Greetings and Happy Wednesday! I hope you had a nice Easter weekend/Spring Break! We popped down to Happy Hill to do a few quick chores before our summer season begins. We started with a makeover of our outdoor serving station….
This outdoor serving station at our lake house is as old as the house we believe. It looks like it was built as a fish carving station originally. But we use it as a serving area beside the grill and on the deck. It was covered in linoleum and trimmed in a flat metal edging. Because it is linoleum, it’s not safe to put anything hot on it, but over the course of time it got burned and scorched. The adhesive was old and the entire piece was buckling. It was not a pretty sight. We decided it was in desperate need of a makeover!
If we were going to leave the serving station in place for many years to come, we would have used a ceramic tile or something more permanent and durable. But since this is a temporary fix, we chose to go a simple and inexpensive route. I found these 12″ X 12″ vinyl tiles at Lowe’s. They were 66 cents each and we needed 14 in order to cover the surface area and the back splash. (Of course we bought 16 but at least we have a few replacements on hand in case of a mishap.) We picked a mottled gray to match the gray siding.
First we ripped off the old linoleum and strapping. We hammered down the nails that were sticking up. Then we were ready to lay the new “tiles”. Already an improvement!
The adhesive is called “Stick-N-Stay”. We liked the sound of that, plus it is indoor/outdoor so we figured it would work fine for this project.
We lucked out since the depth of the serving station is approximately 24″ so 2 tiles fit perfectly, front to back. We started at the right and worked to the left. Only the tiles on the left end needed trimming and was easily done with a razor knife. We weighed down the tiles with bricks so they would stick tightly to the adhesive and not buckle at the seams.
If you look closely in the picture below you can see in the middle of the backsplash where the wood was badly burned. We capped the top with the tile as well to cover the burn.
And all of the pieces in place:
We trimmed all of the edges with L-shaped metal edging and secured it into place with set screws. This covered the edges where the tiles meet. And the finished outdoor serving station!
Below are the before and after shots. Much, much better! We were able to do this project for about $30. You still can’t put anything hot on top but it will be more functional and attractive for several years to come. Not bad for a day’s work! We are both so pleased with how it turned out. Party anyone?
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day! xoxo Dell
