When we purchased our home it was brand new but we weren’t able to design it. It was a previously built inventory home. We were fine with that. It was a brand new home so I knew it was energy efficient and everything was in good working order.

I’m really not sure I would EVER enjoy choosing every detail of a home top to bottom. That’s so many decisions at once and so much pressure! I do better making changes over time and I love that process.

Our kitchen was spacious and had good bones but I did not care for the mosaic tile backsplash. I felt it was too busy and wasn’t down for demolition so I decided to paint it!

You can see the backsplash has several brown and terra cotta colors going on. I think I have an aversion to brown.

I added a pop of color by painting the island (it was many colors over the years) which was a fun change but was really still bothered by that backsplash. I needed to erase it.

Read a few blogs and stopped over at our Sherwin Williams. Turns out painting tile backsplash is really no different than painting anything else.

First you want to clean it well. You can use soap and water with the scrubby side of a sponge to make sure it’s good and clean. Remove any residue that may have splashed onto the tile. If you have anything stubborn the Mr Clean eraser is amazing or you can always do a swipe with Krud Kutter or TSP. Go ahead and tape off the area once dry.

I bought Extreme Bond primer at SW in the quart size and it was plenty to prime all of the backsplash. I used an angled 2″ brush to get into all the grout lines and rolled over it to smooth.

I used 2-3 coats of white latex I had on hand to paint over the mosaic tile to keep it clean and simple. Later I painted all of the kitchen cabinets using SW ProClassic Interior Acrylic Latex and I rolled a coat over the backsplash too. Excuse the messy can! This is clearly not an internet image- it my well loved can.

Whiting out that area toned down all that brown business. It was more like we didn’t have backsplash and it blended in. In this case that’s what I preferred but you could go the opposite direction and paint the backsplash a color that really shows up and makes a statement.

A peek of the white on white. Cabinets went white and the tile was white allowing for decor, plants, a bowl of fruit to do the talking instead of the backsplash.

The painted backsplash and painted cabinetry created a fresh, clean feel in the kitchen. Everything was neutral and open for any accent color of choice.

Backsplash doesn’t get a lot of wear and tear. The tiles held up beautifully. If anything splashed on them I just washed with soap and water as before.

If you’ve been thinking about taking the plunge I say GO FOR IT!