How to Apply Tiles To Your Backsplash With Ease
Before I start I will give credit where it's due. Thanks to my lovely and insightful Husband who instead of helping me clean the house one saturday sat on his behind all day and watched DIY shows. For without this need to be lazy we would have been spending another recent saturday cursing at each other.
We have been working on our kitchen renovation for some time now (ok 3 years) and thanks to Ikeas fantasically priced durable cabinets we are so close to the finish line I can barely stand it. But this last weekend we tackled the backsplash, settling on some very nice attractive ceramic and glass tiles. We tiled our whole enitre bottom floor in another house and it wasn't fun for anyone involved. But like I said above, between naps and DIY my husband was able to absorb information about a great new product called SIMPLE MAT, TILE SETTING MAT for Backsplashes and Countertops. It's basically back to back sticky sheets that you lay on your surface where your tile is going and at your own pace you peel away the top plastic sheet and begin placing your tiles on it. I gently placed each tile on I had time to check for levelness(?) and slide them around if I needed to. After about every third one I could use my hand to carefully press them against the wall. I did a whole row of ten when I realized I messed up and pried them loose and they still stuck back on the wall.
The sheets come in 9" X18" and can be cut down to fit around light sockets, molding, etc.
The awesome part about this project was no mess well, at least until we have to grout. Actually the tiles have been up for two day now without us grouting yet and not one has slipped or fallen off. But the fact we didn't have to mortar the tiles down was fantastic. Because it was so easy we decided to tile another side we weren't going to tackle. And I did it all myself.