Hi Pam and Kate!
I’m a long time lurker, sometimes commenter and have even been a Design Dilemma (pinch pleat curtains)!
I thought maybe your readers would be interested in a cheap DIY that I recently did in my mid-century modern house. I painted our tile back splash from black to turquoise and copper in a random retro pattern. Totally changed the vibe in our kitchen from dour to fun and made our kitchen, which is not retro, fit in with the rest of our retro house. I’m not sure what I spent since I had many of the things I needed but it was under $100.
I’m planning on painting the walls. The current paint is what was there when we bought the house. Note the wood trimmed laminate counters. Even though my kitchen isn’t vintage that was one of the vintage laminate counter top edging treatments that was mentioned in one of your articles!
In the after the pendant light shades are made from glass telegraph insulators. They went with the turquoise tiles 🙂
Wow, Lori — what a difference some color makes. Bravo to you for coming up with a solution to add some retro flair to your kitchen and “Love the House You’re In!”
How to paint over kitchen back splash tile:
- To read more about the process Lori used to paint her ceramic tile kitchen back splash, check out her blog post. “Paint your tile backsplash!” on her blog, mybluehaven. Mega thanks to Lori for sharing her decorating tip.
Jean B. says
Congratulations! This looks amazing and such a creative solution. However living in Southern California, my first reaction was please put that beautiful vase where it won’t fall in an earthquake!
Mary Elizabeth says
Jean, I saw on her blog that Lori lives in Connecticut, as do I, and believe it or not, we do have earthquakes. They just aren’t as severe or frequent as the ones in California. The center of them is in Moodus, CT. (“Machemoodus” means “a big noise [under the earth]” in the local language.) They are the type that send the less destructive sound waves, and you can hear them and feel them at times. I have felt them in my home and also once a year ago I felt one in the roadbed, transmitted through my car wheels. So Lori’s vase could POSSIBLY fall off the top of her cabinet. Perhaps she should consider putting the breakables up with FunTack. 🙂
Amy in Sacramento says
Brilliant idea! It looks fantastic!
Roundhouse Sarah says
Love it! Just that little change dramatically improved your kitchen, it’s so warm and bright now! It’s such a genius idea, you’ve got my wheels turning! My MIL has been thinking of slightly renovating her kitchen and has been choosing colors based around her backsplash tile but now I can show her that by painting the tiles she can be free to do whatever she wants. Thanks a bunch!
Lisa Compo says
That looks great! Isn’t it amazing what a little imagination and paint will do for a room? It looks so much brighter and more interesting. I like Mary Elizabeth’s idea about big, flat chrome knobs for the cabinets–it will pick up the shine in the sink, your mixer and add just that smidge more brightness to the area. But, as she said, it’s beautiful as is if you feel that you are finished. I’m a curtain person, so I vote yes on the colored valance for your window. 🙂
Kimberj says
Genius, it looks fabulous!!!!
Mary Elizabeth says
Great job, Lori! I love the color combination and the way you picked up the turquoise paint on the back of the book shelf. This story is perfectly timed for the person who wrote in last week looking to brighten up her kitchen and has a non-retro tile backsplash behind her stove. I have painted tile in my old house using the method you discuss. (I have a go-to guy in a little paint store who tells me how to paint everything except the cats, who won’t sit still for it). My paint job lasted at least four years and may still be there for all I know. Thanks for the tip about the grout on your blog.
There is so much to like about your kitchen: the long stainless steel sink top with built-in drainboard, the built-in cutting board, and the bumped-up cabinet with the cookbook shelf beneath. If I were you, I’d leave those cabinets just as they are and add some saucer-shaped chrome knobs. A retro valance in the window in turquoise and copper/rust colors to match the tile would be nice, too. But it’s beautiful as is.
Lori D. says
Thank you, Mary Elizabeth! I love the drain board sink, too. It’s not a huge kitchen but it has lots of counter space and storage. I love the valance idea. I have been contemplating that for our living room curtains but a shot of color in the kitchen window blind would be nice. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect barkcloth fabric! The cutting board is just an Ikea board sitting on the counter and I actually have one chrome saucer shaped drawer pull I’m trying out on one cabinet, not seen in the photos. Another idea I got from RR!
Lori D. says
Oh, oops! I see the blog link above. Thanks, Pam and Kate! It’s really fun to see my painted tiles on Retro Renovation!
Lori D. says
Lori here. I went into my process in detail on my own blog but I won’t link to it without RR’s consent. In a nutshell, I used a bonding primer. This is important as regular primer just would be strong enough and if the primer doesn’t stick nothing on top of it will, either. I used 100% acrylic paint to paint the colorful square tiles. I used white grout colorant to clean up the grout lines after painting the tiles. Shellac was used to seal everything once it was dry. It’s held up perfectly through cooking and cleaning for months.
pam kueber says
Link is in our story – at the end!
Laura H. says
Oops! Just noticed the blog link. Sorry!
Laura H. says
Love the look, but want more details. What sort of paint did you use? What kind of priming?