Hey Jani,

Gooood question. I’ve seen people knock off the old tile with a chisel and a hammer (just chipping away at ‘em one by one) but I have to admit that it’s something I don’t think I’d be ready to do unless I was gutting the entire kitchen and then getting experts to come in afterwards to clean up the mess I made.

My advice would be to try to attend one of those how-to-tile workshops that Lowe’s and Home Depot offer for free on the weekends and ask a lot of questions and maybe also locate a few tile how-to websites by googling until you find something that looks legit.

If it were us, we’d hire an expert to demo out the old tile and install the new stuff since we’d never forgive ourselves if we ruined our counters or cabinets in the process of removing the old tile (which would likely cost more to fix than hiring an expert to do the job right). We like to be super hands on and DIY when we can be, but I think a lot of saving money is knowing your limits and recognizing when to call in the experts. Good luck and please send us some before and after pictures! You know nobody loves a home makeover more than we do.

xoxo,
Sherry (& John)

Score. So glad you’re all enjoying the moodboard- especially Sara! We can’t wait to see the pics so be sure to send ‘em our way. Happy painting!

xoxo,
Sherry

Love Anna’s comment about the paint that paints laminate. I wanna paint my laminate kitchen table and chairs, but have been too weary of it. Looks like I gotta get out there and look.

Here in Australia there is a paint product called White Knight (not sure whether you can get it in the states but worth keeping an eye out for). This is a paint product specifically made for laminate surfaces. It comes with a primer and finish coat. The end result is so good you can’t tell that it isn’t the real laminate. I’ve used this product with much success.
P.S. Love your blog!