Tiling the Kitchen

Tiling the Kitchen (Part1)

You know the saying “Opposites Attract’? Well my husband, Alex, and I are actual scientific proof of that. He is quiet, I am loud. He is calm, I am volatile. He eats no fat, I eat no lean (but am working on it). He likes stupid/funny humor, I find it plain stupid. His is a morning person, I am a night person… You get the idea. {side note: when I have pointed this point out to my mom, her reply has been ‘If you were both the same, one of you wouldn’t be needed!’ I love that}

One other way we are opposites is that Alex hates anything involving tools, and there are sometimes days when I think I could single-handedly build a house if I really wanted to. To that end, I decided to tile the back-splash in my kitchen. I was a little nervous about it beforehand, but once I got underway it really went very smoothly. So to all you Moms out there – you can do it too! The only thing you need to remember is… Power Tools are our friends! I say this because there is no way that you will be able to get through this job without using a Tile Saw. I know, that sounds terrifying but it really isn’t as scary as it sounds. You can rent one from your local hardware store (Home Depot is where I got mine). But I’ll give you a tip I learned the hard way… don’t rent it at the beginning of the job – it will cost a lot of money if you do! OK, first thing first: you need to measure the space that you are going to tile. I had 2 walls to tile, the length of the walls were 8ft & 10ft, and the height of them (between the counter & cupboards) was 1.5ft. Armed with that information and a calculator, make a trip to your local hardware store and pick out the tiles that you like. Once you have picked the tiles that you want, you will need to calculate the number of tiles that you will need to cover the space.

• Step 1 Measure the width of the area to be covered in inches. I had 2 walls in my kitchen: one 8ft long, the other 10ft. There are 12 inches in a foot, so an 18-foot area would be 216 inches.
• Step 2 Divide the width of the area by the width of the tile. If your tiles were 6 inches wide, you would divide 216 by 6, which is 36. This is the number of tiles that will be in one horizontal row.
• Step 3 Measure the height of the area to be covered, in inches. The space between my kitchen counters and my kitchen cupboard was 1½ft, so my height was 18 inches.
• Step 4 Divide the depth of the area by the depth of the tile. In this case, the number would be 3 (18/6=3). This is the number of tiles that will be in one vertical row.
• Step 5 Multiply the number of tiles in a vertical row (3) by the number of tiles in a horizontal row (36). Following the example of my kitchen, that is 108 tiles.

You’ll want to buy more tiles than you will actually need, just in case:) You will also need to buy tile adhesive, tile spacers, grout and tile sealer. And depending on what tools you have around the house, you might also need to buy a trowel and grout float. Talk to the helpful guys at the hardware store and they will point you in the right direction.

Tiling the Kitchen (Part1)

You know the saying “Opposites Attract’? Well my husband, Alex, and I are actual scientific proof of that. He is quiet, I am loud. He is calm, I am volatile. He eats no fat, I eat no lean (but am working on it). He likes stupid/funny humor, I find it plain stupid. His is a morning person, I am a night person… You get the idea. {side note: when I have pointed this point out to my mom, her reply has been ‘If you were both the same, one of you wouldn’t be needed!’ I love that}

One other way we are opposites is that Alex hates anything involving tools, and there are sometimes days when I think I could single-handedly build a house if I really wanted to. To that end, I decided to tile the back-splash in my kitchen. I was a little nervous about it beforehand, but once I got underway it really went very smoothly. So to all you Moms out there – you can do it too! The only thing you need to remember is… Power Tools are our friends! I say this because there is no way that you will be able to get through this job without using a Tile Saw. I know, that sounds terrifying but it really isn’t as scary as it sounds. You can rent one from your local hardware store (Home Depot is where I got mine). But I’ll give you a tip I learned the hard way… don’t rent it at the beginning of the job – it will cost a lot of money if you do! OK, first thing first: you need to measure the space that you are going to tile. I had 2 walls to tile, the length of the walls were 8ft & 10ft, and the height of them (between the counter & cupboards) was 1.5ft. Armed with that information and a calculator, make a trip to your local hardware store and pick out the tiles that you like. Once you have picked the tiles that you want, you will need to calculate the number of tiles that you will need to cover the space.

• Step 1 Measure the width of the area to be covered in inches. I had 2 walls in my kitchen: one 8ft long, the other 10ft. There are 12 inches in a foot, so an 18-foot area would be 216 inches.
• Step 2 Divide the width of the area by the width of the tile. If your tiles were 6 inches wide, you would divide 216 by 6, which is 36. This is the number of tiles that will be in one horizontal row.
• Step 3 Measure the height of the area to be covered, in inches. The space between my kitchen counters and my kitchen cupboard was 1½ft, so my height was 18 inches.
• Step 4 Divide the depth of the area by the depth of the tile. In this case, the number would be 3 (18/6=3). This is the number of tiles that will be in one vertical row.
• Step 5 Multiply the number of tiles in a vertical row (3) by the number of tiles in a horizontal row (36). Following the example of my kitchen, that is 108 tiles.

You’ll want to buy more tiles than you will actually need, just in case:) You will also need to buy tile adhesive, tile spacers, grout and tile sealer. And depending on what tools you have around the house, you might also need to buy a trowel and grout float. Talk to the helpful guys at the hardware store and they will point you in the right direction.