Thanks. Yeah we went back and forth on the red for a LONG time. Finally decided you only live once and nothing is permanent.

Joe

Oh, its not the red as an accent, rather this particular tile. I would have loved to see a rich burgundy there, or deeper red with purple undertones to accentuate the lavender.

Anyway, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE what you did with the cabinets.

And its coming from someone on the hunt for plain ceramic tile in primary colors for a Mondrian inspired bath surround :-)

I get what you're cluckin'. There actually is some color theory behind our choice of red. The idea of the gray really is to keep it neutral with just a touch of color. It was actually (and often is) difficult to find similar colors that are in the same or close enough family that don't start to clash. Most of the red, purple, or maroon tile we could find (not that there doesn't exist something out there, we just couldn't find it) tended to clash.

So, looking at the color wheel we decided a red with orange and yellow accents would be more a complement to lavender, without being to garish like a solid orange or yellow. And it gave us the third primary (the yellow and blue are in the cabinet paint) to continue the Mondrian theme. And that was a whole lot easier than finding something that was in a closer hue range.

Joe

Beautifully done! I love your choice of a red back splash! It adds a pop of color without being overwhelming!

Cabinets are great...but the red backsplash is too much contrast for the softness of the other colours I think.

I certainly understand that approach. After 5 years of a fairly monochromatic beige-taupe-brown house we were looking for stronger statements of contrast and color. As artists we decided, go bold or go home (which, ironically, is the same thing here). I have no doubt in a few years we'll be ready for something else. Hopefully not sooner than another 5 years! :-)

Thanks for commenting!

Joe

I love the idea that if you get tired of the color scheme, you can just pick a different Mondrian for refreshed fun!

@Marvin Jayne, Ha! Yes. That was actually a temporary measure since I took down the spice rack during the work. But it is turning out to be quite handy! I do have other plans, though.

Joe

@acm, I blended two phases of Mondrian. I used his early color palettes with his later forms.

Joe

Awesome!

It's definitely different which I applaud. I think the red does work. As an aside, when I painted my aunt's kitchen cupboards I used the small rollers instead of a brush or sprayer and they came out fantastic. I recently had mine professionally done and they used a sprayer and it doesn't look any better than using the small roller.

Simple and amazing. I love Bauhaus style.

The other thing I learned that I think is important is cutting glass tile and mounting mosaic sheets.

You _can_ cut glass tile with the typical dual bar ceramic tile cutter. Two things to do: mount the sheet on at least some stiff cardboard (I held it in place with painters tape), if not a thin piece of wood, to help keep it steady while scoring.

But with the smaller tiles in those sheets the best thing to break the score is hand held tile cutters with the built-in pressure foot for breaking the score. People gripe about crooked cuts on glass tile from those things. The trick/secret is to make sure you are exerting equal and square pressure on either side of the score for the cleanest break possible. Glass snips aren't that good for anything but the smallest notch to clean off. If you are real careful it is amazing how small a piece of glass you can trim off.

The second thing is mounting. I used MusselBound to mount the sheets. The adhesive sheet sounds like a DIY god-send, but isn't really any easier than thinset. It was difficult to cut and mount on the wall to begin with. It was not easy to remount a sheet if it was slightly off and would also slightly deform the plastic net backing, so it would be even harder to mount the sheet square and straight. When I do the other side of the kitchen I plan on just using thinset or mastic.

FYI

Joe

Keeps it interesting! I like it

It definitely has an character and is interesting!