For those who've been following along, we've finally got around to doing the tiling of the splashback in the kitchen. I've had the tiles for ages as I got them in sales, saving a few hundred dollars, but we needed to fit the kitchen window first.
Now, for those of you who think I'm a terrible husband beater for making Jamie do the hard work, rest assured this was a two person job. We sugar soaped the walls, he applied primer (giving a good gritty surface for the tiles to adhere to) and meanwhile, I was sorting the tiles. They're morroccan terracotta clay zellige tiles and handcrafted, so I had to pull them from different boxes so I could mix the tones of the glaze. THey were all so uniquely varied - this job took me at least an hour to do.
Here's the space with the primer painted on. We started on Saturday about 10 am, and it took us to about 1.30 to get the section done behind the hob, working out what we were doing as we went along. I was handing Jamie the tiles as he worked each section. I had to pick up 3 groups of three to rinse in water and leave on a towel on the sink, and make sure they were in order as I passed them to him. As they had such variation, some caused problems on the wall, where the thick glaze on one edge made one tile or the other too high, so I also had to have a stack where I could replace them with another tile, making sure it fit tonally with the ones around it. It was a bit of a headfuck to be honest!
We also decided to do a no gap method, which they do with these Zellige tiles. It's not actually no gap as there's always a millimetre here and there as the edges aren't perfect on these tiles, which allows for some movement (if you did this with normal, straight edged tiles it would be a real problem and they would crack).
After fish n chips for lunch, we started the wall behind the sink. This time I had a different method with a bowl of water and a stack of tiles I'd numbered, laid out in 3 rows. Jamie could ask for a 'top' or 'bottom' (after doing the lower row) and I'd hand him the right tile. There were also sections under the window that wouldn't quite fit a whole tile, and around the electric socket, so he cut them with an angle grinder which worked fine.
Voila, at last, it was done. We still have to grout and seal (we will use antique white) but it's looking pretty awesome, don't you think?
There's still some shelves to put in, the socket, and I'm figuring out what looks good on the bench still, but it looks fresh and white and I no longer have '2275' written in pencil on the plaster showing the width of the wall or tomato sauce stains.
One thing I'm not overly keen on is the VJ (vertical join) panelling under the benchtop from the lounge. I think it's because it's unpainted and is the wrong tone. I really wanted to line it with copper or perhaps hardwood boards but Jamie likes it fresh and white, so I think what we'll do is paint it the warmer white of the walls, which will mute the lines as well which are unpainted.
Whilst a big part of me wanted a dramatic colour, like red or green, I think I'll get sick of these less - it's just a timeless, classic vibe and quite earthy. It also sets of the colour of the green trees outside the window, which are really a feature in this bush town.
What are your thoughts?
Do remember this is what the kitchen originally looked like!