Elevating a Builder-Grade Kitchen

We designed our kitchen when we built our home back in 2019 with Edge Homes. I will walk through the design choices we made, why we held off on certain items when it was first built and how we finished it.

Here is the design concept:

Gray cabinets, white quartz with black accents and our warm flooring. We did not pick out a backsplash or hardware because builders tend to over charge for those upgrades and I knew we could install it later.

Here is the kitchen before all the cabinets were put in:

Here is when the cabinets went in.

I still needed to add hardware. I measured out the drawers and picked out pulls. I purchased a cabinet jig, but I did hire a handy person to install them. I lacked the confidence myself. But after watching them, I did gain the confidence and installed the same pulls on the bathroom vanities.

Making that small change really helped the kitchen feel more complete. But the real change was installing the backsplash.

It took me a while to gain the courage, but after watching lots of tutorials and borrowing a friend's tile cutter I decided to take the plunge and make it happen in November 2021.

After looking at several samples to see what would go well with the countertop, I ordered the tile from Tilebar

Because none of the backsplash was next to any plumbing I decided it would be a great idea to use the tile adhesive, Musselbound. The adhesive is very easy to use. It is like the world's stickiest double-sided tape. It is incredibly strong and will damage your drywall when removed similar to tile thinset/mortar.

It was super easy to install. I also used a white schluter edge to trim out the backsplash. I just put the schluter on edge on top of the Musselbound and then put another layer of musselbound on top of the schluter edge backing. It has been very sturdy and did not cause an issue with installation.

I laid out all the tile to make sure that everything would fit and avoid any tiny tile slivers then began tiling. If I used the wet saw for a cut, I used a hair dryer to dry out the tile.

I used arctic white premixed grout to grout the tile. What is nice about the tile adhesive is I could grout right away.

Here is the finished tile:

I picked walnut wood stools to complement the flooring. We wanted something that fit underneath the counter as we often use the island a buffet when we have guests.

Here is the finished Look: