My kitchen has been blank and it’s starting to make me crazy. I really wanted something to be happening in here. I have an idea of what I want to do but I am reluctant to spend a pretty penny and then hate it. So I’ve decided to go with installing a quick and easy DIY brick backsplash.

We technically finished our house in October – about 4 months ago – but we’ve still been going strong putting the house together. I think building a house from scratch is more difficult to move into than a house you just buy. Everything takes longer, because you have to build it. You want to hang your clothes in the closets, but there’s nothing to hang them on. You want to put your pans away, but there are no shelves inside your cabinets. And the list goes on.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my kitchen almost as much as I love my husband (ha), but it’s just not finished. There’s no back splash and the hood vent isn’t installed (more on that later). Take a peek:

The dilemma I have is that my island (positioned directly opposite the range) has a much warmer feel to it. It’s painted a warmer green, the top is made of black walnut, and the faucet is more brown than the fixtures on the white cabinets.

So I’ve purposely put off making a decision on what the back splash should be.

Above is a picture of the kitchen I took while we were still in the construction phase of our house. Please excuse the phone-quality photo and mess, but I think this gives the best idea of what my kitchen looks like.

So, I’ve kind of decided on doing a brick back splash. I mean, I think I have. Maybe. And that exact thought landed me online looking for something I could put up there without having to really wrestle with any commitment issues.

Basically, I bought a giant sticker for $25  from Amazon. You can get it too, just follow the link here.

It came in a roll that was 20 inches wide by 33 ft long.

I started by taking off all of the electrical outlet covers. Please be careful when doing anything electrical. I mean, maybe even turn the breaker off. Electrical is one of the only projects that I won’t even attempt. It gives me a headache. It’s your call.

I cut the first piece about an inch longer than I needed to. My plan was to float the sticker down the wall below the counter so it wasn’t glaringly obvious that I was attaching a giant sticker to the wall. I measured the location of each electrical outlet and cut them out before attaching to the wall. Being a little sloppy is okay in this step, because the covers hide any mistakes.

It really paid off to take extra time in getting the pattern to line up properly. You have to look super closely to see where the seems are between each section.

It only took me about 2 hours, just because I got really ridiculous about the seems matching up just right.

Before I was even finished, I decided that I love the look of having brick as a back splash. The problem with my sticker is that the white is more of a pure white with a blue hue than my cabinets, which are Sherwin Williams Alabaster.

The sticker worked perfectly for what I wanted it for. It’s vinyl, so it’s washable, and it will protect my walls from the dreaded kitchen grease for now. Most importantly though, it allowed me to make a decision about what I want the back splash to be permanently. This would also work really well for people who are unable to make permanent changes to their walls!