Not a fan of the rough texture
I like stacked stone for exteriors and chimney-breasts but not too hot on it as a backsplash...can't imagine what a horror that would be to clean! One splut of spagetti sauce and you'll be cleaning it for the rest of your natural born life!
I feel the same way about the marble...it's a very porous stone. I would go with a harder surface like glazed tile, glass or metal.
Have you considered a stainless backsplash? It's cheaper than you think. In our old house we went to an HVAC fabricator and had them cut us the pieces we needed. Cost us about $300 in 2002. We just glued it up with mirror mastic. It looked wonderful...
What do you suggest for...
What do you suggest for grout? Looks like you have gray in one room and white in another? Or it could be the photo. Being in a kitchen shouldn't I worry about grout? A tile guy I talked to said the less grout the better.... from an "oops my spaghetti splattered" perspective. Nice work btw.
Olive - I thought about stainless - but I already get tired of polishing my appliances!!
Subway tile
is so classic no matter how you lay it. So clean and makes such a nice backdrop for cabinetry, art, furniture, etc.
Agree with Olive, textured tile as a backsplash would require so much scrubbing, ugh, nightmare, no matter how you sealed it.
Glass tile is pretty, we put it in a bathroom upstairs on the floor. However, this was a 20-something's bathroom who has many giant college-age friends who are boys and the floor is now cracked/broken in at least three places all around the toilet. (What do boys do in the bathroom?!!?!!)
Live and learn--no glass tiles on floors.
Olive, in my master I have...
Olive, in my master I have white subway 3x6 tile too (I aid 2x4 earlier but that was a mistake). I asked for it stack bond, but the tile guy put it in running bond ... I guess people are so trained to think that subway tile has to be that way. I like it either way, and I thought tearing it out when it was done nicely would have been wasteful... although they offered to do it free of charge. Ethically I had to pass!
What would you think of 1x2...
What would you think of 1x2 tile vertically? And would it be better stack or running bond? My guess is that Kathie would hate the idea of vertical tiles.... like I said, I think we generally get trained to view things a certain way ... although there is no real "right" way... i like the herringbone too...
Grout?
Grout...
I think just minimizing the spacing and using a white grout would be best. In a kitchen I might take the extra time to seal the grout with a good quality sealer, but still keep the gap small.
One mistake I made with my old house was allowing the tile guy to widen the spacing. We used hand cut recycled glass tile in the master shower around that big ol' tub of mine and the tiler complained at how uneven the glass tiles were. So we ended up with a big grout line and it was an off-white grout with a natural blue/green glass. I really never liked how it came out. Would have preferred tighter gaps and a grey grout.
I like boring, I guess...
I'm sticking with the vertical stack. I really like the simplicity and clean lines of it. I don't have any windows or odd twists or turns to worry about and the tilers that our builder uses are very professional. I was at the house being finished next door to ours today and saw them working. There were plumb lines carefully marked and spacers being assiduously used. I'm going to take my changes.
But I can see that the staggered run would be nicer in a kitchen.
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