My husband and I have recently purchase a new home. The house is 21 years old and contains much of the original cabinets, appliances, tile, doors, etc. The first project we intend to start is with the kitchen. The cabinets are very dark brown wood with laminate sides. We intend to strip and paint them (our finances will not allow us to replace them). Does anyone have any suggestions on how we may change the tile backsplash behind the stove, around the kitchen wall, under the window, above the sink? It's horrid! Can we paint it? Can we tile over it? Could we cover it with a stainless steel backsplash? Or is removal our only option? And, if so, how would we go about removing it without causing much damage to the wall surface? Please help us. We are new at this DIY home improvement, but we want to try, we need to try. Money is tight and we want the satisfaction of having completed the renovation ourselves. Thanks so much
Kitchen tile backsplash
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ljoh832266,Thanks for
ljoh832266,
Thanks for posting! Have you thought about refacing your cabinets? If you do the work yourself, you can get new doors and reface the cabinets for a fraction of the cost of new cabinets. It just so happens that I'm working on a series of articles right now on refacing. The first 10 should be available on our home page within a few days. It's just an idea and is a perfect fix for your situation, provided the cabinets are sturdy.
As far as the tile goes, they usually pop off fairly easy with a flat bar, hammer, and chisel. The only problem will be the glue left over on the wall. You can use a cabinet scraper to scrap the glue off and then cover the entire area with laminate like Formica. It's applied with contact cement and will turn a nasty looking wall into a designer's dream very quickly. If you'd like instructions on that specifically, let me know.
I would not recommend painting tile, it will scrap off and end up looking worse. If you try to put anything on top of it, that will cause problems because of the thickness you will gain. Unfortunately removal is the only 'right' option. That's why I mention laminate, if you try to take the tile down and paint over it, it won't look good.
Let me know if you need anything else.