How I Whitewashed My Backsplash Tile for a Budget Friendly Kitchen Facelift

Inside: Don’t like your kitchen backsplash anymore? Whitewashing is a super cost-effective way to do a mini-makeover on your outdated kitchen tile backsplash when you’re on a small budget!

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Because money doesn’t grow on the (nonexistent) trees in the backyard of my new villa, my wish list of things I’d like to change is growing all the time. One of those things is the counters and backsplash in the kitchen.

Is there anything really wrong with them? No. But the speckled granite pattern (I think St. Cecilia Light) was one of the most popular choices in that Tuscan-crazy era of the early 2000’s. And it immediately puts a time stamp on my kitchen with a trend that’s a long way from being in again.

Plus, the brown-ish counters and warm tan backsplash sandwiched between brown wood kitchen cabinets and floors beg to be broken up with a light, less golden-colored countertop and tile. But I’ m going to live with them for a while.

One Sunday afternoon as I was pondering that wall o’ brown, on a whim I decided to try lightening things up a bit with paint I had on hand. If it didn’t work, all I would be out is a little time.

Honestly, I didn’t think it would make much of a difference. So I was pleasantly surprised how much it lightened up the whole counter top area!

Here are a couple of before photos of how the tile of the kitchen backsplash and butlers pantry looked when I moved in:

The grout was close to the same tan color as the tile and the travertine mosaic and decorative trim over the range had a yellow tint.

And here is the backsplash after the whitewash treatment:

Although the results are subtle, the whitewash brought some needed lightness to these areas and neutralized the warmer tones!

Supplies Needed to Whitewash Backsplash Tile.

I used the same matte chalk paint I had left from this whitewashed stone fireplace makeover, but any kind of paint that is water-based latex or acrylic will work fine. You probably already have some white paint like wall paint or craft paint sitting around. (Just be sure to shake it well or mix it with a paint stick.)

The supplies I used:

• Matte antique white latex paint
• Grout Renew in Snow White
• Rags
• Sponge brush for application
• Small paint brush or artist brush for grout

This is an important disclaimer—because my tile was on a kitchen backsplash that I don’t plan to scrub with cleaners, I used a water-based latex paint. I have no experience using the whitewash technique with any other type of paint and am not sure it would work well because oil (paint) and water don’t mix. Your best bet for durability would be to use a sealer over the water-based paint (more on that below).

How to Whitewash a Tile Backsplash.

1. Clean the backsplash: My first step was to clean the backsplash thoroughly to make sure it was dirt, splatter, and grease-free. A simple household cleaner did the job for mine, but you could also use dish soap and water, or Krud Kutter for an extra dirty or greasy backsplash.

Cleaning the tile was the only prep I did. Rather than going to the trouble of applying painter’s tape to the counters, cabinets, and outlet covers, I found the easiest way was to clean white wash off these afterward if needed.

2. Lighten the grout: The next step was to lighten the tan grout to a shade of white with some Grout Renew. (If your grout is already white you can skip this step.) Working in small sections, I applied the grout paint to the grout lines with an artist brush, let it sit for a minute or two, then wiped away the excess from the tile with a wet rag.

When using this product on a porcelain or ceramic tile backsplash, it wipes away really easily. On rougher texture natural stone it is harder to clean off, but since you’ll be whitewashing the tile anyway it’s okay to leave some specks, just no obvious thick lines or large spots because they will show through.

After completing the grout colorant, I let it dry well so the grout paint wouldn’t come off as I was blotting away the tile paint in the next step. I would recommend drying for at least a couple of hours if not overnight.

I’ve found this product is the only thing that made my grout look clean and new again and have used it extensively in my last home and my current home. See more details in the post “The Only Way to Refresh Dirty Tile Grout That Really Works“.

3. Apply the whitewash: I wet a sponge brush and dampened a rag. I also poured some of the paint into a disposable cup to avoid the possibility of diluting the paint in the can with the wet brush.

I dipped the wet sponge brush into the paint and wiped a little onto an individual tile. I then spread it completely over the tile surface with the damp cloth, and started to dab and blot it away.

I wasn’t looking to paint over the tile with complete coverage and I didn’t want it to look like I put paint on my backsplash. My goal was to maintain and see the natural variation that natural stone tiles would have—even if these tiles are imitation. So I blotted off paint with a wet rag until the tile looked lighter yet still natural. Sometimes I added more paint and sometimes I had to go back and take more off.

I switched rags when my blotting rag was putting on as much paint as it was taking off. There were only a couple of times I just couldn’t get a tile to look the way I wanted so I completely started over by scrubbing it clean with water and starting again, being careful not to clean off surrounding tiles.

As I got more comfortable with my technique, I was working with up to four tiles at a time, but I wouldn’t recommend doing a larger area than that or the paint won’t be wet enough to dab away.

Whitewashing a Travertine Backsplash.

The travertine accent wall under the vent hood was a different warm yellow shade than the backsplash tile and the whitewash really helped meld them together!

While this technique was still easy on the travertine, it did grab and hold onto the paint a little more than the smooth surface of the surrounding tile, especially the more porous pencil border tile.

But look how well it now goes with the backsplash tile and is no longer yellowish:

(I also painted over the green, brown, and gold square glass accent tiles with some Grout Renew in Linen to make them disappear.)

Here’s another travertine example in my bathroom. I used the same whitewash technique on the travertine accent border in the shower (and covered the brown glass accent tiles with some silver Rub ‘N Buff to look like metal).

Before it had this dark yellow-orange tint:

But the whitewash along with re-coloring the grout made it look lighter, cleaner, and it toned down all those gold tones:

SH&H Tip: For whitewashing a tumbled travertine tile backsplash that has deep holes, fill in the larger holes first with some drywall putty so you don’t end up with pocks that look dark or orange.

Sealing the Tile After Whitewashing.

I highly recommended earlier in the post doing this technique with a water-based latex or acrylic paint. But if I were to take a wet rag and scrub, I think I could pretty much remove all of it. To protect the whitewash, a sealer over the paint is definitely an option.

Why haven’t I sealed mine? One, I wanted to live with it to see if I liked it and needed to make any adjustments, Two, I was afraid I would pick a sealer that would make it shiny or darker than the look I wanted. And third, I felt like sealing it was telling the universe that this is not a temporary fix. 😂

I won’t recommend sealers to you because I haven’t tested any. But if you want to seal, I would advise trying it over the whitewash on a spare tile first to make sure you like the color and sheen. And if you know of a sealer that would be good over this technique, please share it with us all in the comments.

My little Sunday afternoon whitewash tile backsplash experiment was a win! Do I still want to change the counters and backsplash? Yes. But for now I can live a little more happily with the existing tiles and counter until I get to that higher level of kitchen makeover from my wish list.

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