Tile ain't so tough

With help Sunday from the manfriend, I got the tile up behind the stove and on the wall where the new glass-door cabinets are.

It went pretty fast with two of use working, but since we didn't start until almost 1 p.m., there was not time to do the wall behind the sink.

The tiles are 3x6 inch hand-glazed ceramics from Sonoma Tile in a color called Damask.

I ordered it at Classic Tile in Hermosa Beach and it took exactly a month to arrive. The people at Classic Tile were very friendly and knowledgeable and they had an amazing selection.

I felt like what I was ordering was so mundane compared with some of the displays they had.

But the tile looks great on the walls.

There is some fine crackling in the glaze and some color variations. I like that.

I think it gives the tile more dimension than if it was all perfectly the same color.

The only thing was that there also were slight variations in size. So the grout lines, as best we tried to keep them perfectly straight, will not be.

Oh well.

I am fine with that.

I sealed the stove and cabinet walls yesterday and then set about doing the sink wall.

Yep. All by myself.

I no longer fear the wet saw.

Of course it was still a bit daunting. I have never done this by myself before and at $17 a square foot, I really didn't want to mess it up.

It's not like I could run out to the Home Depot and buy more tile if I ran out because I miscut a bunch.

I do have a fair amount of tile left. The manfriend thinks I should go ahead and tile all the way up behind the hood.

It would be much more dramatic that way. But those diagonal cuts at the top of the hood might be tough.

First I would need to measure very carefully to make sure I even have enough tile to do that space. It was not factored into my order, but I gave myself a large cushion for mistakes that didn't happen.

Then I would need to be so, so, so careful not to miscut anything because I wouldn't have a lot of leftover tile to play with there.

Anyway, it took me about the same amount of time to do the one wall by myself as it took the two of us to do the two walls. Seems logical.

So I didn't get any grouting done.

But it will get done. Maybe by next Monday.

I think it looks awesome. It will look even better once the bright white grout is in and I paint the trim moldings and back door a bright white.

Overall, I am pretty darn pleased with my tile and with myself.

Click here to see what the kitchen used to look like and a picture of the inspiration kitchen.

I think it stacks up pretty nicely compared to the inspiration kitchen. What do you think?