In our quest to modernize and brighten our beautiful kitchen I had another item on my wishlist to change. After the Island and Countertop makeover in December 2017 we (I) started searching for new tiles for the backsplash behind the stove.

They were square, black, non reflective… ugh. Oh, and the grout was brown – odd choice!

 

I wanted something a bit unusual… Subway tiles were the “plainest” I was willing to go – I was looking for hexagons, or arabesque shaped, maybe some sparkle or a pearlescent kind of thing, or even marble, a herringbone design even. I pinned a ton of ideas on my Country Chic Kitchen Pinterest board and kept searching the limited South African market.

Here’s a screenshot of my board with some of the stuff I love

I ended up asking on a Facebook group where one find unusual tiles in SA, and consensus was Ferreiras. I Browsed their site, loved what I saw so we went to look… they have a section of mosaics from Douglas Jones, and WOW! The most gorgeous things! Ranging in price from more or less what I expected, to crazy expensive (and crazy beautiful!).

 

I ended up choosing these Douglas Jones mosaic sheets, called Fan, in light grey. At R90 a sheet (30cm x 30cm).

Super excited to get going, we got a tiler in for the day, he chipped off the ugly old black slate-type tiles…

Just like that I feel it looked better than the black tiles! Once my new glossy, grey, cool shaped, glass tiles started going on, I got so excited!

 

 

A few hours later, some grout and a good cleaning, I feel like i had a whole new kitchen!

 

A little side by side comparison…

And if you want to go WAY back – before the counters and island makeover

and now…

Next to do in the kitchen – remove stained glass windows in cabinets, and eventually respray all the cream cupboards the same grey as the island… Always something.

 

I absolutely LOVE the lighter colour, the fun shape and the reflective quality of the glass – it’s so interesting!

 

COSTS:

The mosaic tiles were around R90 per sheet, and I bought 25 sheets (we have about 3 sheets left). The tiles, plus grout and mosaic fix and everything we needed, cost around R2200, and our tiler charged us R1000 for labour. So entire job cost just over R3000 and was completed in a day. TOTALLY worth every cent!