Inspiration

Before we even bought our house I was already dreaming of renovating whatever kitchen we would end up with. I made numerous trips to Home Depot and Lowes and hours of time on their websites, looking and lusting over back splash tile. I know it sounds a little silly, but a girl has to get excited about something right?

On one of my trips I ran across this beauty:

Why hello beautiful - from the Home Depot website

It was love at first sight. I actually hugged the mosaic to my chest as Garry and I walked through the store. I looked like a little kid with their favorite teddy bear.

Of course, at the time it seemed silly to purchase tile before we had even bought a house. I just hoped that when it came time, it would still be available.

The time came and I'm sure as you've read in previous posts I had a few ideas of what we were planning on doing about the tile situation. The granite counter top is curing as we speak, ready for the grout application this evening. I initially had my reservations about black granite, but because the granite is so glossy, it reflects light really well. Since we're going with a light back splash, it will reflect that as well.

The counter top project ended up costing more than we originally expected (as most projects do) and with the roof situation still looming over our head, we decided to opt for a less expensive back splash idea (as in, something that didn't cost $11 a square foot). Finding that was going to be really hard to do considering anything more than just plain ceramic tile is usually around $8-$9 a square foot (at least in anything that I liked).

Also considering the ordering snafu I ran in to with Lowes last week, I decided that I wasn't going to order anything online from the big box stores anymore. The sad thing is, my sister-in-law ran into the same problem, only they wouldn't let her return her order. Thankfully she only bought one tile though so they were only out $10. But, it's the principle of thing.

So here enters my gorgeous mosaic again. When I went to Home Depot to pick up the granite tile, the mosaic section caught my eye. I knew it was still there so I held it up to the black granite. It looked so good with it. I found a wood sample that was close to my kitchen cabinets and I fell even more in love. Not that love-at-first-sight kind of love, but that "we've been together forever and I want to get married" kind of love. Of course, all of this is happening in the tile section of Home Depot.

The only problem was what to put with it. I wanted something light, natural stone, and that would match. The hard part of this equation was finding something that matched. The colors in that mosaic were just "off" enough to cause some issues with using some of the natural stone that was available. I didn't give up, and came to a decision!

Aww, a match made in heaven! from the Home Depot website

On the screen, the color doesn't quite seem to look like it would go, but in real life it is that warm creamy color in the background of the mosaic. It will look lovely. 

My love for pebble tile will also be incorporated as well - only a little less than before. We're going to run a strip of it through the middle of the back splash with some sort of decorative railing or something to frame it on either side. It will look really pretty. We're also using a different pebble tile from before. 

A little darker, but still gorgeous - from the Home Depot website

I think it will add a little balance. Also, it brings in the black from the counter top, the dark brown of the cabinets and some of the greys in the mosaic. I may end up pulling out the reddish-tone stones and replacing them with another color (meaning I'll have to buy extra) because I wasn't really planning on having red in my kitchen (or orange for that matter). 

By the time we're done it will look gorgeous and rustic without being over the top. It will probably be a while before we get started on the back splash (after we get our tax return back most likely). We're still making some decisions on what we want to do for the framing molding (I love the idea of a rope style, but only if I can find it in a color that goes and so far all I can find is copper, which I'm not really too keen on in this instance). 

I also found this really adorable print: 

It's cute because it's relevant - we're hopefully getting a chocolate lab in the spring.

Also, I completely forgot where I found this! I'm so sorry!! 

At some point I'm going to see if I can track down where I found this print because it's really adorable. I think it was on Pinterest somewhere. It takes three things I love, vintage advertisements, chocolate labs and coffee and rolled it into one! Awesome! The only problem is figuring out where the heck I'd put it. 

The engineer person is at the house now. No word from Garry yet on this front. I'm decidedly quite nervous about this, and to get my taxes done later. It would be nice if we got some good news before going to do that. 

Oh, we're also getting our living room overhead light and some lighting in the sunroom done today! Sweet!