A FREE Kitchen Makeover! And it's all mine :)

At some point pre-war (also known as pre-divorce) my ex-husband and I took on a 3rd remodel. He hired his friend contractor to gut our master bath. This was a contributing factor to our divorce. Of this I'm sure. Anyway - the friend/contractor didn't really get the math part of his job. So he ordered about 3x the amount of subway tile necessary to do a tub surround.

The tile got stashed in the garage and ultimately forgotten about, even in the what's mine is mine part of the divorce negotiation, until my ex-MIL built a new house last year and found it. She asked if she could have it - and i was like, sure, i don't want it, the house was for sale and my sites were set on moving, not putting in any extra effort into a 2 year old house.

Fast forward to the house coming off the market and remembering that tile and cursing the fact that i had let it go that easy. Then last week, she came by and saw a box of subway tile that i got from HD to see how it would look against the counter, and she told me my ex still had BOXES left over - more than enough to do my backsplash!!!

Soooo....you know what she did? She went over there today and scarfed those puppies up for me while the ex was at work! Yippee!!!!

While this isn't what i had decided to do - the box that i had purchased from HD was a creamy tumbled marble - THIS IS FREE WHITE SUBWAY TILE!!! FREE!!!! did i say FREE??!? Well, free at this point - at one point i paid dearly for it, but that's neither here nor there.

I think with the cherry cabinets and the dark gray and black counter - it will be ok. It's a very traditional look, and that's what i want. I think i may do a row against the counter (the formica backsplash will come up) and then run a ceramic rope/braid tile on top of that and then do the traditional subway pattern above that.

Here is the tile out of one of the boxes laid against my countertop:
and here is a look at my cabinets:
I'm up for seeing any inspiration pics you might have stashed away - or any ideas you have for the project - the man and I will be tackling this next weekend - when the kiddos are out of the house. I am SO excited!