I'm of no help with the backsplash (Haven't gotten that far) but your countertops are beautiful Thanks for sharing the pics!

The quartzite is very nice! I think the dark grey all the way up would look great! I cannot wait to see that finished.

Nancy

love your counters. We are after the exact same counters but with super dark cabinets. Do you mind me asking what the quarzite ran per sqft and did you compare any other granites or quartz?

I vote dark tiles all the way up. I don't think that they would be too dark -- you have windows on either side. Beautiful stone by the way. Tami

Thank you for the comments! lzerarc - we had to buy 2 slabs so it ended up being something well north of $100+/sf. Def pricey but worth it in our minds. We also tested it beforehand and it was bulletproof.

What do you think about glass tiles? Our plan is to use clear glass either subway tile or long horizontal tiles. Possibly a very light smoke glass tile too.
We have also considered soapstone tiles mixed with cararra marble subway tiles.

What about a grey glass tile in a matte finish? There is a source online that is in Brooklyn but I can't remember the name? Maybe glasstileonline.com.
It looks like beach glass- that was my plan but the tiles were either too green or too grey. The natural white in matte glass would be perfect!

Beautiful! we went with calacutta quartzite-also is white macabus, just the veining is different, so it's great to see! Can you share your cabinet color choice? Someone asked about price, I paid about 90 a square foot, and I am in Nj, tks, Michelle

What color is your flooring?

Your stone is gorgeous! I love it!

Gorgeous! Thank you for sharing. I agree a dark or maybe even light or medium gray tile would be lovely. My instincts say to tile the sink wall up to the same height as your cabinets, even though the window is a little lower.

Is the window to the right of the sink lower than the counter? I ask because I have a window with a sill lower than counter height and I've wondered what I will be able to do. Thanks for sharing.

I will be the loner and say that I think dark tile all the way up would be too heavy on the window wall. Also, I don't think it needs to be matchy-matchy with the range hood area. Finally I like the idea of a floating shelf or two in that space.

I think you need to create a line where the tile ends and the paint begins. Once your kitchen is complete and we see the reveal, this will not even be a question; we will all accept that delineation as being natural to the space. However, one thing that separates designers from the rest of us is being able to visualize where that line should naturally be.

My leaning is to tile up to the sill of the left (smaller) window and go straight across that wall. You may have a little jogging to do with the tile on the right side of the large window because it appears your cabinets are lower than the left window sill.

Picking a tile store or tile installer who also has a good designer (one who will be anal about the details) might be a good idea in your case.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement and kind words!

Michelle16 - I had actually gone with your previous suggestion to use Atlas and turned out great! Price was higher b/c we selected slabs from another yard. Our cabinets are BM White Dove and from Scherrs - they're great too.

Annie - our floors are white oak stained to dark walnut. We wanted to bring some warmth into the kitchen.

Prickly - Yes, in fact the window on the right is lower than our countertops and based on suggestions from this forum, we are going to install some sort of planter or flowerbox there.

Colorfast - I really like your suggestion of using the small window sill line. Perhaps if I don't tile that bumpout in the corner, then I won't have to jog the tiles up to the undercabinet line? Will that look strange if I don't tile the corner bit of wall?

Dragonfly - your kitchen is gorgeous! Love that color tile. Did you just end up using a small cut piece of the ceramic tile to trim the windows?

Gorgeous counters! That stone is at the top of our list right now. On the sink wall, I would end the BS in a horizontal line even with either the bottom or the top of the window sill (depending on which gives you a better cut line based on your tile size). Alternatively, I might end the tile in a line just underneath the lower shelf if you hang shelves between the windows.

I would only tile behind each run of counter, not the short sides, which should help with the BS being a different height on each side. I am not sure if I would tile that little space of back wall to the right of the large window, or treat that as part of the corner and just stop the tile at the left side of that window.

If you go with a lighter tile, then I could see going all the way to the ceiling on both walls as an option.

I would go with a white subway tile with a strip of gray mosaic tile or Use square tiles with dots made up of 3x3 or 2 x2 mosaic tiles. There are so many wonderful tiles to use and play with.

{{!gwi}}

jdknyc- okay, i'm sooo happy that I was able to help you, and I am soo happy I got to see their install!! Since mine are not installed yet, i purchased them before I even ordered my cabs.So where are your slabs from, if you say Reliance I will laugh, because they brought over 7 slabs from them, and I tried to be the first to pick, and they said sorry someone picked 2 already, Imagine it was u, I will laugh!! Small world!! so please get back to me as I am very curious!!Install went smoothly? how was it templating with the digital, I've never seen that before??Thanks, Michelle

I'm so happy to see the white dove with the slabs, as that is what I'm leaning towards as well, the more I look at those slabs I'm wondering if they are from Dente- I was all over NJ/NY!!!

Hey! I wanted to share with you that our white macaubus island is in also! Our leathered absolute black perimeter went in today but I don't have photos yet:

Yesterday I picked up samples of a handmade white subway, a crackle gray blue green subway and a carrara subway. Surprisingly, the carrara (which is what I've been thinking I'd go with) was too gray. It could have been that particular tile though. I really liked the gray blue green crackle tile. We have that color throughout the house in paint colors you can see from the main room so it may work really well. I'm also getting some samples in next week of some glass tiles in similar colors as well as a small oval mosaic tile that's a really muted marble. I was hoping this wouldn't be that difficult but it's harder than I thought!

Michelle16 - that is funny but no that wasn't me :). Got mine from a different yard. Install went very smoothly and the only seam I have is at the sink and they did a really great job there matching up the veining. Only thing is because the slab is so hard they had to drill for at least 20 min - I wanted a 2" grommet at the desk area. The digital templating was pretty fast and I liked getting a 3d image for approval. I don't have anything to compare to as this is my first reno but I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

Babs - love your huge island!

