Another pic illustrating the other side of our cab/granite. Whatever we do on one side, we would of course do on the other.

Since you have the four inch backslash, I would leave it at that.
Could you post the pictures you found illustrating your options?

Oh sorry, forgot to mention...the four inch lip is definitely coming off.

Oh sorry, forgot to mention...the four inch lip is definitely coming off.

Can you take a picture from across the room of both the area in question?

We added the extra row of tile, but you need to use bullnose tiles for the parts that are not under the cabinets.

Jerzeegirl - That's exactly the sort of insight I was looking for, looks nice. The trick with ours is that our 6th tile up would just barely extends beyond the counters. So do we end it there or do we go with the extra row? Attaching a pretty rough looking drawing to help illustrate.

And thanks for the feedback ellendi, here's a pic of our kitchen (minus the island) per your request.

What about finishing it with the tile on the top like one of these? Alternatively, I think you could just have a bullnose for the 6th tile.

This post was edited by skimmton on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 8:49

Think we've decided that whether we opt for six rows or seven, the top row will be bull nosed.

Couldn't you put in six rows and then get some sticky tape and tape up a couple to better judge if you like 6 or 7 rows better?

I get what you are asking. :) We haven't done our backsplash yet--in fact, our kitchen is currently a bare, empty room. But I think Option A is what I've seen most often. I think either is fine but A is the usual. Good luck!

Jerzeegirl was fortunate to have a natural border with the door frame. Since you don't, another way to do this is to end the tile under the upper cabinets, not to the end of the counter. You also wouldn't wrap the tile around to that little side wall. That's been the general preference here. But maybe you'll have no option but to tile once you remove the granite splash and find a funky edge to your granite.

Actually I think we've decided to end the tile where the granite stops on both sides of the kitchen. Thought hard about it and can't imagine stopping the tile at the cabs on the camera left side of the kitchen. We'll want to take them out another foot to the end of the peninsula. That said, we'll want to strike a balance by wrapping the tile around to the side wall on the far end of the kitchen, ending it where out granite stops.

Actually I think we've decided to end the tile where the granite stops on both sides of the kitchen. Thought hard about it and can't imagine stopping the tile at the cabs on the camera left side of the kitchen. We'll want to take them out another foot to the end of the peninsula. That said, we'll want to strike a balance by wrapping the tile around to the side wall on the far end of the kitchen, ending it where out granite stops.

We just went through this same scenario. We decided to end the splash directly under the cabs eventhough the peninsula counter is wider.

Thanks, but what I really wanted to see was how the left wall ends. Jerzee has a door at the end of her run.
I am also not a fan of the backsplash extending out on the right wall.
I hate to say this, but in your case I would leave the four inch backsplash and paint a great color for the backsplash wall. But that is not what you are asking.
My vote for your options though would be A. Keep it under the cabinet.

Not a problem, picture of left wall.

Sorry, rotated.

And right wall, hope that helps.

And right wall, hope that helps.

{{!gwi}}

I have the same set-up at my peninsula with 12" of counter past the upper. My reasoning is I would rather have a less noticeable untiled part of my countertop than have a very obvious section of tile floating on the wall. Also, the side walls of a counter are almost never tiled nowadays. I think you may be replacing one out-of-favor backsplash treatment with another.

I am sorry to say I agree with may. If you remove the four inch BS can you repair the side wall and just have paint there. Then on the left, you just need to decide how high. i still vote for option A
Most important, you need to add a feature above those tiles that are as may says floating on the wall. Shelving, a picture etc for some balance. But we an talk more about that after you get your BS resolved.
My only question is and please don't take this the wrong way, but why wasn't the kitchen planned with the cabines even with the counter?

Ellendi, I think it's because that left side is the start of her peninsula; if the uppers were to go all the way to the end, they'd be in the way of the person sitting there.

My peninsula doesn't have seating, so I didn't go to the end because you can't reach into an end cabinet over a peninsula. I thought of doing a glass cabinet for display, a counter-sitting cabinet, or an open shelf cabinet for display and cookbooks. I went with the open shelf cab. Maybe two floating shelves with a rounded outside edge and butted up to the cabinet would work.

This post was edited by may_flowers on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 21:35

I reckon that the backsplash should be behind as much countertop as there is. To me it's a matter of form follows function. If you are going to be prepping or doing something messy on the countertop then the backsplash protects the wall.

I am sure whichever way you go will look nice.

I completely agree with you, jerzeegirl. Isn't the whole point of a backsplash to protect the wall behind the countertops? I think it would look even siller to have that much counter hanging out there past the cabinets and backsplash.

But I also do think it isn't very good design to have the top and bottom cabinets not line up when all you have is a stretch of wall on the other side or some other feature that acts as a natural stopping point. So I like the idea of adding shelves to the end of the top row of cabinets. Then there is no question about where to end the tile.