Slinkey, I came up with that design after seeing something similar on the kitchen forum. It's what I had in mind so I printed out the picture and the tile guy was able to duplicate it. Both tiles came from Crossville.
The field tile is Palais av143 9d Elysee

The metallic inserts and edging are also from the same collection.

Yes, a sealer was applied and honestly I didn't notice any difference in color after it was applied. The tile guy brushed it on and let it dry. It looked like water.

kmcg..thanks for getting back to me... Very nice choice. I love the accent piece. Thanks for letting me know about the sealer.
jane

Thanks for the nice comments!
I believe the tile were 6 x 6. No I have not sealed them as of yet. Need to do that too! I really haven't noticed any problems without sealing them. They wipe off nicely, but, then I'm not very sloppy LOL! No kids in the house either.

(sorry to hijack) beautiful kitchens here!
mcps- It looks like you possibly have crown just around your pantry? Do you have another picture to show more of the kitchen in full view? I have a corner pantry that I think this might look great on. We have crown on our custom range hood and I think it might tie the two areas together. Thank you!

Jodi, you backsplash is stunning. I love it!

here's mine

(sorry for participating in the hi-jack!)
Here you go mommyto4boys! We recently had the crown moulding added over the pantry and at the wall/ceiling. It's been plain for the last 14 years. I really love it. Hope this helps.

Jodi,

I absolutely love your back splash. I am thinking I would like something like yours in my home. All the back splashes are beautiful.

Joanne

dinobambino..beautiful backsplash - all of the details of your kitchen are just beautiful..love how you mixed the two
granite combinations..very striking.

mcps...I lived in FL for a very short time and had a pantry just like yours. We had to cut a vent hole out at the top, because it would get very hot in there...Have you experienced any ventilation problems in there, or do you have a vent? Just wondered.

Joanne...yes I agree, all are beautiful and so different.
jane

Hi slinkey - we don't have a vent...but I've never had a problem with it being hot. However we crank the air conditioner probably way lower than we should (meaning - we're energy hogs!) - but it gets hot in Texas!

Joanne, if you want to see what my backsplash looks like in other kitchens, go to the Kitchen Forum and do a search for Fire and Ice. Several posts will come up with discussions about my backsplash. A couple people have already installed it and another two have ordered it and are waiting delivery.

Jodi-

mcps..then you are lucky or like you said..by cranking up the air, probably helps. After our house was built..our neighbor's house was being built with the same type of pantry, and we warned them to have the builder install a vent up above..There were very greatful..wish we had known that before ours was built.

Maybe this has already been linked, but here is the 'kitchen blog'. Check the right column for Inspirational Backsplashes' and lots of pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: blog

Here is mine:

When planning mine, I found it helpful to sketch out my ideas on graph paper.

annz..That link was awesome!! Thank you. I had DH look at it too. It was very helpful.

valinsv...I love what you did..very strinking. We are going today, to pick out what we pretty much are sure of now. Color wise and design, it's alot like yours.
Thanks for sharing.
jane

We have mirror in our DIY kitchen. It's bright, makes it look big and sharp. Here is the mirror on one side it's a 10 foot run. Even the stove area on the other side (visible in the mirror in this photo) has a mirrored back splash.

There is mirror wrapped on both ends as well. The right mirror on the end is reflecting the basement door in this photo.

There is also mirror between the cabinets in the breakfast room.

WOW, what beautiful back splashes!

I also have madura gold granite and paired it with gold tumbled marble:

Jodi,

I will look it up in the kitchen forum. Thank you

Joanne

I love the feel of your kitchen. Can I come over for breakfast? lol.. It looks so elegant yet very homy.

I originally thought of getting mirrors for our back splash however the cleaning of the mirrors changed my mind. I have two young boys. How are they to keep up?

Joanne

Here's mine. It is tumbled copper slate.

cliff&joan...wow your kitchen is beautiful...the mirrors make everything look so open. From the pictures, it's hard to tell where they begin and end off.. Very different.

yvette...your cabinets and granite color, are exactly like what I have. The tumbled marble we picked out is similiar to yours in coloring. Yours came out beautiful..TFS

Here's mine. It's travertine.

Thanks Slinky and Joanne...
Joanne, the mirror is not hard to keep at all..
Although the kitchen cabs are only two years old the big 10 foot mirror is 23 years old, and sits on the counter.
I learned this cleaning trick for cleaning the mirrors, which I do about once every two weeks -- wet a paper towel and put a tinny bit of dish detergent on it (like Dawn ) rinse it out so again so that it just is a smidgen of soap on it and wring it out -- and go over the mirrors (like you would do with Windex. Then wet another paper towel and wring it out and go over it once again. Then dry with a clean paper towel...the mirrors sparkle like crazy, without any streaks. I do all my mirrors this way. Heck, I even have mirrors behind my stove and they always look clean. It's good Feng Shui too... :)
In between, I use Windex sprayed in a paper towel. Never spray the Windex directly on the mirrors, it could seep underneath at the bottom and ruin the mirror.
My hubby also washes the windows this way with detergent and a squeegee and they sparkle, without any streaks.

We have similar cabinets and granite. I didn't know of this forum when I was doing mine and I would probably have done something with a bit more pizazz. Ours is tumbled marble - noce, I think. It's 5 years old.

Good luck! Your kitchen is beautiful! Check the kitchen forum for lots of inspiration.

Hey Kmc...we have the same accent tiles. Did I know that already and just forgot??? LOL! I've been so out of touch with this forum lately. Too many school projects and volunteering....

