Kitchen Backsplash Tile Designs and Ideas

The kitchen backsplash is your kitchen's sweet spot. It's a small, yet important, area that if carefully designed, can bring uniqueness, practicality, and a personal touch to your kitchen. There is less freedom in designing cabinets and countertops than there is for the backsplash area. This gives you more room to be creative to personalize your kitchen and give it is unique look and atmosphere.

Depending on your personality, you can use the backsplash area with an eye on practicality or an eye on look or both. The kitchen backsplash has a role in your kitchen, it is responsible for bringing a harmony of color, texture, and pattern with the rest of your kitchen members, i.e. the kitchen cabinets, the kitchen floor, and the countertop. This page is intended to be a brain teaser guide for designing a nice kitchen backsplash. A dedicated section will walk you through the do's and don'ts of kitchen backsplash design. Whatever you end up choosing, the kitchen backsplash usually  is one of the first things that grabs someone's attention as they walk into the kitchen. This is why such a small area in the kitchen affects the look and feel of the whole kitchen. The nice thing about kitchen backsplashes is that you don't have to be stuck with them. If you are tired with the old look of your current kitchen, a no-hole in the pocket way to give it a new look is to get a refreshingly new kitchen backsplash tile design.

Ceramic or porcelain tiles

A great way to personalize your backsplash is with a hand-painted murals. This is probably the most flexible option when it comes to personalizing your kitchen. You start out with a blank sheet and you end up with whatever your imagination can take bring. Ceramic or porcelain is more accepting of paintings than stones or metal. So more paintings will look good on ceramics and porcelain than other materials.

Natural Stone Tiles

Marble and granite are the most widely used natural stone tiles. Marble is softer and captures more detail than granite. It is important to bear in mind that choosing a natural stone for your backsplash limits your color options for the rest of your kitchen. They are very beautiful and definitely give a rich, authentic look, just use it in a way that bends naturally with your kitchen, and most probably you'll have a kitchen you'll love.

Metal Tiles

Metal tiles have a greater color variety than natural stones. The only restriction is that they should match the color of anything else out of metal in your kitchen. For example, the faucets, cabinet handles, and lighting. Sometimes, metal tiles are not scratch resistant, so depending on how accessible is the area, it might not even be an issue. Metal tiles are versatile when it comes to style. You can take them to a country, modern, or retro style kitchen and they would feel right at home. Another nice feature of metal tiles is the range of application, metal tiles can be installed as the entire surface from counter to the bottom of the cabinets. Works well if you are more into a uniform laid back look.

Glass Tiles

Glass backsplash is for the trendy practical kitchen. The glass can be used as white board for jotting down anything from love notes to grocery lists, reminders, phone numbers, etc. and it is easy to clean. Another option is the textured glass kitchen backsplash, these are usually installed between the cabinets and counters. You can also have a painting glass backsplash.

Wallpapering Kitchen Backsplashes

Using wallpaper as kitchen backsplash designs is an attractive option. It does not take much time and if you buy pre-pasted wallpaper you are done even faster. It is relatively inexpensive. So if you get bored of it you can replace it without much hassle time-wise or money-wise. The only disadvantage is that spattering and splashing from cooking can get stuck on it and it requires prompt cleaning, otherwise it gets harder to clean. Oh and make sure you get washable wallpaper.

Stainless Steel Kitchen Backsplashes

Stainless steel has moved from trendy to mainstream style, a well-earned status for the host of advantages. Stainless steel can create a modern streamlined look to your kitchen. Stainless steel kitchen backsplashes can blend in well with other stainless steel kitchen appliances like the stove, refrigerator and dishwasher. It is also heat and water resistant, hygienic and durable. Stainless tiles come in the same thickness as regular tiles. This makes it easy for you to mix and match materials to create unique designs. Stainless steel can also be used for your countertops, different colors are also possible. Cleaning is usually easy. However, there are a few points to watch for.  Cleaning chlorides or bleaches ensure you rinse it off thoroughly as these can corrode and stain the surface.  Acidic foods, like tomato and lemon, will also cause stains.  So don’t leave them sitting on your counters for long durations and always wash the surface afterward. Stainless tiles can also be sealed with a fingerprint-less and stainless sealer that will further protect the tiles from stains and make cleaning even easier.

Kitchen Backsplash Design Faux-Pas

Do not design your backsplash in isolation from the kitchen. The color scheme you choose should blend well with the rest of the kitchen. This is easier if you have it match the more permanent items in your kitchen, certainly not the appliances, their lifetime in the kitchen is less than that of fixtures. So it is best if the backsplash color scheme fits well with the colors of its floor, countertops, and walls. It could be monochromatic or a color-contrast design with the backsplash deeper in color than the rest. This helps the backsplash perform its role in the kitchen to tie it together.

Now, a step up, do not design you kitchen in isolation from the rest of the house/apartment. This is a common mistake that is actually hard to fix. It costs a lot of money, effort, and time. For example, if your kitchen adjoins a family room, use the same material for the kitchen cabinets and/or floor and the family room trim. Just make sure the color scheme is subtle in the adjoining room if it is already strong in the kitchen or vice versa.

A kitchen backsplash tile design can make the space inviting in a subtle and interesting way. Do not over do it by bold colors unless your design is streamlined with a bold color scheme. Also, avoid phosphoric colors, they can give a feeling that the kitchen is about to run away!!!

Make sure you don not clutter the view with busy tiles or complicated patterns that can be very distracting instead of inviting.