Searching for the right backsplash

The kitchen renovations are advancing really well. And we are now trying to find the perfect backsplash for it. Here are our options up to now.

1- marble mix long tiles

We really like this one. Love the mix of grays and the strong statement it makes

2- Mix of lights grays glass tiles

I bit more soft and more reflective since it is glass tile

3- Dark gray glass tiles

4- stainless steel tiles

the mock up doesn't do justice to the tile

It's a square stainless steel tile. I personally think that it's a bit too much stainless for our kitchen with the stainless appliance and the stainless counter tops

and it is really expensive

5- White marble tile

I bit to traditional for my taste

Here you can see all the tiles. The ipod is to give an idea of the size of each tile

My boyfriend and I really like option 1. But maybe it's too dark, or too much of a statement. I also really like the option 2 and the option 3. Maybe I would take option 3 in a lighter gray to match the wall color. Arrg this is hard!!! What do you think? Help me please make the right choice.

My house: Kitchen update part 1

When we first bought the house, the kitchen was a bit small and very ugly. The walls were canary yellow and the cabinet were made out of faux wood panels. But the possibilities were there. The kitchen was next to a big spare room that we didn't need and that could be transform into dinning room. By removing the wall between the kitchen and the dinning room, we could have a big open kitchen.

Here is a little update of kitchen renovation... what an adventure it was and still is... since we haven't finish the renovations yet.

The Before

Don't you just love the floor and the nice backsplash ? Well we didn't and the first thing we did was destroy everything

Starting by this wall!

The Demolition

Bye Bye ugly kitchen!

The Renovations

The wall between the kitchen and the dinning room was removed, the walls were painted a light gray and the ceramic tiles were installed. We choice gray tiles that have a bit of rust spots and cracks. They look a bit like cement. We love the industrial and worn look they had.

Then we started placing our Ikea cabinets. We went with the glossy white cabinets ( Akurum/ Abstract). Love the very modern clean look. And our stainless steel appliances were put into place.

Next we installed all the hardware. We went with ( Vinna) from Ikea. In addition the stainless steel counter tops were installed.

Also with the demolition of the wall, we had a lot free space and we decided to construct a kitchen island. This is the very time we have a kitchen island and we love it! It gave us so much more counter space. And it's perfect to eat breakfast in the morning.
We also painted one wall with chalkboard paint. Perfect to write the grocery list and to add a bit of fun to our kitchen.



This is pretty it for the kitchen reno update. We still have a lot to do. Lots of little details here and there, installing the backsplash, installing the kitchen hood but we are really happy about the results. So keep check out the blog to see how it all turns out

If you have any questions or need some advice, please feel free to ask. We have learned a lot with this renovations. And I would be happy to help you with yours.

Well I hope you like our kitchen up to now. Even if the photos don't do it justice.

My bathroom

Do you remember my ugly 2 room bathroom. Here are the before photos.
We have worked a lot and it's finally getting there. Here is small update on the renovations.
Sorry for the bad photos.. but it think the changes are still very noticeable.
So we destroy the wall between the tub and the toilet and destroyed a small closet on the side and move everything and changed everything. What do you think?
I love it! Here are all the details and cost.
The shower:
Love my shower. It's big and warm and perfect. So perfect in fact that I have the hardest time getting out of it to go to work in the morning. We bought the base and glass panels at the hardware store for around 1000$. It was very hard to bring it home. Those glass doors weighted a ton. And we broke one glass panel on our first trip. The tiles were bought at a ceramic stores and they are italian I think. They were 9$ the square feet. The shower head was bought on ebay for 199$. It's half plastic, half metals. And it comes with 4 water jets and a large rain forest shower head. It was very easy to install.
The vanity:
The vanity is a ikea hack. We bought the new ikea's vanity and we added a granit countertop and 2 ceramic sinks to it. It looks amazing. We had shopped around for a vanity but they were all so expensive ( more than a 1000$ and we still had to buy the sinks and faucets) that we decided to customize the ikea one to our need. It wasn't cheap ( ikea vanity 299$, sinks 100$ each, faucet 40$ each, granit around 300$)
The bath tub:
We shopped a lot for this one. And we finally found this squared bathtub at a small shop for 430$. The ceramics were bought were 7$ the square feet.

That's about it
IT was really more expensive than I taught.
Mostly because we had to redo a lot of the pluming, but the result are just perfect.

If you have any questions or want more details on this bathroom transformation feel free to write to me.

renovation to do list

Since the new house needs a lot of "love", we asked to bank for a renovation loan of $20 000.
It may seem like a big amount but I think it will be a very small budget for everything we need to do. Here is the renovation to do list

general house:
- sand, stain and varnish the floors
- repaint everything

Kitchen:
- remove a wall
- redo floors ( we need to remove the odl floor and redo one, I'm crossing my finger that the wood floor is a ok condition under the plastic floor they have put on it)
- redo kitchen cabinets
.... basically redo a whole kitchen

bathroom:
we are also redo everything
- new bathtub
- new walking shower
- remove 2 walls
- new floor
- new everything

that's pretty much our to do list for the next 2 months
there's a lot of work to do also in the rest of the house but it can wait
and the bathroom and kitchen can't as you see from the photos