Tinfoil Tile and Other Kitchen Re-works

Hello again!  True to my word, I'm back with the first of the "big projects".  We've been doing more work on our house, concentrating on the kitchen this go 'round.  A remodel isn't in the budget right now, so we're just trying to make the existing crap-ola more palatable until we can do what we really want to do.

Here's the "after" picture of a corner of the kitchen that I'll be going into more detail about in a minute:

Just for contrast, here's the "before" (taken on our walk-through prior to closing when we bought the house last year):

I painted the countertops gray right after we moved in with Rustoleum Countertop Coating, and we tore out the peninsula/bar (on the right) and moved it to the sunroom so the kitchen was more open to the dining room and everything was less claustrophobic.  I also stripped wallpaper and painted.  I didn't decide what - if anything - I should do with the cabinets until a couple of weeks ago, though.

They are now painted black and have new hardware.  I also painted the walls in the kitchen and dining room a better color and we installed new vinyl tiles on the floor.  I still had this tile behind the stove, though:

Yes, I know the stove is yucky.  I have a brand-spankin'-new one in the basement waiting for our friend to install a gas line for us before we can bring it up, so I'm dealing with this monstrosity for now... 

Back to the tile project:  I saw this post on Vintage Revivals  (one of the blogs I've started following recently) and the ideas started stirring in Odd Brain.  This is what I did:

I got my Cuttlebug and my Shapeabilities dies and some excess cardstock and cut out a bizillion little shapes and decoupaged them to the tile (slight exaggeration - I think there are 150 or so of the fleur de lis, and 32 medallions).  They are arranged sort of checkerboard-style, with alternating rows of medallions and fleur de lis.  This is what that stage looked like:

Closeups of the individual tiles:

Next, I started decoupaging foil onto the tiles, pressing it into the spaces of the diecut shapes and around the edges for some definition.  I started around the edges because I wanted to get all of the straight stuff first, before I started tearing the foil into non-straight pieces:

Here's the whole deal covered in foil:

And a closeup:

After all of that was done, I tinted some glazing medium black and applied it to get this:

It's really hard to get a decent picture of a shiny wall, but the closeup shot gives you a better idea of what it really looks like:

It goes MUCH better with my black cabinets and gray counters!  All for a total cost of...$0.00!  I already had everything on hand to pull this project off - hooray!  I - on purpose - wasn't fussy about light-and-dark variations in the glazing.  I was going for an Old World, handmade type of look, so variation was in keeping with that...

Elsewhere in the re-do - this is the new floor tile:

and before (ugh!):

I still need to make a valance to go above the window and possibly come up with a new solution for the paper towels (since I'm noticing how un-lovely they are in the first pic), but I'm oh-so-happy with things so far!  MUCH better than the countrified, timeworn, not-me look the kitchen had before!

And that's the end of the story?  Thoughts?  Poems?  Anecdotes?

Thanks for stopping by, and check out the other fabulous things Mandi does over at Vintage Revivals - well worth the visit!  I'll be back with more a different day, too!

Comments

[leslie (crookedstamper)]

Aluminum foil? Seriously? How does that hold up? Can you wash it? I have NEVER seen that before, but it looks FAB!

[Pat Vilbaum]

Wow! That is creative. I would have never thought of doing something like that. Take one more picture of the area all finished, like the first pictures. I want to see how it looks with the black cabinets and countertops. Cool idea!

[Beth]

WOW, love the Spellbinders die cuts under the foil, what a great idea!

[Sheena B]

Now that is one creative remodel!

[Dee in N.H.]

Holy moly! I love your tile job! Martha Stewart better be nervous with talent like this! LOL!

[LeAnne]

OMGoodness, this is incredible! I would like to know if you painted the cupboards yourself or had someone do it, and what type of paint did you use. I would love to give mine a makeover but I am a little nervous (and DH thinks I can't do it).

[Ann]

Huge improvement!

[Lynne Phelps]

Wow!!! Wow! Are we talking regular Kaiser or Reynolds type kichen foil, dull side out? Incredible!

[Mari]

Absolute genius! What a fantastic way to use everyday items to make your home fabulous. I *love* the whole idea - and the results are awesome!

[Carrie]

how very clever!!! Looks great.

[kelly]

OMG!! This is just AWESOME!!
TFS

[Amy]

Popped over from Vintage Revivals. I'm thinking about doing a tin foil project myself and yours also turned out really fabulously. How has it held up? Seriously impressed with how it looks, so I'm hoping it hasn't ripped.