In case all of that turkey and stuffing made you forget, here’s a reminder of what our kitchen looked like after the upper cabinets came down:
With the clock ticking on our new countertops (in about two weeks we should finally be sink-less and counter-less no more), we needed to prep the walls for the new backsplash. We weren’t planning to install the backsplash before the counters—installing tile after the counters gives a snugger fit and avoids damage during countertop installation—but wall prep equals demo, and demo equals dust and debris. We didn’t want brand-new counters in place while we were tearing things up, so it was time to remove the old “random blue things” backsplash.
We have a soft spot for that old backsplash. It felt handmade and quirky, but it didn’t match our vision for the dream kitchen. The penny tile we found stole our hearts, so we decided to move on. That said, we planned to save a few of the accent blue tiles for nostalgia—more on that later.
The removal process went reasonably well. Some sections came down in clusters of tiles with a quick pry of a screwdriver, though most tiles came away one-by-one or in broken pieces. Overall, the job took about 45 minutes from start to finish. I handled roughly 80% of the work; Sherry wanted to help with demo too, but she was on Clara duty after her nap.
We hoped to salvage many of the blue tiles to turn them into coasters or donate them, but most were brittle—made from red clay—and shattered easily. Only three tiles survived intact, which felt a little miraculous. Three coasters are better than none, so we held on to them. We also made a short tribute video to commemorate the old backsplash.
Once the tile was gone, the wall wasn’t ready for new tile. Old adhesive left a bumpy, uneven surface, and the plywood backing wasn’t an ideal substrate for tile—especially for the weight of penny tile running to the ceiling along the stove wall. We concluded that removing the plywood and replacing it with cement board would provide a much more stable, tile-ready surface.
We contacted The Tile Shop (our long-time resource for tiling questions) and confirmed we should install cement board. We worried because the countertop fabricators had templated against 1/4″ plywood. If our cement board was thicker or sat too low, the counters might not fit. Fortunately, 1/4″ cement board exists, so we could swap the plywood without affecting countertop fit.
Cutting the plywood in a straight line above the lower cabinets was a small challenge. I don’t own a plunge saw, so I used a Dremel Trio to control cutting depth—enough to slice through the 1/4″ plywood without touching the studs behind it. The Dremel isn’t the steadiest tool for long straight cuts, so I made a simple guide by loosely nailing a scrap piece of wood to the wall and running the tool along it. I also turned off power to the kitchen and used an extension cord from another room, just in case there were hidden wires near my cut line.
The process took longer than I expected—maybe 90 minutes—because I kept adjusting the guide and double-checking alignment. After scoring the plywood, it was straightforward to pry it off. One more hurdle was removing the trim around the window, which had been nailed on top of the plywood. That also meant removing the last piece of granite in our kitchen—the window sill. We sliced through the caulk and pried the sill away, planning to replace it with a simple white-painted wood sill. A painted wood sill is durable, affordable, and fits this kitchen’s look.
With the plywood and tile removed, the kitchen looked like a disaster zone, but that’s part of any demo. The next steps are less glamorous: installing 1/4″ cement board and rehanging some leftover paneling from our previous wall-opening project to match the painted paneling elsewhere. Hanging cement board and paneling isn’t glamorous work—it’s messy and fiddly—but it’s essential for a reliable, long-lasting backsplash installation.
We’ll document the cement board installation and paneling step-by-step, so stay tuned for those details. In the meantime, we’d love to hear about your weekend projects—any tile demos, salvage success stories, or renovation lessons learned?