Christmas vomit backsplash and brownie batter barf countertops

Hey strangers, it's me.

After we moved up the microwave we continued with taking down the backsplash! I hated the backsplash that was in our kitchen previously. It was was I referred to as "Christmas vomit". While I can appreciate what the previous homeowner was trying to do by brightening up the kitchen with the vibrant colors, it just wasn't what we wanted in OUR kitchen.

Since I don't think I have ever actually shared any inspiration images of what we wanted our kitchen to look like, I'll share some now. We are basic so we love white cabinets & farmhouse sinks, we wanted the warmth of wood elements, & we wanted you to feel welcome as soon as you walk in the door. But really....the kitchen door is the main door we have guests use so we needed it to feel welcoming.

The first step to the whirlwind of a few weeks was to have our countertop measured. A company I used to work for, Select Surfaces, come out to measure and it was so fun! They are a professional, family run company with great owners & wonderful customer service. If you are in the Chicago area and are in need, I highly recommend calling them for your countertops.

Next step was to remove the backsplash. I looked up tutorials that showed how to best remove glass tile and there were sure a lot of them! Many recommended taping the top of the tile with packing tape before removing to prevent shards from flying (this didn't really work) and they recommended breaking the grout with hammer and chisel before removing each tile around it (this sorta worked). After taking a full week of evenings to remove about 10 sq ft of backsplash I was complaining to my dad and he asked, "why aren't you just pulling the drywall down in chunks? We have to replace it anyhow." <<< and THIS is why he is my favorite handyman.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos during the process because frankly, we were having too much fun demoing. Isn't it just therapeutic sometimes?

After demo of the backsplash was all done and Benito installed our garbage disposal, my mom and dad came over to help remove the existing brownie batter barf countertop! A friend of theirs was wanting to take it and use it for something (Lord knows what that was) so he joined in on the fun.