I Am Tin Man

No sooner had we put up the new shelves in the kitchen than they had to come back down again. The tin tiles we ordered arrived yesterday and they got installed today. Ta-dah!

These are reproduction tin ceiling tiles that we're repurposing as a backsplash. The county health department is okay with that, and we like the look better than your traditional tile, Formica, or composite material. The hardest part was picking a pattern (there are lots of different ones) and then picking a finish color (there are lots of different ones).

The other hard part was cutting openings for the electrical outlets. I carefully measured -- twice -- and then jabbed a starter hole in the tin with an ice pick, before using tin snips to cut out a rectangle. The trick is to cut through the tin tiles without bending or distorting them too much. Tin snips are not good for delicate surgery. I've got the sliced fingers to prove it.

These are individual tin tiles, embossed with a round-ish pattern and hand-finished in a sort of copper color. They're glued to the wall with industrial adhesive; I may add a few nails, too. In a day or so, when the adhesive dries, I'll run a bead of silicone around all the edges to make the backsplash watertight and keep crumbs out. Then the lower shelf will go back up. Should be nice.