Twins Take on the DIY: Kitchen Remodel Part 1

Hi pals, it's Jess.  My family and I have lived in our house for a while now and we've done a lot of work around the house.  One room we hadn't gotten to yet was our kitchen. When we moved in, the room was...well...colorful.

I still don't get this.  Were the previous owners Washington Redskins fans?

Our first completed project (before we even moved in) was to paint the cabinets white and the walls a light grey.

A little better, right?

We hated the original yellow and grey linoleum floor, but we just couldn't deal with replacing it.  We hoped that it was hiding original hardwood floors (like the rest of the house) but sadly, the linoleum was stuck right onto the subfloor.  We left it alone for a few years, but complained about it most days!

Finally, we decided we couldn't stand it any longer, so we started researching vinyl tiles.  We thought these tiles would be a great option because they were affordable and easy to DIY.  We checked out a lot of tutorials like this one and this one.  We decided we wanted to use grout to make them look a little more finished.  We decided to tile right onto the old linoleum instead of removing it first.  We were afraid that it would be too hard to remove after 60+ years of stickiness and didn't know what condition the sub-floor would be in.  After a little research, we measured our kitchen and drew a diagram to estimate how much tiling we would need.  Then, we finally headed to Lowes to gather materials.

Nice little Saturday going on!

We chose this tile and grout (don't forget the spacers if you're grouting).  We also grabbed supplies like two of these grout floats and grout sponges.  Then we dropped off the kiddo at Grandma's and got ready to get down!

Here's the big before look:

Smell ya later, yellow!

Our first step was to clean the floor very carefully.  You want to make sure that there's no residue or dirt on the floor so that the tiles adhere properly.  You can use TSP as you would before painting, but I just used my trusty Mrs. Meyers cleaner, hot water and a little elbow grease.

Next, we removed the quoter-round trim around the room because we wanted the tile to go all the way to the edge.  Ours was old and unpainted, so we just planned to purchase new trim and replace it after we were finished.

Yay, 60 years of grossness!

Then we (okay, my husband) did some measuring and marking so we could lay out the tile.  You want to lay it out BEFORE trying to stick it down to make sure it looks the way you want.  You might want a level and tape measurer for this part.   We found the center line of the room and worked out from there.  You will likely need to cut some pieces for the ends, so don't worry about that yet.  We adjusted our tiles slightly to accommodate our somewhat crooked wall (see Odds and Ends), you might need to do the same.

Now it's go time!  Find your center-line tile, remove the backing and start sticking.  You'll then use the spacers to make sure that you leave room (We did 1/8 inch) in between tiles so you can get the grout in later.  This part is time consuming and a bit tedious.  We worked together and listened to some podcasts (OMG, if you haven't heard How Did This Get Made? do it now!)  You might reference your straight edge or level to make sure you're working in a straight line.

I was getting a little loopy on Snapchat!

This took us until around 1:30 AM, so we hit the hay before grouting.  Here's what we looked like at the end of Day One.

Cameo by my husband's knee pads!

Armed with coffee, we started up on Day Two.  While my husband finished cutting the custom tile pieces to fit into the smaller spaces (you can do this pretty easily with sharp craft scissors or a box cutting knife), I got my grout on.  Make sure you buy grout that is meant for vinyl tile and pre-mixed.      You'll also need a bucket with water to rinse your sponge and I also used some paper towel to minimize mess.

It's grout time, y'all!

I started in a less visible area because I was afraid I'd mess up!  You want to drop on a fair amount of grout onto the float and then push it gently into the space between tiles. Once you have spread out the grout, you need to run the level across the grout at a 45 angle to level it and remove excess.

Then you want to get your sponge damp (make sure you squeeze it to make sure there are no drips of water) and gently rub off the excess grout.  I rinsed the sponge often, to try to make sure you remove as much of the grout as you can.  You may have to do this to remove any grout residue).  I found this process very similar to frosting a cake after a crumb coat!

Now, repeat this about a million times!  If I thought laying the tile out was time consuming or tedious, I had no idea.  Our process was a little faster once my husband finished cutting tile and helped grout.

Not too shabby, right?

Finally, we were done and stood back to admire our hard work!  You'll want to avoid stepping on the grout to let it cure for at least 24 hours (a great excuse to get ourselves invited to dinner at Ry's!) and avoid getting it wet for around a week.

Here's the finished look!

Hooray!

A pretty big difference, right?  We plan to continue our small remodel by adding the trim, learning up and adding a new table and bench seating, so I'll update you all once it's all finished.  I am impressed with how big of a change we could make in such just a couple of days.  Here are some last odds and ends to keep in mind before you get to work!

Odds and ends:

• Getting started is hard, but JUST DO IT!  Before we started to grout, I was so afraid I would mess it up that I didn't want to start.  Finally, after a pep talk with Ry, I realized I would never learn if I didn't get started.  After an hour, I considered myself a grout pro!  You never learn if you don't try, so just get in there!

• You might want to invest in some knee pads.  This is hard work which requires a lot of bending and squatting.  It's as taxing as a tough day at the gym.  Take some Advil and be sure to take some breaks and stretch.

• We measured everything accurately but didn't take into account that our actual walls are a little crooked!  Hey, human error, right?  We had to adjust our tiles slightly to accommodate a slight bowing of the wall.  You might have a tilt in your floor (which we also do) and some of the tiles might not adhere as well due to this.  We used a small nail on the couple of warped spots that wouldn't stick down.  

So there you have it!  Would you try installing vinyl tiles?  Let us know what you think in the comments below!  Jess out!