Backsplash Inspiration: or How to Pick a Backsplash in 5 years or Less

Kitchen photo from a couple of years ago.  Minor changes since then, but still no backsplash.

As a professional decorator and decorative painter, I often get called on in to fix bad decisions clients have made in building or renovating.  In fact, one of the most common mistakes homeowners can make when it comes to designing their own homes is by deciding on some non-essential items too soon.  The deal is there are so many decisions to make when designing a home, so many more than people realize:  from big decisions like how big to make the living room to minor ones, like what color outlet covers.  At a certain point toward the end of a project, most people suffer a sort of decision fatigue where it's almost impossible to make another choice, any other choice.  Then, what usually happens, is that a lot of people start making quick impulsive decisions just to get "get'er done."  What I learned is that if you don't love an item or at least are convinced that that item is the right one for the application it  is better to just wait if it's not absolutely necessary.  Usually the right one will come along eventually.

Case in point:  my backsplash.  When we remodeled the kitchen 4 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long), one thing that we didn't select was a backsplash.  This was for various reasons:  cost, Thomas's aversion to most tile, and my fear of becoming bored with an expenisive selection (I do like change, and I can't afford to change out a pricey backsplash very often).  I did toy with some tile options, but the only two that I thought I could commit to long term just didn't work out.  One, a beautiful hand-made irregular glass tile in a beautiful avacado green was just too expensive:  even with a designer discount it was close to $100 a foot and the other tile ended up being too busy (luckily a friend had used on a project and left me have 4 sheets of it to test---they ended up being this table top).  The other option that we almost went with was a fun decopage project like this table; but I was afraid of the difficulty in removing it when (notice I didn't say if) I got tired of it.

So, to make a long story longer, I've spent the last couple of years on backsplash alert--keeping my eyes open for inspiration.  Finally, it's hit.  We went to a local coffee house where the walls are made up of reclaimed barge board in various colors.  We both liked the look of it, and I thought that the various colors could tie together the colors in the room.

It's hard to tell from picture, but there is a lot of distressing and color vation in the different boards.

I thought about using real wood, but again didn't want the cost, the hassle, or the permanency.  Then, another inspiration:  Faux bois---I could fake it like Eddie Ross did on this table top:

 

Fromwww.eddieross.com

And, finally, this morning, I found the perfect color inspiration in this faux barn door from the blog, Young House Love:

from young house love

So, this weekend, I'm gonna bust out all my half used paints in the right colors,

and my rocking grain roller,

a little polyurethane for protection and ease of cleaning, and then get this backsplash party rolling.

I'll keep you posted.