Tiling the backsplash felt equal parts thrilling and nerve-wracking. We got a little carried away with the excitement—maybe 90% excited and 10% nervous—but after a few days of tinkering and learning, we finally made real progress. The first day took longer than expected: nearly three hours went into cutting tests, prepping the workspace, and mixing thinset before we even began installing tiles. By the end of the evening, after the little one was tucked in bed, we had this much finished on the wall.
It felt great to see that first section come together. I kept finding myself standing back and admiring it like a proud parent—awkward, but completely justified. There’s a lot to share about the process, but for now we’ll focus on the cutting method we settled on and what led us there. We still have the rest of this wall and the full oven wall—up to the ceiling—to tackle, so we’re documenting what works as we go.
Our first attempt used tile nippers we picked up at the hardware store. They worked well on a test sheet in the store, so we brought them home and tried cutting each penny tile in half. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing: many tiles cracked or broke unevenly while still attached to the mesh backing.
Next we tried a wet saw. John usually likes using a wet saw, but in this case the water weakened the mesh that holds the penny tiles together and the sheets started to fall apart. We’ve heard others have success with wet saws, so this may depend on the particular tile’s mesh or construction, but it didn’t work for our sheets.
Since the saw wasn’t a fit, we returned to the nippers and refined our approach. After some trial and error we developed a reliable technique that gave us far better results for this specific penny tile. Below are the key steps we used; watching a quick demonstration can help, but these highlights should give a clear picture.
- Mark the cut line with a strip of blue painter’s tape. The tape helps hold the surface and seems to reduce cracking during the cut.
- Position the nippers as close to the tile’s center as possible. If the nippers are too near the edge the tile is much more likely to shatter.
- Begin by squeezing gently—think of flexing your hand a few times—and then increase pressure gradually until the tile snaps. This scoring motion often produces a cleaner break.
- The method isn’t flawless, but it yielded a significantly higher success rate than our earlier attempts.
- When a tile does break, you can remove it from the mesh and replace it with an unbroken tile. We used this “back-filling” approach frequently. Once thinset is applied, you can press replacement tiles into the gaps, then check spacing from a few steps back to ensure everything lines up neatly.
- Thinset remains workable for about 30 minutes, which gives you ample time to adjust tiles if they’re slightly off. After that window the adhesive begins to set and changes become difficult.
- In total, installing the section shown took around two hours. That doesn’t include the earlier three hours we spent developing our cutting method and pre-cutting tiles for this area, but it does reflect how the process speeds up once you find a rhythm.
That’s where we are so far. Our next update will include step-by-step images of spreading thinset and laying tiles in a staggered pattern to disguise seams. We wanted to get our cutting method solidified before pausing to photograph each stage, so expect more detailed, in-progress photos and videos during the next tile session. This project will unfold in real time—no glossy TV rush job—so we’ll share each phase as it happens. Fingers crossed that the big tile wall over the stove doesn’t turn out to be a major challenge.
Psst—If you’re curious about another tiling experience, check out our earlier bathroom tiling project in our archives.