Easy, cheap, removable backsplash solution (and ham recipe, yum!)

I`ve been starring at splash stains on my wall behind the stove for a month now, and finally I said no more! My walls are quite hard to clean since the person before me decided to use mat paint; do not like! Since I do live in a rented apartment, I don`t really want to invest in making a full on tiled backsplash, nor do I know if I would be allowed. So I came up with this simple, cheap, easy to put up (and removable!), clean solution.



This is what my kitchen looked like before:

Kinda boring, white cabinets, with beige paint on the walls. 2 of my kitchen walls are dark(er) red though, so at least I've got a bit of color in there (I'm keeping the previous tenants color). But still, if I could bring more color on the other side of the kitchen, I would!

I bought some pretty sticky shelf liner stuff, otherwise known as contact paper I believe. I wasn't sure what I would find in the store, but I found one I rather liked in the color scheme I got going, and bonus it looked like tile! All I did was just cut it to size and taped it to the wall. I wasn't sure how easily removable the sticky of it would be, so I didn't use it's natural stickiness to stick it to the wall (woah, too much sticky in the same sentence!) I used instant-tac (that stuff is AWESOME!).



(EDIT: After my fake backsplash had fallen to the ground about 3 times, the instant-tac failing to hold, I decided to just stick it directly to the wall. It seemed like it would be easy enough to remove it in the end. Actually had to unstick it a few times because it was bubbling up as I was putting it up. So should be removable in 3+ years when we move.)

And now I got this:

I'm happy with it. Only thing is I didn't put enough instant-tac, so it bubbles up. I might still use the natural sticky other side, but I gotta test out how easy or hard it is to remove first.

Now I'm kinda debating if I put some all along under my cupboards. The only problem is that my counter is lower than standard, yet the cabinets are higher than standard, therefore I have a wide space between the 2, and the liner is not wide enough to fit the whole space. But I'll start with this, and we'll see.



What's that cooking, you ask?


It's ham!! Smoked pork picnic shoulder ham to be exact. Super simple to make, too, and the tastiest. Just boil ham with 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup (I kinda just go by eye really), for 3-4 hours. My parents also add molases, but I never bothered to buy some. Then turn off heat and let sit for an other couple hours (the longer you let sit, the more tender it will be; we did it overnight this time cuz we started it late at night, so it sat 6 hours). The bone should fall *right* off! Just try not to get sick off of it, like my boyfriend almost did (it's seriously his favorite meat now. He says he'll never leave me cuz I can make this lol). That's it!

Thanks for reading!

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