Hey, hey Remodelaholic peeps! It's Jessica from Mom 4 Real, back to share a fun and budget friendly idea for your kitchen! I have seen plank walls everywhere, and absolutely love them! When I started making over my kitchen, I was looking for an inexpensive way to change my backsplash in a hurry. I didn't want to spend a ton of money, and since eventually we are going to have new countertops put in, I didn't really want to invest in tile. So, I decided to try a plank wall backsplash. I headed to my favorite home improvement store to buy wood. While taking a shortcut through the flooring section, I noticed that they had vinyl peel an stick faux wood flooring planks for sale for around $1 each. (You can also find similar tiles online at Amazon or Home Depot, you will just have to watch for sales!) My brain immediately went into overdrive! I thought it would be so much easier to use the peel and stick vinyl flooring to create my backsplash instead of regular wood, so I bought a bunch and headed home to give it a try!
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I laid them out on my table to show my husband, and he basically told me I was nuts. That's pretty normal around here, but he is usually pleased with the end result.
I tested the tackiness on the back and was very pleased! You seriously just peel the wax paper backing off and stick them on the wall…well, erm…that's where I stuck mine. I guess they really belong on the floor. I'm all about bending the rules when it comes to DIY.
I placed mine in a staggered pattern, and made sure each end was as tight as possible. The great thing is that you have a bit of time to reposition the planks. Just be sure to press them onto the wall really well.
You will have to cut the vinyl to fit around electrical outlets. You will also likely have to cut different lengths once you get to the edge of your wall to be sure they fit well. These things are easily cut with scissors…no tools required!
Once I got all of my planks pressed tightly to the wall, I decided to paint them. I wanted a really cohesive look in my kitchen since it is so tiny.
I grabbed my favorite grey chalky finish paint and gave the wall two thin coats, then finished off with a clear wax.
I love the way it turned out…just a little rustic!
I can't wait to use these vinyl peel and stick planks other places in my home! They are so easy to use, and ridiculously inexpensive! It cost less than $20 to do the entire backsplash area!
Today over at my blog, Mom 4 Real, I'm sharing a fabulous garden trick…How To Start Seeds In 3 Days…hop on over and check it out!
These look so great, and I’ve been looking for a budget friendly way of covering our old ugly tile back splash. But I have a question, how easily does it wipe clean? I have five kids and my back splash tends to get splashed. A lot. Is it going to be durable? Thanks for the idea, it’s beautiful!
Hi, DeeAnna! It depends…if you are planning on sticking them up and leaving them as is without painting…which would look totally fab and rustic, then they will wipe clean super easily. Since these are really made for floors, they can endure just about anything. If you plan on painting them, it may be best to brush on a light coat of polyurethane to protect them. I wipe mine clean daily because we are very messy! Hope this helps! xoxo Jessica
has this held up well…? might be perfect,….
This is awesome, my husband keeps trying to get me to put in a back splash, but I don’t want to until I get a new kitchen. This would be ideal, cheap, yet attractive.
So glad you like it, Lara! It is truly simple, inexpensive and perfect for a temporary situation! Thank you for you comment! xoxo Jessica
what kind of wax do you suggest?
Hi! I used Maison Blanche Lime Wax in white for this project…you can also use Minwax furniture wax to get a clear coat. Hope this helps! xoxo Jessica
Hi,
Loved what you did and wanted to try idea myself. Did you paint, wax, then use polyurethane? Did the paint stay easy or take long to dry?
Thanks for your help!
Don’t think she put poly over wax. That was an either/or option. Looks like she painted and then waxed. But suggested you could alternately paint and then put poly over the paint. Poly over wax wouldn’t work.
I wanted to see the rest of your kitchen but the link to your Grey Kitchen reveal isn’t working.
