New Kitchen Curtains

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New Kitchen Curtains

I finally made a curtain decision.  It's definitely a bolder choice than I would normally make.  Bold equals scary.  I'm now into scary.  Maybe I'm even grown-up enough for horror films?  Wait. No.  Too scary.

I spent one night Googling "Are black curtains a good idea or a bad idea?".  You don't see black curtains often. (Although, I have seen them pop up more and more lately.)   I kept thinking there is probably a reason.  Eh. I figured I'd order some and give it a try.  (I went with the Threshold Grommet in black.)

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I've Lost My Mind....ful Gray

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I've Lost My Mind....ful Gray

Update:  I've officially lost my mind.  But my kitchen has a pretty new paint color, Sherwin Williams Mindful Grey.

Our house is suffering from a bad case of snowball effect.  I had ZERO intention of painting our kitchen.  Until we painted the rest of the first floor Mindful Grey.  The Svelte Sage of the kitchen was disrupting the flow of the first floor.  Also the cream curtains started to really look yellow next to our newly painted white wall of molding.  This is the only photo I could find to explain the situation (blogger fail).  The walls colors actually look pretty similar here but the flow issue was there.  Trust me.  (You can check out more photos of our old kitchen color here.)

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Kitchen Backsplash: Subway Tile Edition

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Our backsplash is done! Our backsplash is done!

Install a Kitchen Backsplash without Mortar!
Install a Kitchen Backsplash without Mortar!

We had intended on installing a backsplash soon after we moved in…almost four years ago. I’m glad we waited because we had originally planned for a mosaic tile backsplash. Sometimes laziness patience pays off and you end up finding a perfect fit for your kitchen.  I like mosaic backsplashes but I think the subway tile ended up being a better fit for our overall design style.  (I act like I know what I’m talking about because I write a blog with the word “Décor” in the title.)

Our ivory cabinets made finding the perfect tile a challenge.  We ended up choosing the Imperial Bone Gloss subway tile from The Tile Shop.  The employees in the Des Moines store were awesome to work with.  (Not a sponsored post, just the facts.) We used Delorian Grey Premixed Grout. Contrasting grout is a love it or hate it type of thing. We both loved the look of it so we went for it. Good choice.

Install a Kitchen Backsplash without Mortar!

Installing the tile was fairly easy.  We used the Tile Setting Mat from the Simple Mat in place of mortar. Cleaning the dark grout off of the ivory tiles was less easy.  We’ll share our thoughts on the Tile Setting Mat tomorrow. I think I will also share some things to think about when installing a backsplash in a later post. 

This project wasn’t the cheapest.  The tile for the entire kitchen cost us ~$280.  We also had $100 in supplies.  (Luckily we had a $100 gift card to the Home Depot from a previous blog thing.  We paid the Home Depot $0.11.  It was pretty awesome.)  The cost was worth it to class the joint up.

Install a Kitchen Backsplash without Mortar!

It kind of looks like grown ups live here.  Weird.

Install a Kitchen Backsplash without Mortar!
Install a backsplash.jpg

Did you think we would ever finish this project (darn old age!)?  What are your thoughts on contrasting grout?  Do you prefer subway or mosaic tile or do you have a love for both?