Our Carrara Marble Backsplash and Kitchen Tour

Ahhhh, white marble. The stuff that dreams are made of. Well, mine anyways. I dream of a white kitchen. While some of my friends pine after the next seasons "it" bag or  the latest Louboutins, I long for white kitchen cabinets and white marble counters. So bad.

We do (unfortunately and fortunately) live in a new house. With new cabinets. And so, the practical part of me has prevented me from ripping out my new kitchen for my dream kitchen. The time will come though.... oh yes it will.

In the meantime, I am finding ways to customize our kitchen and help it stand out from the hundred other kitchens that look the same in our community (no literally, like a hundred). When I charged slobbering like a rabid dog attended an interior design warehouse sale last September, the last thing I expected to find was tile. Chairs, pillows, art, of course, but tile? Never even crossed my mind. But tile I found, and tile I bought. Three different kinds of tile, worth well over $5000, and I bought it all for $300. I will have to tell you all about my tile finds in another post, but this one, well this post is about my white carrara bianco marble matchstick mosaic that we used for our backsplash.

The installation process and advice I have to give could easily fill two blog posts, so I'll wait to post all the nitty gritty details. For now, let's just look at pictures. Pretty pictures.

This is the before. I love our home, and I love our builder (especially considering I now work for them!), but I don't know who in their right mind felt that espresso cabinets and grey/white/black granite counters meant that a camel/tan coloured backsplash was in order. So out it went and in with the marble!

Before (very before... like before we even painted)

Before (but after we painted Behr Rhino)

Before. This is a pretty good representation of our old backsplash. If you're my neighbour, don't come knocking and asking for sugar....


And now!


 And a nice detail shot of the tile.





And there you have it! I absolutely love the new look and the white marble truly truly makes a massive difference in the feel of the room, and makes it feel so much larger! Had I known how much of an impact it would have, I might have done it sooner. So that being said, if you're contemplating backplashin' in the near future, go for it! You will not regret it :)

Comments

  1. I love it! That's the tile of my dreams too...and what a STEAL FOR $300! Can't wait to see it when it's all done:)

    www.firsthomelovelife.com

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  2. Thanks Christine! We love it! And the tile IS done, we just have some more minor tweaks to do before we can really step back and enjoy :) LOVE your blog too!

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  3. number 1, how did you get such a great deal on that backsplash? number 2, my goodness, that is quite the mouthful. number 3, this looks fabulous. i need some dark cab inspiration, so i'm super glad to see this.

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    1. The tile was leftover from a show home design, so I got a great deal on it when they were clearing out the design warehouse. After going to this warehouse sale, I think I will never shop at a store again without checking out local designer sales first! Oh so worth it!

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  4. Wow, that is GORGEOUS!!! I feel the exact same way about my kitchen (what I wouldn't do for white cabinets), and we are also in a new townhouse... that we plan to leave behind in 2 years. But I swear, my NEXT kitchen will be white, white goodness.

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    1. We are in the same boat! Why spend loads of money customizing a new home to your tastes if you plan on moving soon, right? And dreaming of our future white kitchens just gives us something to look forward to in the future! :)

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  5. where did you get the "perpetual" clock/calendar. So retro and cute!
    -jennifer

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    1. I got it at a warehouse sale, but if you google "industrial flip clock" you will find comparable ones!

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  6. Love your cake stands! Where are they from? I saw you on Pinterest with the dollar store pantry organization post and love your blog!

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    1. Thanks Abbey! (And thanks for letting me know how you found your way here- LOVE that!). My mother-in-law got them for me at Costco of all places a couple years back. Unfortunately I don't think they sell them anymore :(

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  7. Very Modern. The cabinet color is great. It reminds me of an upscale NY loft.

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    1. Thanks Steve! They certainly are modern and something we can live with, I just really prefer white over dark brown!

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  8. I love your kitchen.. We just bought our house and it came with a very 70's green kitchen. I also like you dreamed of a carrara kitchen. My husband on the other hand dreamed of something a little less expensive. I found this site called www.carraratiles.com and my dream came true. The prices where so good my husband agreed to do the carrara instead of ceramic.!

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    1. Awesome find! Totally worth it to go for the marble! :)

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  9. Ooh, I love it! We built our own house (and designed it, I'm an architect in my pre-kids life) and we went with marble too. Don't you just love it?

    Jessica
    stayathomeista.com

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  10. love the backsplash & the wall color - thinking about painting our master bedroom the same color! the doxie bookends are adorbs...where did you find him? i also must mention that your dollar store pantry is rockin - love the bins and labels (thanks for the download)!

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    1. It's a great colour! I find it changes as the daylight does, going from a muddy sea glass, to a lighter blue, to a shady grey... it's beautiful! The bookends are Jonathan Adler for (Indigo?). I think it's Indigo, but I do know that they are JA. And glad you enjoyed the labels!

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  11. This is a very nice article and gives in-depth information. Thanks for this nice article, which is a really good to read.

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  12. So how do you find out about these designer sales? I too am trying to renovate (slowly, money willing) our home and your look is very similar to my taste :)!!! Expensive looking and gorgeous!

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  13. Nice article and great knowledge. Thanks for the share. I love this story and enjoy with your words!
    carrara mosaic tile

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  14. This constantly amazes me just how blog owners such as your self can find the time as well as the dedication to keep on crafting superb blog posts. Your website is good and one of my personal must read weblogs. I just had to thank you.
    Carrara marble

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  15. Can I say i love your kitchen and the wall colour, do you know the name of the wall colour?

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  16. How did you find out about a sale like that?! We need to gut our kitchen and need ways to find these types of deals!

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