Back splash, by the seat of our pants

Since all of a sudden it decided to be cold and rainy yesterday, Garry and I decided it might be a good idea to take a break from the backyard situation get started on the kitchen back splash (so at some point next week I can paint and get everything done before my friend comes to visit in April. 

Garry was starting to get a little frustrated because it seems like all we do lately is deal with tile. Well, that's what happens when you're dealing with 50 sq ft of it I suppose. I decided that maybe instead of trying to figure out all of the measurements all at once, that we should just "do it as we go" and it might actually move faster that way. 

Since we're using a noce travertine tile, it doesn't have to be as precise as the granite tile had to be. That helped in the process, since it was really hard to use those little spacers with the bullnosed and slightly uneven edges. 

Luckily, the process worked. In an hour and a half, we finished a good chunk of the back splash. And you kow what folks - it looks gorgeous - even better than I imagined it to be!

Forgive the crappy photo quality, I didn't bring my camera home from work

Doesn't it look gorgeous?! We'll be using a light-colored grout so it won't look that much different once we grout it. I think the color really brightens up the back splash area and it looks less like a "black hole." The noce travertine has a really great "rough" texture to it that contrasts really nicely with the slick granite. The pencil molding around the pebble tile is carved to look like rope. You can't really tell in this photo, but it looks awesome!

The other great thing, the colors in the pebbles really pick up the colors in the counter top, cabinets and travartine. 

Tomorrow we're going to do the other side of the stove and sink area. Yes, we will be saving the "behind the stove" area for last. I need to pick up some rail molding to finish framing the mosaic and we need to make sure we have enough of the pebble tile to do what we need to do, or adjust the design accordingly. 

I'll post the tutorial once we complete the project. However, I'll say that it's not much different than laying the tile for the granite counters, with the exception that it's a vertical surface, not horizontal. 

We're coming along! After this weekend we should be done with the back splash and then I can finally paint! YAY paint!