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Kenric’s guide to tiling a kitchen backsplash – Part 2

December 23rd, 2006 by Kenric

In part 1, I outlined my five rules that I follow when tiling a kitchen backsplash.

Now I’ll show you how I implemented them.  Below is a picture of a completed backsplash for my condo #3 in Scottsdale.

As you can see, I added a pattern of tiles along the height of the electrical outlets.  By carefully placing this pattern at that height, I did not have to cut around the outlet.  The outlet just happens to align with the pattern leaving no difficult cuts.

The pattern is also used as a border for the area above the oven.  By putting the border there, I don’t have to make an inside cut on my large tile.  In fact, this whole backsplash was created using 8 – 16×16 tiles and 6 – 4×12 strips of 2″x2″ mosiac tiles.  The total cost for the backsplash was $50.

If I had just used the large 16×16 tiles on the backsplash.  This is how it would have turned out.  I would have had a difficult U shaped cuts at each outlet and an internal corner cut at the cabinet corners.  Instead, by using the mosiac tiles I was able to avoid those cuts.

 

Here is the finished product.  So many people ask how I got it to fit perfectly in the space.  Now you know the answer.  Let the space dictate your pattern and it will always be the perfect fit.  Notice, I also used a few accent mosiac tiles of slightly lighter color to break up the pattern a little.  I think it gives it an even more professional look.

Go to part 3, tiling another kitchen backsplash. 

Posted in Kitchen Tile Backsplashes | 3 Comments »
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