Today was Backsplash Day! Huzzah!
So, for most of the backsplash we're talking a straightforward white subway tile. We had something else originally picked out — but in the gap between our finding it (back in, say, August) and our going to buy it (in, say, March), it was discontinued and vanished.
Which is a "might have been" shame, but, honestly, I have always loved the subway tile look, so I'm jazzed to have it.
The backsplash behind the stove, though, is the really cool bit — Daltile Showscape (1×2 ft tiles), in the Currant color and Brushstroke pattern (http://products.daltile.com/series.cfm?series=460). It's a huge, eye-catching color accent, goes perfectly with the counters and bamboo and all, and we're all very happy with how it looks.
(As one of the pix shows, it's not solid red, but has an embossed pattern that looks like blades of grass — or flames, which is thematically perfect for the stove.)
Most of the tile was put up over the course of the day. Tomorrow the tile guy will finish up the parts not yet in, including some pencil trim we under-estimated, and then grout things up. Nice.
We had a problem with the island sink cut-out that's been a bone of contention with the countertop folk. Essentially, it got cut in the wrong place — not where I had it templated out on the cabinet, and too close to the edge of the sink cabinet for the undermount.
Well, Margie and I and the countertop guy and the tile shop sales rep we purchased it through met today, and, after the countertop got adjusted a bit, we decided we could make it work with a slight bit of creative carpentry. It's not exactly as planned or as ideal, but it's also not worth waiting for a month-plus for another slab to be shipped, then carved. Ultimately, it will be one of those things that we'll immediately forget about after the fact, I believe.
The actual ugly part of today was discovering that the cork flooring we had picked out which was in stock a month-and-change ago is no longer in stock, and won't be delivered to the store until 1 June. That one we'd rather not compromise on (or go out and make new decisions on), so we're going to wait, and look at what else we can get done, appliance-wise and finish-wise, in the interim.
Still, compromise and delays aside, the backsplash looks freaking awesome, and we are both stoked and elated by it. Yay!
In Album Hill-Kleerup Kitchen – 2015-05-07