One Room Challenge | Week 4 | Countertops and Backsplash

The hunt for the perfect counter tops started months ago and it has not been easy.

In all honesty, it really started two years ago when we wandered into the local bath and kitchen store to browse. This was probably about a year after we lived in our home and about six months after we realized that the shiny black granite that needed to be cleaned five times a day was going to drive me absolutely insane.

When it came time to finally make a selection, Corey and I loaded both kids up and headed over to the slab yards across town. We all put on our hard hats and browsed all the stones. We decided on a creamy gray granite and were so confident in our decision.

Then, when we got home we started rethinking everything and knew we had to go back and look again. So we hired a babysitter and headed back to our top two slab yards again to look. This time we decided that we really liked quartz and we narrowed it down to two different options, both by MSI.

We finally chose one and choosing a backsplash option to match was easy. Then when we got home our creamy quartz didn’t look very creamy next to our already cream cabinets. It looked bright white. So once again we went back and chose another option – Carrara Caldia by MSI. It was perfect.

My mother-in-law spent an afternoon with me looking at backsplash options and we chose a really pretty antique white beveled subway tile in 2 x 6 in. Being just a slightly different size than your typical subway tile gave it a little something extra.

Knowing what I know now, I am so grateful for this little shopping trip with my mother-in-law. Over the ten years I’ve been with Corey, she has helped me with so many home decorating projects. It was really such a talent of hers and I’m really glad that she was able to give some input in our kitchen project. It was obviously our last decorating challenge together and I’m really glad I’ll have the memory of her and Madeline walking around in hard hats holding hands whenever I look at my kitchen.

While choosing the main tile was fairly easy, choosing the inset for above the range was not so easy. I originally found a blue tile on clearance at Lowe’s that I entertained the idea of using for a couple weeks before deciding that I just couldn’t commit to that much color in something as permanent as tile.

One afternoon, Corey and I and our kids headed over to The Tile Shop. This was exactly one week before we needed our tile. We walked up and down each aisle, holding a flailing Madeline under one arm, looking at hundreds of options. If you are in the area and need some unique tile – definitely go here. There were quite a few options I loved but when Corey and I came to the one we both just knew.

It had black and cream mother of pearl – which pulled from the creamy subway tile paired with marble, which provided a nice contrast and looked great with our countertops. Since the theme of my whole project seemed to be changing my mind, my associate was so wonderful and let me take home the sample board to see what it looked like in my space with my colors. Then, just a couple days later my own box of tiles arrived and our tile crew got busy putting them up.

Choosing a grout color followed pretty much the same pattern of thinking we knew what we wanted and then changing our mind and resulted in multiple exchanges before settling on Oyster Gray.

Once the tile and backsplash were up, Connor and I decided to add a little pop of blue after all – but in a much less permanent way. I used Wallpops wallpaper to wallpaper the back of my glass front cabinet. This was my first time doing any type of wallpaper myself and I was surprised by how much precision was required to line up the print but it really does make such a nice pop in the space!

Things are really coming together and there is just painting and a few touch ups left to do!

Have you missed my other posts this season? You can check them out below.

Week 1: Inspiration + Before Photos

Week 2: Demo + Cabinetry Updates

Week 3: Appliances + Hardware

Thank you once again to the One Room Challenge and Better Homes + Gardens for bringing this fun event to the blog community and allowing me to participate once again. I hope you will find some inspiration from the other participants here.