Two years ago we re-did our interior in ultra leather. As all Catalina 30 owners know washing dishes splatters the back of the salon cushions with water. My wife decided this was a problem that needed fixing.
The new Catalinas solve the problem with a smoked Lexan backsplash. I priced the lexan and hardware with Catalina. After I started breathing again I made the mistake of thinking out loud "I wonder if we could do something with tile instead?"
Her eyes lit up "You mean like on the Gozzard?"
OK, so now I'm committed and I have to figure out how to do a tile backsplash.
I priced teak for the backsplash. I sat down and let the heart palpitations pass then decided on solid cherry instead. I found a custom tile place where I could get handmade dolphin tiles (my wife loves dolphins). I surrounded the dolphins with blue glass tiles that really light up when the sun hits them. The blue glass sparkles like sunlight off the water.
The quirkly little guy in the tile store suggested that since wood moves with the seasons I should bed the tile and fill the grout lines with latex calk. This sounded like a good idea.
I routed out the cherry so the tiles would sit flush. Oiled it with boiled linseed oil to bring out the figure, then top coated with several coats of a wipe on poly finish. Then I set the tile and let each side of the backsplash sit for a couple of days in the sun under our gazebo to "age" the wood to a deep, warm red/brown.
Next I "grouted" between the tiles with caulk. This is where I found out tile guy didn't know what he was talking about. Smoothing a grid of caulk is a real bear -- and the caulk kept shrinking because of the deep gaps between tiles. It took four applications at about two hours per application to do all the grout lines with anti-microbial caulk. I've since found an un-sanded flexible grout that would have made the job much easier. It would be fine because cherry really doesn't move that much with the seasons. A lesson learned.
It's been installed for a couple of weeks now. I'm happy with the result and the wife loves it (which is what really matters); and the beautifully grained cherry looks good from the other side as well. Next weekend I'll re-finish the rest of the galley trim; and I'm in the process of making a knife block that will mount to the backsplash by the rubber duck soap dispenser, which of course is a VERY salty accessory you only find on "serious" boats.
The new Catalinas solve the problem with a smoked Lexan backsplash. I priced the lexan and hardware with Catalina. After I started breathing again I made the mistake of thinking out loud "I wonder if we could do something with tile instead?"
Her eyes lit up "You mean like on the Gozzard?"
OK, so now I'm committed and I have to figure out how to do a tile backsplash.
I priced teak for the backsplash. I sat down and let the heart palpitations pass then decided on solid cherry instead. I found a custom tile place where I could get handmade dolphin tiles (my wife loves dolphins). I surrounded the dolphins with blue glass tiles that really light up when the sun hits them. The blue glass sparkles like sunlight off the water.
The quirkly little guy in the tile store suggested that since wood moves with the seasons I should bed the tile and fill the grout lines with latex calk. This sounded like a good idea.
I routed out the cherry so the tiles would sit flush. Oiled it with boiled linseed oil to bring out the figure, then top coated with several coats of a wipe on poly finish. Then I set the tile and let each side of the backsplash sit for a couple of days in the sun under our gazebo to "age" the wood to a deep, warm red/brown.
Next I "grouted" between the tiles with caulk. This is where I found out tile guy didn't know what he was talking about. Smoothing a grid of caulk is a real bear -- and the caulk kept shrinking because of the deep gaps between tiles. It took four applications at about two hours per application to do all the grout lines with anti-microbial caulk. I've since found an un-sanded flexible grout that would have made the job much easier. It would be fine because cherry really doesn't move that much with the seasons. A lesson learned.
It's been installed for a couple of weeks now. I'm happy with the result and the wife loves it (which is what really matters); and the beautifully grained cherry looks good from the other side as well. Next weekend I'll re-finish the rest of the galley trim; and I'm in the process of making a knife block that will mount to the backsplash by the rubber duck soap dispenser, which of course is a VERY salty accessory you only find on "serious" boats.
