“…From dour to fun” for less than $100
Reader Lori has been slowly making changes to her 1949 mid-century ranch house since she moved in about a year ago. She was featured in a Retro Design Dilemma asking for ideas for the window treatments in her living room last January. Now, she’s back to return the favor and share her secret for adding color to a tiled kitchen back splash — no hammer or chisel required. Taking her color cues from a treasured vintage McCoy vase, Lori inexpensively changed the color of black ceramic tiles using paint — with great success.
Lori writes:
Hi Pam and Kate!
I’m a long time lurker, sometimes commenter and have even been a Design Dilemma (pinch pleat curtains)!
I thought maybe your readers would be interested in a cheap DIY that I recently did in my mid-century modern house. I painted our tile back splash from black to turquoise and copper in a random retro pattern. Totally changed the vibe in our kitchen from dour to fun and made our kitchen, which is not retro, fit in with the rest of our retro house. I’m not sure what I spent since I had many of the things I needed but it was under $100.
Lori took her color cues from a treasured McCoy vase
I’m planning on painting the walls. The current paint is what was there when we bought the house. Note the wood trimmed laminate counters. Even though my kitchen isn’t vintage that was one of the vintage laminate counter top edging treatments that was mentioned in one of your articles!
In the after the pendant light shades are made from glass telegraph insulators. They went with the turquoise tiles
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Wow, Lori — what a difference some color makes. Bravo to you for coming up with a solution to add some retro flair to your kitchen and “Love the House You’re In!”
How to paint over kitchen back splash tile:
- To read more about the process Lori used to paint her ceramic tile kitchen back splash, check out her blog post. “Paint your tile backsplash!” on her blog, mybluehaven. Mega thanks to Lori for sharing her decorating tip.
The post Lori paints her tile backsplash, using a vintage McCoy vase as her color inspiration appeared first on Retro Renovation.