Hi, Cassie! I actually removed that link before the post went up, so I’m not sure why it is still showing for you 🙁 I had to hold off on the kitchen reveal because one of the pieces we were waiting for is still not here! It will be posted on my blog next week hopefully if you would like to check back! Sorry for the inconvenience! xoxo Jessica
wow I love your backsplash,, looks great. I definitely want to try this.
Thanks so much, Debbie! You will be so glad you did! xoxo Jessica
What a great idea! I was going to use some leftover laminate flooring for a backsplash, but this is easier!!!
Happy Easter!
Thanks, Anne! That would totally work too…don’t you just love it when things are easy! I can’t wait to see what you do! xoxo Jessica
Love this backsplash! I rent, but would really like to do something like this in the kitchen. Any experience with removing this type of flooring?
Hi, Jessica! Cute name 😉 I’m not sure about removing them, I’m just not sure on this one. You could always stick them up using nails and just remove them, patch and paint when you are ready to move. You would just have to leave the backing on them so they don’t actually adhere to the wall. Hope this helps! xoxo Jessica
We actually just did this right over old ceramic tiles. Looks amazing! If you go over tile and decide later you want to remove, as the person above said about renting, you can pull the peel and stick right off. I painted my old gross laminate countertops last year using the Giani Granite kit… this backsplash and the counter kit is an inexpensive yet nice looking fix for us while we decide how we want to renovate our space!
I love this and am wondering if it would work on a ceiling…?
Or use 3m picture hangers.
You could pre-cut foam core board found at a craft store to fit the backsplash area then adhere your tiles to the foamcore, easily removable. This would add some thickness to the walls however and you might need longer screws for your outlet covers.
These planks are a wonderful way to bring “wood” into your home for cheap…but DO NOT put them up in a rental!!! They will not peal off easily after a few weeks goes by and the adhesive has had time to really cure. You will damage your landlords walls and he can hold you liable for the repair bill. I have used these planks in a couple rental properties (on the floors) because they are so durable and cheap and have never had a problem.
Thanks, Amy! Always good to hear from the landlord perspective 🙂
My walls are uneven because of an “artistic plaster treatment” by the previous owner. Besides that, i live in a modular home which means thin walls. I’m going to install these on a sheet of 1/4 inch ply and attach it to the walls with a few screws at the edges and, since I own, throughout the field.
An apartment dweller could use this same principle with slightly thicker ply, and attach only at the corners, leaving the wall undamaged, but still beautiful.
That looks great, I used that same product over 20yo vinyl bathroom flooring and it was super easy , inexpensive, easy to clean and looks really great. Thanks for the backsplash idea.
Fabulous, Delloraine! I wish I had known about this stuff earlier…love it! xoxo Jessica
I love how it turned out!! I’m amazed that it the backsplash is vinyl flooring. It looks great!
Thank you so much, Crystal! xoxo Jessica
I love this! How did you finish the edges?
I just added some decorative trim to the edges. xoxo Jessica
Love this! For the last step, where you said you added a wax finish…what did you use?
Hi, Maureen! I used Maison Blanche Lime Wax in white, but you could use a polyurethane or Minwax furniture wax. Hope this helps! xoxo Jessica
Can I ask about the cabinets? Did you paint them and just remove a few doors? Really like that look…
Hi, Jessica! I did paint them and removed a few doors. I used Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint and finished them off with a matte polyurethane. I’ll be sharing all of the details on my blog mom4real.com next week…I hope you will pop over to see!
xoxo Jess
p.s. I also painted the insides of the open cabinets.
My hubs and I did this a couple of months ago in our kitchen. We love it! Everyone who comes over raves about our “wood plank wall”. We used barnboard planks. They are super easy to clean, too.
Don’t you just LOVE the wood plank look? I am planning on doing a few more around our home with some interesting twists 😉 I sooo wish I could see yours!
xoxo Jessica
Love the Look! Can you see a wood grain through the paint?
Hi, Lynne! Yes, you can still see the wood grain through the paint…not necessarily from across the room though. xoxo Jessica
Is the vinyl heat resistant enough to use as a backsplash behind the stove?
