The tile is finally finished! The last time you saw it, we had just finished the installation process of our 3x6 Hampton Carrara subway tiles, which took us over 20 hours. Grouting went faster, but we ran out right before we left for Idaho. It was torture to be so close. But when we arrived home, more grout was waiting for us and now we have drool-worthy marble backsplash pictures for you.
When we first started grouting, I was worried--the grout was darker than I wanted it to be. But, but! If you are new to grouting like we were, just know it dries a lot lighter. In the photo below, on the left, the grout is still wet.
And here's how it looks dry.
We decided on "whisper grey" unsanded grout and our spaces are 1/8" thick. Which means nothing until you start researching tile and then suddenly you want to ask everyone, so how thick are your grout lines? and scream at your computer, Name your grout color!!! Whisper grey, friends. While I love so many examples of dark grout lines, and it's super practical, this light, light gray really blends well with the marble subway tiles and lets them shine peacefully, without distracting from other elements of the kitchen.
For the edges of the tile, we chose to use bullnose edged tiles that curve toward the wall instead of smaller trim pieces and then finished off all of the edges with matching whisper grey caulk. And well, we're obsessed with this backsplash.
If you're wondering how we're doing leaving this behind, know that there are lots of tears. Leaving our friends and leaving the marble backsplash--tears! With the tile finished, the kitchen is a wrap. We are taking final photos and will share all the before and afters with you tomorrow. It's come a long way.
This post is in collaboration with The Tile Shop. We used their 3x6 Hampton Carrara Polished subway tiles, unsanded whisper grey grout and matching caulk. Dreamy.
What do you think?
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such a lovely blog
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This is the best tile. Better than the gray of gray Carrara that seems to be sold everywhere these days, I have been looking over a lot of blogs. This looks very similar to this blog: http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/2013/09/tile-backsplash.html There is even a video of the installation process. The tile looks identical - but the price was just $7.00SF.
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I love your blog. This is a cool site and I wanted to post a little note to tell you, good job! Best wishes!!! CARRARA MARBLE MOSAIC
Nice to read your post. Nicely described. Keep sharing such a useful and informative post. Many thanks for sharing.
Carrara marble
We're in the process of doing backsplash on our own kitchen. We LOVE yours so much we just ordered Hampton Carrara for our own back splash!! We've been stuck on what to do with the backsplash and this looks so perfect for what we have going on! So excited! Thanks for sharing your beautiful kitchen!
It's so beautiful! I love everything about it! My boyfriend and I bought a similar navy blue paint for a kitchen island DIY project! I hope it looks as lovely as this.
OBSESSED!! Will you consider doing this again in your new kitchen?
absolutely stunning!!
This looks really good. Inspiring.
Yummy. Just yummy.
That looks absolutely gorgeous! I love love love that tile!
Looks so great! While I don't love the physical task of grouting, I really love the look once it's done. It is just so smooth and lovely - nice work!
Beautiful!
Looks awesome guys! Congrats on all the new changes and new house!
wow. just wow. Did you guys have to use extenders for the outlets or no? I'm ordering a sample of the tile right now. I need a backsplash and have been WAITING to see the final result. It looks amazing.
Yay! Thanks, Mary. We did use spacers in our outlets.
Sooooo....I want this done to every wall in my house. Beautiful!
I want to go to there.
Beautiful tile! Brilliant job, guys.
Stunning!
Looks great! Did you cut the tiles to make a finished, even edge on the side of the frig or did you leave the tiles staggered?
Thanks! The tiles are staggered behind the fridge.
Oh wow....so dreamy and perfect.
oh mercy sakes.....i'm drooooooling. Seriously.
First things first... I LOVE the tile. I just want to pet it... is that weird?!? But, I know you are busy selling/buying houses, packing, and Chris has a new job. But, when you all can breath again, will Chris be back to food blogging? I have to say, I miss it in the mix with the home posts. Just so you know, you have at least one person who is missing the food posts, and is back to cooking boring dishes. COME BACK CHRIS!! :)
Worry not. I'll be back in full force once things settle down a bit. :)
It looks lovely, Julia!! I had the same grout fear when we did our bathroom, and it dried so much lighter. Lesson learned for sure! (http://thesweetestdigs.com/2012/05/01/project-bathroom-the-reveal/)
Good luck with the packing and moving. Just think about all of those fun projects waiting for you at the new pad!
xo, gemma
Yes! We can't wait! What to do first, what to do first?!
Yum!! Gorgeous! Remember when you said you guys were going to hire out the backsplash?! I'm pretty sure you said that...But you did it!! And it looks gorgeous, awesome job! And every next tiling job gets easier. :) And ditto on researching grout line widths and grout colors lol!! We did 1/8th for our kitchen backsplash remodel and 1/16th on the sunroom floor and the tub surround. I love the 1/16th for easy cleaning, but I think the 1/8th looks cleaner (tile edges are farther apart so is much easier to keep looking orderly) and since backsplashes don't require tons of cleaning I think it's the BEST width :) Maybe as you are doing the huge house transition you could do a post that's before/after for all the rooms in this house ? I did it for the house we just left, mostly for myself to be able to scroll back and encourage myself with eye candy for future projects :)
Hahaha, good idea. I had a whole house before and after scheduled for later this week!
your kitchen is to die for, seriously!! I love the tile- I would usually go for the plain white subway tile but i LOVE this!!
We almost did plain white, Jessica! The marble was just too good to pass up for this kitchen.
That looks absolutely amazing! I can't imagine leaving behind such a gorgeous kitchen, but I'm sure you'll do something equally dreamy in the next house.
The finishes of this kitchen are terribly hard to leave, but our new kitchen has more space and you're right, the wheels are already churning with what to do.