do you love it as much as we do?

Remember when my kitchen looked like this:

I know I haven’t shown it live FOREVER, because in the year and half since we moved in, we haven’t really done anything in this room. But now we have a BACKSPLASH!!! And not just any backsplash, a white marble one. It was definitely worth the wait.

Once we get this room painted with the Arctic Gray, it will pop more than it currently does against the builder white walls (wah-wah).

A few reasons this took over a year 1. tile is expensive 2. deciding on a tile style, color and material is hard (it’s a big and more permanent decision than any of the updates we’ve made so far) 3. it was job we didn’t want to tackle ourselves.

So we hired it out, but don’t you worry I hover stalked the entire process so I could give a play by play 🙂

Let’s start with some close-ups of the wall pre tile.

We decided to go with a white Bianca Cararra marble in a subway tile pattern. We thought the white marble would play off nicely with the black granite and matched our more clean and modern style, while the subway pattern was more classic ensuring we won’t tire of it too quickly.

The tile guy came over equipped with a wet saw (unfortunately it was freezing) and set up in the driveway cutting a few pieces in half before getting started.

Then mixed up some mastic and started applying it to the wall in small sections.

The tiles stuck right to it, which he laid out in the subway pattern.

These tiles, being real stone were pretty thick and heavy so they started to kind of shift around. a few spacers took care of that.

Once the entire area was complete we had to let it dry for a day to fully set in before the grouting could begin. We went with a grout color called frost, it was a grayish white, although we originally planned on going with white it just seemed so stark. The frost gave the effect of blending in more with the tile making it disappear rather than stand out.

It was spread on with a trowel then wiped off with a damp sponge. Here it is right after the grouting was complete. You can see the haze it left all over the tile and the countertop. I buffed it out with a clean dry cloth.

After it was completely buffed clean, Ken used a liquid sealer to seal everything in place. We used polished marble tiles, so this step wasn’t entirely necessary, but with white tiles it made us feel better that they would remain stain free. Because of the thickness of the tile, we had to purchase longer screws to put the outlet covers back on.

This picture appears pretty dark because we’re in need of some under cabinet lighting… but you can see all the great veining and variety in the tiles.

It was all done in time for us to host Thanksgiving last week! Now we just need to paint, add some under cabinet lighting, change out all the light fixtures and make a roman shade for the window over the sink.

So what do you think? What do you have as a backsplash, or are you still figuring out what type of material to use?