Funny, your walls would be no problem for a traditional tile job and a good tile stetter, but they are going to be a problem for peel and stick. You need to have a plaster repair performed that reunites the lath and plaster before you put anything up. That area is going to continue to degrade without a repair.

Complete kludge. Do it right or don’t do it.

The wall does not look like plaster, it looks as if you tore off the paper covering on drywall. Swollen may be from water. Cut a small viewing hole to verify.

eam, why do you think this is plaster and lath? I have not seen paper over plaster before,

Phyliss, follow the instructions of your tile. If you have water damage, see Sophie.

I think it is plaster and lath because the op told us she has plaster walls. If by paper you mean wallpaper, I assure you there is often paper over plaster walls.

It is Plaster. This is a high-rise in New York city that is over 50 years old. A concrete building with plaster over concrete walls. About 20 years ago the kitchen above us flooded and the water came down through this wall. I don't know what they did but I'm guessing they put a patch on the wall of some kind. Eventually the plaster swelled and cracked. It has been this way for nearly 20 years. The whole point of using a peel and stick mosaic tile is that it is a cheap temporary fix how to make a functional backsplash and visual appeal. If I were intending on staying here for the rest of my life I would never even consider this. I had first thought of attaching a luan to the wall applying a coat of primer and then applying the peel and stick tiles directly on that. However I am concerned that the moisture and humidity in this poorly designed Tiny Kitchen will cause the Luan to swell. My other idea was to screw acrylic sheets directly onto the wall and then attach the peel and stick. A third option would be to scrim coat the wall to a perfectly level surface before applying the tiles. For the most part the wall is level except for in those two areas

It looks just like my old plaster walls in my kitchen where the paint has peeled down to bare plaster.

Exactly

Every one of your kludges is more money and more work than just getting someone to tile that properly.

Do you own or rent?

If you own it, it's worth removing the plaster and replacing with drywall and then real tile.

If you rent, screw a thin plywood to the wall and add self-stick tile sheets.

Thank you lazy_gardens. I think that sounds like a great idea

Plywood is going to warp as well. Repair the plaster with a DIY kit like the one mentioned in my previous post, then paint the wall. You already have a backsplash made of your counter material. That’s all you need there. I would just fix the wall and paint it.

Moisture will damage both plywood and Luan, mold too. Boaters will use marine plywood and paint with epoxy paint for water contact use. If Phyliss wants to cover that wall, what about hardie board or cement board?

Plywood will follow the unevenness of the wall in no time flat, even marine grade.

" If Phyliss wants to cover that wall, what about hardie board or cement board?"

1/4" Cement Board will do the same as plywood, and 1/2" would be much too thick. Fix it properly as Sophie states or leave it be.

You mean like I stated?

Exactly eam44, but Jim Mat asked essentially the same thing all over again.

I don’t think you should be doing this. I’m all for DIY, but you have no idea what you’re doing. None. Your terminology is wrong. Your approach is wrong. You really need to hire someone here. If there are moisture problems, you are thinking about this wrong.

Yes the moisture problem was over 20 years ago and it was not a burst pipe. The woman above us turned her sink on and then went to her bedroom and went to sleep and forgot about it. It's flooded and came down through the wall. This caused some minor swelling to the plaster and made the paint crack and peel. There is no sheetrock there what you see is beige paint underneath a layer of yellow paint. There is no existing moisture problem. It is simply a very ugly wall. I want to put something attractive that I can easily wipe down. Peel and stick seems like the best solution since it's easy to take away if I need to. If there is ever another leak or moisture problem the entire wall will have to be torn out and fixed by the owners of the property anyway. The amount of investment to do a peel and stick for this small area is $30. I am not about to go out and spend a stack of money on this wall when I don't own the property. A lot of this is really nice advice for someone who owned the property but that is not the case here. Surface is fairly smooth I was just worried that the areas of peeling paint would interfere with the adhesion of the peel and stick and was simply asking if I should put up some type of board first, smooth out the wall with putty or just go as is. That was really my only concern whether or not the peel and stick wood actually stick to this surface. Sorry if that wasn't clear in the original post