FAUX-MENTATIONS

 "What is this gumba doing?" you just asked. Well, he's hot after the latest 'honey-do' project which started with my often uttered phase..."You know..." quickly followed by Jack's, "Oh shit!" He knows something's coming!
But we are both up to a challenge with our Angel Crest digs to "make it our own." That's a favorite phrase of real estate agents when showing a run down property to a client, suggesting that they can fix it up to their own taste. Uh huh.

 I wanted a backsplash design but I didn't want to invest in real tile and I am sick of the design show use of the ubiquitous 'subway tile'. Not for me! But what to do. "How about doing a faux painting job making a row of decorative tile?" I ventured. (After all, we had faux painted an ugly black metal fireplace mantle to look like custom done oak. In fact it looked so real that the condo owners thought we'd done a major reno job.)   
 Above is the first step in taping with the border and "grout" taped off. Then I rolled a coat of paint maybe 2 shades darker than the wall over the taped area.

 Next, and the hardest part, which luckily for me could only be done by Jack with his long arms, he taped every tile (all 49 of 'em) with a big, fat "X."

 By the time he got done with that, he retired to the heating pad with a glass of wine.

  I brushed on a coat of a darker shade in the bottom part of each "X." Then I could have my glass of wine and wait for all to dry.

 A couple hours later we pulled the tape to reveal our design. I had to touch up the pencil lines with wall color using a small artist brush.

Here is the finished product...subtle but nicely decorative.
And with Jack's refrain of, "That's it, right? We're done with the painting?" what could I say but, "Yeah", (for now!).
(Total cost of this project was about $35 for a roll of masking tape and 2 quarts of Miller semi-gloss latex paint and a couple of Ibuprofen.)