It should be. My in laws have had a vinyl back splash for years without issues.
I was wondering how this has held up for you. I read a comment on another blog left by a flooring guy, and he said that since the planks are meant for the floor they will collapse on top of one another if placed vertically due to the pull of gravity. Have you had any problems with that? I was thinking that a few finish nails (especially if you are painting them) would fix the problem…Would love your input. Thanks, Kim
My husband asked about heat too….but more the Phoenix, Az type…he’s worried they will lose their stick….thoughts??
They shouldn’t, and haven’t for me, Jess.
Wow! What a genius idea, and it turned out great! I love the look.
Thanks so much, Kimm! xoxo Jessica
Wow what a brilliant idea! And your kitchen cabinets are the exact color as mine with glass knobs too! Unfortunately I have tall white paneling on empty walls… (not by choice!…but not oak anymore thankfully!-too much to rip out and replaster….old house probs!)….or I would be doing this in a heartbeat! Need something for over my laminate white backsplash
I did this just this weekend. Looks great. However, beware. Some of the tiles slipped and actually ended up on the floor behind the stove! I put them back up and secured them with nails. It was hard to press them on really hard. so every time I go in the kitchen I make sure to press the tiles!
Brill-iant!!
That looks so good and I love the ease and low cost.
What a super idea!!
I like this idea! Been looking for an easy breezy backsplash installation idea because hubby is caught up with work so he has no time to do it. But with this idea, I think I can do it on my own. Thank you, Jessica! Such a brilliant idea!
Where did you find individual floor planks? My local hardware store just sold them in large boxes.
Home Depot and Lowe’s sell them individually here. Good luck! Jessica
Are your walls textured or smooth behind the new backsplash?
They are smooth. Hope this helps, Charity!
So I could use a little advice! I am using your idea and using the peel and stick flooring. I have spent most of my afternoon putting them up over the hideous back splash that exists in this house and I get pretty far and then. . .they start falling off! Grrr. So I keep putting them back on holding them in place longer, going over and over them with my devices to get them to stick and no luck! Did you experience this? Any suggestions?
Hey, Tasha! I’m not sure why they are falling…it may be that the surface you are applying them to is too smooth. You could try some spray adhesive on the backs of the tiles to give them a little more tackiness…that may help. Hope this helps! Jessica
What color chalk paint did you use? We’re mid-renovation and I’m going to try this to save some major $$ on backsplash! thank you!
Hi,
I absolutely love what you did! A couple of questions. Did you have problems with the paint staying? Could you explain the wax? Is that a sealant? Then I saw the post about polyurethane did you do both or are they the same? Thanks for your help!!
Our kitchen has textured walls. How do you think the tiles would stick to that? I love the idea about using nails to secure, but do you think it would stick without it?
This is such a great idea, I just love it. I have various spots I am thinking about doing this but have some questions. How sticky are they? I really would hate to do this and have them peeling off down the road. I have been contemplating doing wood planks above my fireplace and thought this to be too perfect. Do you think the heat from the fireplace would mess with the “stickiness”. Also, my husband finished our laundry using t1-11, and I just hate the look. I hear painting is really hard and thought this might be perfect. Do you think the flooring would stick to T1-11?
What a wonderful idea! I’m in the middle of redecorating my kitchen and was stumped on how to change the backsplash without having to take down the existing wall tiles..cant wait to try this…..brilliant! THANK YOU!!!
Love this idea….question is with the finish on the planks did you sand to allow the paint to adhere to something? Or did it adhere well with a light coat, dry, and another coat, and wax? Thanks!!