Here's mine with the same tiles as KMC:

Hey you guys..all your backsplashes are Gorgeous..not to mention your beautiful kitchens as well. Glad I'm not starting my kitchen from 'scratch'...too many ideas to draw from..I would want something from each!!

terriks..I've never seen that look before. It's so beautiful and different, and looks great with your granite and cabinets.

lonestarlady...another beautiful choice and color combo..
love the Rooster Plate..it fits perfectly there.

auntie ellen...Love your kitchen. I like how you used the straight rows on the bottom w/the edging to set off the next row of stone...its a beautiful look just as it is..I like the clean lines..

lindybarts...I'll take your stove for the Holidays!! Love what you did behind it..Beautiful combination and design.
I see you used a double row of edging..nice look. We just picked out the pewter roping like you have. I like what you did though combining it.

Here are a few pics of our kitchen/backsplash. It's tumbled marble with glass tiles here and there.

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Hey Lindy! Well, you learn something new every day! No, I didn't know that we had the same accent tiles! They look great in your kitchen. Are those the large or the small? The one in my pic is just one 4" tile above the stove. The others are the small placed randomly on the backsplash. I love them!

auntie ellen,

I think your kitchen and back splash has a lot of pizzazz. It is very nice.

Joanne,

Thanks for sharing the secret. I will try that.

Joanne

Terriks,

I love the look of your back splash. It is very different.
Joanne

my granite is very close to yours. Here's my backsplash. The tile color looks off a bit..its more gold in color.

Dinobambino,

Can you tell me more about your kitchen? I love the calmness and flow. Granite, Wall color, etc would be helpful.

We have a slate mosaic tile in most of the kitchen.

And this in our "bar" area.

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Aunti Ellen

what is the name of your granite and do you like you tumbled stone blacksplash?

nrayray:

The granite is Giallo Veneziano. I do like the backsplash. I never sealed it and did get one "stain" - despite being vigilant about getting splatters right away. It has sort of blended over time (a couple months). I'm planning on sealing it next time I seal the granite. If I were to do it again I might add some metal or other accents. There are so many options these days!

I saw many great backsplashes over on GW's Kitchen forum when we were planning our own reno, but I don't remember seeing too many of yours over there. You all have some very beautiful backsplashes! Jaymielo, yours is especially unique with strong leanings towards the Arts & Crafts movement. I'd love to see more pics of your kitchen. Beautiful!
Because we love our views of the mountains, we wanted to keep our own backsplash more neutral with leanings towards Old World. We also had a lot of art we wanted to include and didn't want the counters, etc. to compete with them. We ended up going with tumbled marble 4x4" tiles in Crema Marfil, with small metal accent tiles and an edging of small tumbled travertine marble tiles in cream. I used a real cast iron fireback, which I had mounted behind the cooktop.
Lynn
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Views we wanted to highlight:
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I bucked the tumbled travertine backsplash in both of my last 2 kitchens. I suppose because in selling real estate, I saw/see SO much of it that I sort of got overloaded on it. It was literally in nearly every home I've seen over the last few years.

Here's my current kitchen backsplash:

Like renofan I too decided not to go with tumbled marble for many of the same reasons.

Sueb20 -

Love your backsplash! Can you share who makes it?

Wow! Gorgeous kitchens and backsplashes!

Mine is honed statuary marble subway tile. It is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen.

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lynninnewmexico , Thank you for the compliment. The kitchen is the last "hold out" in our house. It is not quite done. I'm hoping to have the last few things done by the end of next week and then I'll finally post over on the kitchen forum. We've been in our house for 2 months now. Who knew it would take that long to get our pantry doors hung? BTW, I'm VERY jealous of your view. Absolutely breathtaking! Lucky you.

terriks, I love your backsplash. The colours of the cabinets and tile look amazing.

Here is mine, done in blue irridescent.

deee - where did you get your marble subway tile? I have Wilsonart Mystique Dusk (gray-flecked granite look) laminate and just judging by marble cheese dome sitting on it, a very grayish marble backsplash would look good. Glass was too busy.

Reno_fan - I love your white tile (though I don't know if it would work in my kitchen with oak cabinets) - is it flat or "cushioned"?

These are move in pics, so please, ignore the mess...it will be gone soon (I HOPE!!!) I also skipped the tumbled marble because I saw too much of it, though some of the ones posted above might have changed my mind....they're really well laid out and compliment the counters well, but most of the ones I saw were just boring squares all over, blah blah

I had the subways here matched to our granite in a crackle finish.

That backsplash is supposed to take a back seat t the backsplash on the other side of the room:

Lovely backsplashes

I have mahogany cabs & did a few mock ups w/different tiles - decided I wanted a backsplash that complimented the kit in a subdued way

Dal tile tumbled botticino

http://www.daltilestone.com/series.cfm?c=2&slab=107&sub=5

Here's a link to GW finished backsplashes

http://finishedbacksplashesslideshow.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

Hi ajsmama - Here's a better picture of the splash. It's Alabama statuary marble that I ordered from the Georgia Marble Company through my local tile shop. I think you can also buy it on floorbuzz dot com. My granite is honed Virginia Mist. It's not as dark as it looks in the picture but it is definitely a charcoal color.

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Deee is close. it's Floorzbuzz.com. Very nice people.

Here is our backsplash. Its Durango(mexican limestone) with glass tile accents. The granite is Giallo Veneziano.

Just renovated my kitchen, went for a simple backsplash.

Here is a link that might be useful: