Low Cost Kitchen Re-Do with Faux Tiles

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. I think most of us do. It is the first place I stumble to in the morning for my wake-up coffee, and the last place I leave at night. (I have to make sure the coffee will be ready in the morning.) My kitchen and I were no longer best friends though. Basically there were two problems.

• Problem One: My kitchen was dated and unattractive. The blue stripes I had painted over yellow were scuffed and dreary looking. I wanted something more classy.
• Problem Two: Not enough money in the bank.
  

Tile was what I really wanted in my kitchen, but also out of my price range.  Having always been a fan of "Faux" decor, I decided to try to make my own cheap tiles.  In the past I have decorated with Faux stones made out of cardboard, and bricks made of brown paper, so making tiles didn't seem all that strange.

I started out by buying ten sheets of plain white poster paper.  These cost all ot 35 cents each.  Then I invested in a couple of cans of spray paint.  One a gloss teal blue, and the other a textured brown.  I also rounded up my collection of acryllic craft paints.

Making the tiles wasn't really all that hard.  I painted five of the posters to start. Two with the blue gloss paint, one with the brown spray paint, and the other three with acryllic colors that I had decided to try.  My choices were a terra-cotta orange (to match another wall I had painted), an antique patina, and black.

Next I measured a real tile I had bought, and cut my painted sheets into tiles.  The tiles could be made in any size, mine were approximately four inches square.

Once the tiles were made, the next job was to start placing them.  First I cleaned the walls well, and let dry.  Then I started placing the tiles, glueing them inplace with a strong tacky craft glue.

This process was pretty much error free.  A tile's color can be changed when inplace, as easily as dipping a brush in another color of paint.

I started with the least visible wall near my refridgerator, and moved horizontally around the room.

Once all the tiles were glued in place, I tackled what turned out to be the hardest part of the project.  This was painting the "grout" between the tiles.

For the "grout" I used a combination of powder-type grout, (purchased from a craft store), and black acryllic paint. I mixed the paint and grout powder to a "thick paint" consistency that could be painted with an artist type brush.  Then I painted this mixture between the tiles.  Needless to say, this was a time consuming job.

After the grouting was finished, I let the walls dry for twenty-four hours.  Then I painted over all the tiled walls with a water proof varnish.  I used three coats of the varnish, and let the walls dry well between each coat.