3 Mistakes I Made While Installing My First Peel-and-Stick Backsplash (Don’t Be Like Me!)

published Aug 15, 2024
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Knives on magnetic strip in kitchen before applying peel and stick backsplash.
Credit: Andrea Kaufman

If you’ve ever had that one thing in your home that’s always bugged you, this post is for you. Now, I love my apartment (I never leave it — just kidding, sorta), and I especially love my kitchen. First, it’s got a window, which is huge in NYC, and second, it’s pretty functional for someone who cooks at least one meal daily. But there’s one thing that’s annoyed me ever since I moved in: the mirror backsplash.

Mirrors are often used to make spaces feel bigger and brighter, which makes sense in a NYC apartment. However, as a kitchen backsplash, it feels senseless (to me). It gets dirty very easily and makes any stains obvious, requiring constant cleaning. Additionally, it’s a source of visual clutter because it reflects any mess. And selfishly, as someone who works in food and in social media, it’s not easy to take pictures or film videos because of the mirror.

Credit: Andrea Kaufman

After about a year, I finally decided to change it. After seeing my friend Megan’s Instagram Story of her mini kitchen makeover, I immediately asked her for the link. After looking through the available colors and patterns of the peel-and-stick backsplash she used, I decided on pretty dark green peel-and-stick tiles to add some color to my black-and-white kitchen.

Full disclosure: I am not a DIY girlie. I am not handy. It’s truly not my calling. I cannot emphasize this enough, but it was my first time doing any kind of project besides organizing, so this is very much a newbie perspective. It was a seemingly simple project — just how hard could it be? Turns out, pretty hard. Here are the mistakes I made along the way, and how I’d fix them. Fellow DIY newbies, take note!

Credit: Andrea Kaufman

Mistake No. 1: I Did Not Do the Math

This is not my finest moment. First, I did not order enough — it’s honestly an embarrassing mistake. When I asked my friend for the details, she told me she needed about three sheets. I may have impulsively bought one pack of 5 sheets thinking Wow, that’s great I should need about the same amount since it’s a similar size space. Except she meant three packs and I didn’t look closely at the measurements [insert facepalm emoji]. After calculating five more times, I realized I needed a minimum of 16 sheets to cover the space. The tiles are sold in sets of five sheets, each measuring 9″ x 11.43″. 

The other mathematical mistake involved calculating how much to cut off from each tile panel, especially when it came to measuring around an outlet and my knife rack. It didn’t help that my outlet cover is installed crookedly!

Credit: Andrea Kaufman

Mistake No. 2: I Didn’t Mark the Tile Directions

I put the tiles on vertically, so the panels were stacked on top of each other. To fit into the space, one panel needed to be cut to size.

Now, when cutting those panels, I forgot to mark the top and bottom of the panel so I would know which side to cut to keep the pattern consistent (it was the top). That led to two of the panels on the wall being more pieced together from the bottom because I cut the wrong way. Whoops.

Credit: Andrea Kaufman

Mistake No. 3: Cutting Wasn’t as Straightforward as I Thought

Thanks to the toolbox I made my dad buy for me from The Home Depot (not sponsored), I had a very sharp blade on hand (shoutout to box cutters!). Normally that spells bad luck for me, but none of my fingers were harmed in the making of this makeover. Each package of tiles came with a piece of cardboard, which I used as a surface to cut the tiles on. 

Each sheet has six panels of tiles. It was much harder to cut in a straight line because of the varying thickness of the tile panels on the sheet. While I used a ruler to draw lines to cut along, it felt like driving on a bumpy road. As a result, unfortunately, the tops of the cut tiles aren’t the most even. Fortunately, the top of the backsplash is out of eyeline so it’s not noticeable unless you look closely.

Credit: Andrea Kaufman

I’d Still Do It Again, Though

After about four hours of (no) blood, sweat, and tears, and an almost depleted phone battery from filming my progress, I finished putting up the peel-and-stick tile! One of the trickiest parts is making sure all the patterns and lines match up, which involves a lot of sticking and unsticking. Thankfully, a mirror makes for a very stickable surface. While it’s not perfect — the top of the backsplash is uneven, though hidden, and some areas have a lot of patchwork “tiling” to cover up spots — it was 100% worth it!

My new backsplash totally transforms the whole space. I think it makes it look more defined since it’s not reflecting everything in the mirror. It may look a little smaller, but it feels cozier and gives this black-and-white kitchen some color and personality.

In a dream world (aka someone funds and does it for me) I would continue the backsplash to the wall behind my oven space to extend the whole look. The tile is also easy to clean and because it’s a dark, mossy green with some color variation, it’s not as obvious when there’s a little pasta sauce stain or sink water splashing.