Drilling Into My Precious Backsplash

A few weeks ago I shared my process for tiling our new kitchen backsplash. As you know from photos, I subsequently installed a new range hood right on top of the backsplash, and today I’m sharing how I went about doing that without ruining my beautiful new tiles.

First, the range hood itself. From the beginning, I knew that replacing the microwave range hood with a stainless steel chimney hood would be an inexpensive but visually transformative part of the renovation. I actually bought this range hood last January (!!) off of craigslist, and it’s been sitting in my basement ever since. With the renovation ongoing I have a list of things I regularly search for on craigslist, and so when I came across a well-reviewed range hood being sold for $200 on craigslist instead of the ~$250 I was seeing it for in various places online, I figured I may as well snap it up even though I was far from ready for it (it’s made by Eureka).

A mere eleven months later with the backsplash finally tiled, it was at last time to install the new range hood before I risked too much cabinet damage from oils and splatters off of the stove. Before installing it, I took a few minutes to paint the ceiling where it would be going, which was not looking so hot as it had previously been covered by the microwave cabinet. I figured that by painting it before installing the hood I would save myself some cutting in (I did tape off the new backsplash to protect it).

The instructions that came with the range hood were barely intelligible, but I managed to figure out that I just needed to drill two holes for anchors and screws, and then the range hood would rest on those screws securely in place. I was nervous about drilling into the tile, but followed some tips online and it all worked very well. First I put tape up where I would be drilling to help keep the drill bit from slipping, and used a measuring tape and level to mark exactly where my holes needed to be.

Then I used a set of rock carbide drill bits to drill the holes. We happened to already have some from mounting our TV on the cement wall in the basement gym, but here’s a link on Amazon (affiliate link – read our policies) to the ones we own.

I started with the smallest bit, and just drilled slowly, stopping frequently to dip the drill bit in cool water lest it get overheated.

The drilling actually went very quickly, and I got nice clean holes.

I used a larger bit to enlarge the holes to insert the anchors, and then screwed in the two mounting screws. Then I just had to lift the body of the range hood into place to hang on the mounting screws.

Next it was time to wire the range hood. It came ready to plug in, so to convert it to hard wired first I cut off the plug and removed a bunch of the outer coating to expose the wires underneath.

Then I stripped the ends of each wire.

After turning off the power to the circuit in question, I connected black to black, white to white, and green to copper, securing everything with wire nuts. (Note: one commenter on my backsplash tutorial noted that I probably should have used a junction box in the wall, and they’re probably right…but I didn’t…if it isn’t obvious by now, please do not take electrical advice from me of this blog.)

Next I needed to install the hose connecting the body of the hood directly to the outlet pipe. Because we have very low ceilings, the hose that came with the hood was too long. I figured I would just cut out a bunch of excess length in the middle and tape the two ends back together. I measure where to cut:

And used a boxcutter to slice off the ends:

Then I used duct tape to attach the two ends back together. Of course the only duct tape I had was some highly professional tape that someone gave me as a present once:

Then I mounted the hose to the top of the hood using the mounting panel it came with, and taped the top of the hose around the outlet pipe for a secure connection.

The last step was to mount the chimney piece that covers the outlet hose, which attached to the body of the hood with a small screw on each side.

With everything in place I removed the protective white coating that came on the pieces to minimize the risks of scratches, and was left with a shiny new range hood!

 

I’m thrilled with how easy it was and that I only had to drill two relatively small holes in my lovely backsplash. I do wish I could have mounted it a little higher, but the ceilings are so low that this is really as high as I could have mounted it without needing to cut down the chimney – and though I have some experience cutting metal from my coffee table masterpiece, I was still worried I might not get a smooth cut and I’d end up ruining the whole thing. I’m really quite pleased with the transformation!

But wait, don’t go! While I have you, I figured I’d share one other quick project in the kitchen that won’t get its own post but is definitely a little bit more progress: I installed shelves next to the pantry (which still needs doors and shelves…).

I copied Naomi, and used the same Black Arch Steel Decorative Shelf Bracket by Rubbermaid that she used for the shelves in her bedroom. But I spray painted mine white, so it’s not egregious copying right? For the shelves themselves I used an inexpensive 10″ wide pine plank which I cut to the right length and stained with Minwax “Natural” to give just a little color. I actually mixed in a hint of “Golden Pecan” to darken it just a tad, since I had some on hand already.

I’m not a big shelf styler, but I put up some cookbooks, a plant, a gold reindeer (Naomi has a matching one — we found them while thrifting), a favorite photo, and a a few other odds and ends. The pitcher painting is something I made years ago for our apartment kitchen — it won’t be permanent there, but it works in the meantime.

Okay now I am done sharing. Have a lovely Monday!