The Back Splash Adds the Color

Hummm….thought I would be able to say that my kitchen is finished today with the pictures to complete this story.  But things have not turned out that way.  I am still waiting for a half page of items to be completed including the back splash.  But, I’m going to tell you about the back splash anyway.

A couple of weeks ago when the floors were installed I stood in the middle of my rearranged kitchen and was a little taken aback!  Medium brown oak custom cabinets, tan (Noce) porcelain tile floors from Florida Tile plus toasted almond quartz counter tops from DuPont were adding  up to a fairly monochromatic color palate in my kitchen.  I wondered whether I had made design mistakes by being too conservative.  But then, there is the wallpaper border above the cabinets with the dark blue stripe.  And, the back splash is still to be installed. So, I decided to reserve judgment of my design choices until completion of that project.

Tree of Life and Willow Tree on the Blue Boarder

Willow Tree on the Wallpaper (Sorry for the fuzzy photo.) 

I admit the bask splash has been a challenge.  There were so many materials to choose from including tile (of course) in glass, stone (too many kinds to mention), metal such as copper, tin, stainless steel,  wallpaper, plain paint or paint with a special application technique, and bead board. Even the counter top materials can be extended up the back splash. I could envision nearly all of these choices in my kitchen.  But, of course there were criteria to consider.  So, I made a list of what I was looking for in a back splash:

·         Cost--Underlining all the choices is cost.  I shopped at five tile (brick and mortar) stores and searched the internet in making my choices. (Being a backslash designer would be a good occupation for a young person with talent in art and design.  I could have used the help in developing my back splash.)  In the end, I purchased some tile from a small local store, some tile from a big box store, and more tile from an artisan located across the state via the internet.

·          Color- was the first “must have.”  With the blue wallpaper border surrounding the top of the kitchen wall, I wanted to repeat the color blue in the back splash.  So, blue was one way to focus the choices.

·         Texture—I wanted something smooth and reflective.  A glazed or glass tile would be easy to clean, reflective and certainly smooth.  These nonporous materials would also be stain resistant. Ease of cleaning is important both over the cook top for cooking spatters and in the mixing area where I often fling batter when using the mixer.

·          Pattern—The wallpaper has pattern.  If I used pattern in the back splash it needed to repeat or blend with the wallpaper pattern. There are house and tree motifs in the wallpaper, so I looked for these motifs when I was shopping for tile.

·         Focal point—I wanted to have the space between the cook top and the vent fan as a focal point in the kitchen.  So far there was no place to attract or lead the eye and this rectangle shaped blank space was the natural place to focus.

The Focal Point

I began by choosing glazed porcelain 3 X 6 subway tiles for the main background of the backsplash.  The color is “Crema,” a creamy light color gradient of the floor color from the Renaissance Collection of Florida Tile.  These were purchased at a small local store, G & G Flooring in Greenville, Ohio. 

Next I began searching the web for tile that might have a house, a willow or a tree of life.  These are all motifs in the wallpaper of my kitchen. To my amazement I found exactly what I was looking for at www.emu.com.  The tiles are hand made by crafts person Emily M. Ulm of Emu Art Tile located in Kent, Ohio. You can find her website at http://emutile.com/   I am so pleased with the decorative tiles and they are the exact color (Watercolor Blue) I wanted. However, the willow tree and tree of life tiles came in a 4 X 4 inch size.  This created a problem for the layout with the 3 X 6 inch field tiles. So I launched another search for 4 X 4 tiles needed for the field tiles within the plaque I planned for incorporating the handmade tiles over the cook top.

Tree of Life Handmade Tile--Watercolor Blue

Willow Tree Handmade Tile--Watercolor Blue

The focal design or plaque is composed of a frame formed by glazed chair rail tiles the same color as the floor, the six handmade watercolor blue ceramic tiles with tree motifs and ten fairly plain tiles that would coordinate with the frame and the subway tile. The six blue tiles are in a staggered arrangement with field tiles of a mottled cream and beige picking up the cabinet and floor color and the cream in the subway tiles.  Jim and I found these field tiles as remnants at Home Depot.

Picture Frame with Handmade Tiles

Glass Mosaic Tiles

Finally, I chose one inch square glass mosaic tiles in varying shades of blue to form a horizontal stripe around entire room.  These are from Mohawk.   Glass tiles would have made a beautiful back splash, except they were cost prohibitive.  If I had used this beautiful glass tile for the entire back splash, it would have cost more than the tile for the entire kitchen floor.   So, we made a little go a long way by using four 1 inch tiles to form the stripe.  Each square foot allowed 3 one foot lengths of the stripe.

I’m sure that if I had more imagination, I could have solved the backsplash problem in another way.  But at some point I had to stop gathering information, make a decision, take action and then take my lumps.  There is still more grouting, sealing and finishing to come, but the decision part is done.

Next time don’t miss the finished kitchen. I hope!!!!