NEVER NEVER USE THESE, EVER!!!! They will look great for the first couple of years and then the edges will begin to come loose. Doesn’t matter what adhesive you use. I’ve used them all. then try to get them off the wall when you want to do something more durable. You will pull off part of the wall behind them and end up redoing the entire wall. I.E. new drywall, because part of it will come off with the part of the tile that actually remains stuck. DO NOT waste you time and money doing this. spend a tad more and use either tile board or real tile. In the long run you will be happier. unless your just doing a quick shiny fix to sell the place and let the new owner worry about repair later. and if that’s your idea…. shame on you.
Great idea! Would this work on an entire wall, or would it be too expensive?
This looks like a great inexpensive temporary solution! I’d love to put in a tile backsplash, but intend to do some kitchen reno in the future. Just like you, I don’t want to invest the time and effort (not to mention cost) of tile, but I need a stop-gap solution in the meantime. As to the negative comment there about them sticking, I’m wondering how long they were left in place? And did she try using heat to loosen the adhesive? There are lots of things you can use to easily compromise the adhesive when it’s time to remove it.
In retrospect would you suggest painting the vinyl planks first?
how does it hold up to steamy foods while cooking? Does the adhesive become weaker? Nice idea
This is a great idea! I wonder how it would look if you painted the planks two different colors. I might have to try this since we won’t be getting a new kitchen for awhile.
Such a fabulous idea!
Hi, I just tried this before reading your post. Its fun to know someone else out there has done the same thing. ..using floor vinyl. However, my tile won’t stick to my textured walls, which I’ve washed and dried and even reapplied with guerilla glue. Anyone out there HELP. Thanks
Hi Jessica, I’ve been searching for something cute to line the walls of our vintage travel trailer bathroom and found your link. Have you had any issues where water hits these? When you clean it, are you able to use a spray cleaner or if you needed to really was it down with a wet cloth, could you do that or would that cause the glue to lift??? Thanks in advance. I think this is super clever!
My paint is peeling. Why!! I used the same paint, different color.
I love this & thinking of doing it because I can do it myself NO help from anyone. would you suggest painting the wall as its been a really long time since they were painted before I do it as that would prob help with sticking. Also reading the comments about behind the stove might it be a good idea to get a little adhesive to spread back there. If Im not painting the wall what would you suggest to scrub it with beside using a scrubby.
Also do you thing it would ok to use like 2-3 dif kinds of wood looks but in the same color tone?? Thanks for the help
PS Im not going to stain or paint them & my cabinets are a med lite wood tone. stock cheap ones. This was once a summer home now a full time home
For those mentioning that the planks won’t stick or fall off after you push them on:
I know Lowes (and probably Home Depot) sells a pre-treater that you “paint” on the surface before you stick the tiles to it. It’s called “Henry’s” or is made by Henry’s….I know Henry’s was on the bottle! I believe it is sold in liter and gallon size bottles. It’s the consistency of watered down milk and it helps the tiles stick to the surface, whether your surface is the floor or the wall.
These planks are great to use on ceilings too!!!
Thanks for the info, Amy!
I just did this to my backsplash and I absolutely love it. I bought the wider planks and had some trouble getting them to stay up so I just nailed them up with a brad nailer… problem solved.
I’m doing the same thing on a wall in the bathroom but my planks are falling off the wall. Did you have this problem? I put up 3 rows this morning and 2 rows have fallen off. I went to the hardware store and they suggested that I rough the wall with sandpaper first. I also bought a strong glue to help. Didn’t expect this project to be so involved. Geez!
