Kitchen stove backsplash

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Our client in Southern Maryland had their custom home built a few years ago and as is the case with many new builds, the walls are covered in primer, not paint. This is extremely common, standard even, and people live in homes with primered walls for years.

The issue becomes stains and clean-ability: Primer is Absorptive. It is this way because primer is designed to allow your top coat of paint to adhere to it. This is great if you're going to paint, fine for normal rooms as the final top coat for a few years, but primer can be problematic in a few areas.

Not having backsplash on the wall behind the kitchen counter is the preferred style for many new homes and remodels. In a place like a kitchen though you really want to have at least a high quality, durable paint on the walls that can handle all the stuff you throw at it (literally!) and be able to handle scrubbing it off.

Primer, being absorptive, causes problems when it is the only thing on your walls behind a stove.

We all cook with oil, oil splashes. Get that splash on your primer and it'll never get clean. It just absorbs into the primer and leaves a little mark forever.

This is quickly fixed by prepping and tiling and then sealing the tile. Don't tile straight onto gypsum though! Either use hardibacker, or in non-shower areas a priming sealer can be painted on the drywall for the specific intended use of preparing drywall to accept mortar and tile.