In my real life kitchen, I picked out the countertop first and then spent a crazy amount of time finding backsplash tiles that would go well with it. I ended up with tiles in the same color family as the countertop, but a few shades lighter.

I wanted to do something similar in the Victorianna so I started by painting a green stone-like countertop, using the dry brush technique I’ve used in other kitchens.

Short version: it looked bad! The backsplash is busy and I didn’t have the right shades of green to paint something that looked good against it. I didn’t even take a picture. I covered up the green with a watery coat of Bleached Linen (the same paint I’m using for the cabinets) and put it aside for another day.

I looked online at pictures of white kitchens with green backsplashes and saw a lot of black countertops. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to try black, but why not? The nice thing about paint is you can cover it up. (And I usually have to a few times before I get a countertop right!)

For years I had a little bottle of black craft paint that came out nice and dark on the first coat. When that ran out last year I bought a bottle of Craft Smart paint that’s much more watery. It always takes several coats for full coverage. The middle piece in the picture below is after one coat of black — I didn’t like the brush strokes. So I tried sponging it on with a sponge brush instead. That plus the white base coat came out looking stone-like, as you can see in the piece on the right.

After sponging on one coat of black, I let the pieces dry and then sponged on another coat of black. Here’s the result.

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After completing the kitchen cabinets, I turned my attention to the backsplash. It’s not easy to find realistic tile to scale in 1:24. I was really tempted to print something out, but after the problems I’ve had with printies fading, I didn’t want to tempt fate. So I started thinking about how I could use scrapbook paper to simulate tiles.

I wanted subway tile, but a post from 1 Inch Minis got me thinking about doing a mosaic tile instead. I bought a Fiskars border punch off eBay that punches out 1/8″ x 1/8″ squares.

I got a piece of Teal Agate scrapbook paper from Michaels. The colors seem very blue/green on the website, but in reality it’s more like an alternation between green and purple. I concentrated the punch on the green areas.

This is what gets punched out.

I pushed down on the squares to flatten them, and then scooped them into a container, discarding any that were too dark, gold, or white.

This is how many tiles I got from one sheet of paper (including some off colors mixed in that still need to be discarded).

I cut a piece of 1/16″ thick wood the size of a backsplash panel, and painted it with my Tuscan Beige trim color. This is the panel that goes under the microwave. I squirted tacky glue onto a piece of wax paper, and then used the tip of a toothpick to add a dab of glue to the backing. Then I flipped the toothpick over and used the clean end to nudge a tile into place. I just eyeballed the grout lines.

Here’s my first attempt. After seeing it in place, I picked off a few tiles that seemed weird and replaced them.

I think if I had painted these with matte varnish they would have looked like stone, but I wanted a shiny finish. I used a toothpick to put a dab of clear Gallery Glass on each tile, keeping it off the grout lines to maintain separation between the tiles.

The Gallery Glass dries clear and shiny.

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Tragedy struck my $1 Horace Jones sink. I’d left it in the countertop (not glued in) and I picked up the cabinet and tipped it slightly to look at something and the sink fell out and hit the floor. Before this happened, I’d actually thought to myself that I shouldn’t leave the sink in the countertop, for this very reason. So I only have myself to blame!

I heard the faucet go flying and spent about fifteen minutes looking for it on the floor, but couldn’t find it. Then I went back to the sink and discovered one corner had broken off. I tried sanding it to a curve but it’s still noticeable.

Especially from the side/front. If it had been the other corner it wouldn’t have mattered as much, since you can’t see that corner with the cabinet in place. But this would be glaring.

While I was pouting about it, Geoff found the faucet on the floor, which made me feel a little better. At least I can use the faucet on another sink someday. And I did only spend a dollar on it. Easy come, easy go. :(

Conincidentally, the day before this happened I had placed an order with Elf Miniatures for an exhaust fan and various other 1:24 items that are being closed out, including a sink with a built-in drainboard.

This is 1.5″ wide, the same as the sink cabinet. The Horace Jones sink was slightly smaller, so I had to enlarge the hole. Added bonus: the right edge of the sink mostly covers up the seam where the two counter pieces meet up.

Even though the sink is centered in the cabinet, the faucet isn’t centered under the window. Normally that would bug me, but you can’t really see the sink head-on, so it’s not obvious.

Here’s the exhaust fan. It’s slightly wider than the oven, so I was waiting for this before I finished the upper cabinets, to get the width of those cabinets exactly right.

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