I just put up the planks around the back of my tub…I started with just two (for the record, I did mine vertically, but I don’t know if that makes any difference). Although I sanded the wall (freshly painted wall, no grease, no texture), after two days, they were barely adhered. I did some more reading and found a site that recommended using spray adhesive on the wall. So today, I got everything ready. All my boards were the same exact size since I was going vertically; I sprayed my adhesive (3M) and did three planks at a time…spray adhesive, cut boards, place. The spray adhesive is super, super sticky if you wait for it to get tacky as per the instructions, so I was pretty sure I was set. Two and a half hours later, I was done…went downstairs for to have dinner, came back to the bathroom and found — ALL OF THESE STUPID PLANKS BOWING IN THE CENTER!!! I was so aggravated. I finally just used finish nails and nailed them down. Four coats of paint later, I am feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. I know it will look way better once it is trimmed out, but the nails protrude just enough to show; or if you really pound them in, then you wind up with a depression. They didn’t show at all before painting. I was planning on using this idea for backsplash in my kitchen; now I am really glad I did the bathroom first! I am not planning on painting what I put in the kitchen, so hopefully, if I again have to resort the the finish nails, they won’t really show (I am using a gray wood, and the nails are gray…). Anyway, I feel your pain and just keep wondering over and over why it is always soooooooo easy for everyone else, but never for me!! And apparently, you… 🙂
Why did you use the chalky paint?
Can we have some more close up pictures please. Sounds ridiculously easy!
Hi Jessica, I love your peel and stick plank back splash idea! Actually my husband and I were just talking about redoing our back splash and countertops as well. And like you, didn’t want to spend too much on redoing them. I just have one question. How did you finish off the corners? Did you just caulk them?
We put this up in our bathroom, love it! Word of warning, make sure if you have to order like we did that peel and stick is actually that. The product we ordered said peel and stick in the name but it actually wasn’t. We had planned to use additional adhesive however, we ended up using liquid nails as our adhesive. Love it but was more work than we planned on.
Thanks for the tip, Lori!
I love love love the plank back splash. I wonder-my bathroom walls are wallboard. Would I be able to apply the planking OVER the wallboard? It’s outdated and the painted planking would look awesome w/painted cabinets and new fawcet.
I hope this doesn’t sound like a dumb question, but I wonder why you didn’t simply paint the wall rather than adhere flooring to it and then paint that. In the end you have a painted wall rather than a backsplash.
Could you please leave the brand info! All I can find is real wood peel and stick which will cost me hundreds
Styleselections is the brand name, sold at Lowe’s
love your counter top and back splash. We bought a older Mobile home and I was wondering about the same thing just why would this not work as a back slash since there was not one there. I have that green old counter tops so this would be great. So thanks for the idea.
hello! how is this project holding up? thinking of doing it this week in my kitchen!
We were thinking about doing this to our boys’ playroom, it’s 9′ x 10′. But just wondering if we need to put anything on the wall, like a thin board, before we put the planks up to protect the drywall that’s there, if/when we decide to take it down. The drywall is painted. How would you finish the corners that come out and at the door ways that have no trim? Would we need to take the baseboards off?
Sorry, we are so full of questions! We just don’t want to mess it all up either!
We tried this but after a day or two they started to come off. Any idea what type of adhesive I can use now to stick back up?
Liquid nails – a couple dots to each corner will hold them up on a wall. It’s less messy than heavy duty spray adhesive.
Where did you buy your vinyl planks so cheap? No where around here has them that cheap. I have not found them on line that cheap either, even on sale. I keep looking.
Lowe’s sells planks as low as 98 cents a square foot, which works out to about $1.30 per plank. If they don’t have them in the store, you can get them on line…You can also pay a bit more for a name brand. I purchased some Shaw planks — mostly because I liked the color better — from Amazon for about $30/box (10 planks).
Update on my job…It has been three months since I put the peel and stick vinyl “wood” on the wall around my bathtub…this is a tub that is seldom used, so there has been no issue with water or dampness… with that said, I am ready to pull all of them off and just go with real wood that can be nailed to the wall. I am so glad I didn’t spend very much money on this project; however, there is no getting away from the intensive amount of time I put into it! I am so disappointed. I think that every plank has pulled away from the wall…everything appeared to stick in the beginning, and my husband even reinforced them with finish nails. Nevertheless, all of the planks are now bowing and pulling away from the wall. This was definitely a Pinterest fail!
Curious as to if I could stick these on top of wallpaper? Wanting to plank my wallpapered bathroom with something like this! Think it would work well?