DIY backsplashes tend to be lightweight and made of materials that are easier to apply than the usual ceramic or glass. Many come with pre-applied adhesive backing, while others stay up with light brads or construction glue. Yes, vinyl, self-stick products are a staple of DIY backsplashes. But this idea is different. Wallpaper comes in large sections, so you can roll it out across a wall in one strip instead of methodically assembling small pieces. More than anything, wallpaper opens your decor options to the max. Go for faux brick or subway tile, as Kiel did. Or throw care to the wind and try any number of other designs: art deco, nautical, Trompe-l’œil, geometric, or floral. This woven polyester wallpaper is self-adhesive, lays down smooth, and unlike paper-based wallpaper, can be easily removed. Bypass this with the ultimate DIY backsplash: tile decals such as Gypsy Yaya did above. Made of waterproof vinyl, tile decals come in large panels that are visually segmented into smaller tiles, from 2-inch squares on up to 12-inch square. With faux grout lines, these tiles look uncannily like the real thing. Spanning the design globe, from Portugal and Morocco to Mexico and India, tile decals add vigor to your kitchen with minimal work. Best of all, manufactured veneer stone can be installed as a DIY backsplash with relative ease. Molly Wey, over at the design blog Stilettos & Diapers, literally stumbled upon this fact when she was at Lowe’s and saw an Airstone veneer stone display. She purchased Airstone for her kitchen backsplash and found that it was as easy to install as a puzzle. Even her 3-year-old son jumped into the game. And so fast! Only 8 hours later she had a beautiful new stone kitchen backsplash. Unlike other vinyl self-stick DIY backsplashes, Tyles is decidedly not faux. It does not aim to replicate the look of real tiles. Instead, it uses original artwork hand-drawn by Nicole to create utterly unique and fantastic backsplash designs. Subway tiles have a 1:2 dimension ratio. This means that for every inch high, it is 2 inches wide. A common subway tile size is 3 inches by 6 inches. Subway tiles are great for do-it-yourselfers since they tend to be inexpensive. Because every tile is uniform, there is no complicated mixing and matching of different colors and sizes. Katie at the design blog Addicted 2 DIY used subway tiles and discovered just how easy it is to do her tile work by purchasing pre-mixed thinset mortar, instead of dry, powder thinset. Tileboard is medium density fiberboard with a hard melamine layer on top that gives it its look. Tileboard often, but not always, adopts the look of tile. You can purchase a tileboard that looks like brick as did Lauren at Bless’er House. To disguise the material’s faux origins, she applied faux whitewash: one part white semigloss paint to one part water, brushed on twice. As Laura Gummerman shows on her design blog A Beautiful Mess, transforming a dated, worn and downright ugly backsplash to one that is, in her words, fun and happy can be as easy as painting on a new coat. She used silicone epoxy paint (Top Secret Coatings, Clear Green shade) to give her earthen brown subway tiles a fresh, bright new color. Kristen from Ella Claire spent almost nothing to purchase 1/4-inch pressed wood beadboard and tacked it to the wall with construction adhesive and a brad gun. Now her kitchen has a stately and classic feel. While she painted the beadboard traditional white, you can apply any color to it.