Ok, back to thinking about that backsplash...

babs-yours is beautiful as well!! What color did you go with for your cabs? It looks great! jdknyc- I liked the idea of the matte white glass backsplash, def. do the open shelving next to window to fill in that area, tks, Michelle

Did both of you do an eased edge on your slabs?? babs- that oval mosaic sounds very nice, and it would be different, would love to see it against the slab if you get samples

Beautiful counter- I am going for a similar look and have been leaning towards a white iridescent glass mosaic backsplash. It's a little feminine and fun and gives the white kitchen some color. Check out this pic from houzz:

[traditional kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107)

[traditional kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107)

Michelle16 - I did eased edges

I also have eased edges.

Thanks Jdknyc!!

Michelle, our cabinets are the white that the cabinet company we went with had. It's a soft white though. When I went to BM to see about matching our trim it was close to Frostine from the Affinity line.

I'm looking at samples right now. We have a white Oceanside glass sample with slight iridescence in it but it appears kind of flat, even grouted and mounted on thinset. The light isn't catching it the way I'd hoped it would. I guess I should be glad as its the priciest option I have.

I also have a true iridescent from Sonoma Tilemakers from the Vihara line. It's in the Puka shade. It's lovely. I'm not sure about going this shimmery all throughout the entire kitchen though.

The other two I have are Sonoma Stellar Glaze in Aquarius (a somewhat light greyed blue green) and a handmade crackle tile in a deeper greyed blue green.

We have BM Grey Wisp in the room right off the kitchen (which is painted Revere Pewter). So going in the greyed blue green realm is a serious option. I wasn't expecting to like it but when we propped them up on the counter they worked so much better than any of the white tiles did.

The Puka plays off both of the blue/green tiles really nicely and comes in a hex pattern. I'm thinking if doing that as an inset over the range with one of the other tiles as the main backsplash tiles.

I like the Aquarius shade but kind of wish it had the crackle finish the deeper shade has. So I'm trying to decide!!

Did you select anything??

Anyone in MA have leads on White Quartzite here? Thanks!

so happy to have found this thread!
yay!

i have recently been on a mad hunt for white quartzite.
we are currently building & all along i've had my mind set on using quartz (caesarstone/silestone)... until on a recent trip to San Antonio when i saw white quartzite.
i absolutely loved it!!!!
living in Houston you'd think i'd be able to find some.
not so easy.
after a couple dozen phone calls...
visiting two hand fulls of yards... i finally found slabs.
the one thing that i noticed & what's giving me pause... it appears to have an ever so slight tint of green.
the veins are gray... it's just a subtle hue of green coming through.

so... when i saw jdknyc & babs711 kitchens... helloooo... beautiful... :)... and right up my alley... i had to jump in and get your thoughts.
please oh please... if you have a sec.

does your quartzite have a slight green hue?
do you notice that?
i am wondering if it's just their batch of slabs they have or it's just inherit with the white quartzite.
i don't recall seeing it when i saw it in S.A... however... it could just be lighting differences & what not.

i so appreciate your help.
as i teeter back & forth between using quartz & quartzite in a crazy lady frenzy. :)

fyi... i attached a pic... shown with BM coastal fog & a basic white subway tile... just for color reference.

still haven't figured out how to add more than one photo...
so... one more... the green is more noticeable at the bottom in this one i think.

thanks!!!!!

Thanks for the shout out Carissa! I love the slab you found!! Maybe it's my monitor but I'm not seeing the green? I know mine doesn't have green. I will say that the background isn't white-white but gray'ed and muted.

To give you an overall shot of it with all the elements in the kitchen:

A bigger shot:

Good luck!!

oh... so glad to see your response.
thanks for sharing!

truly your kitchen looks beautiful!
all the details... awesome!
the back splash... gReAt color!
yours looks like just what i'm after too... and no green hue! :)
your input helps a lot!

going to head back out there tomorrow...
see if that green still jumps out at me. ha! :)

hoping to find some other slabs somewhere in the area too... to compare!
keeping my fingers crossed.

thanks again!

Carissafox--Olympus Marble in Houston also has the white macabus with the cross cut not the vein cut. That is where we found our slabs.

shareher... yes... thank you!
i was able to see that yesterday too.
angelo was so helpful.
the cross cut was absolutely beautiful!
oh the decisions! :)

feel thankful to have found your pretty inspiration & info.

carissa- here's a shot of mine, when I picked it outside in the bright light it ws very bright, in the warehouse it does look like a slight greenish tinge when you look at it next to marble, like they said it will def not have the crsp white backround like marble. But I'm hoping when it's sin my kitchen with all the natural light I get, it will be beautiful, good luck, very beautiful slab! Michelle

jdknyc, this may be too late to help you, but I'll post it anyway in case you are still looking or someone else wants a darker BS to use with white quartzite. My designer recently recommended Nine Lives from the Crossville Color by Numbers collection. It is a medium-dark gray with bluish tones, and the sample we have really worked with the dark vein colors in the slabs we held it up to. I am not sure if we will use it since I pictured a lighter BS next to our walnut uppers. I think the Nine Lives would look great with your white cabinets and white quartzite. It costs under $4 sq ft (at least with my designer's discount).

Here is a link that might be useful: 9 Lives

oh THANKS michelle16!
that dOes help!
sure appreciate you posting... and it's so pretty!

Carrisafox, have the warehouse lay the slab flat. On trestles or on the floor. It's amazing how much different it looks and reads when light hits it the way it will on your counters. Hope you find something you love.

will do! thanks for the tip loves2ccok4six!

Carrisafox, have the warehouse lay the slab flat. On trestles or on the floor. It's amazing how much different it looks and reads when light hits it the way it will on your counters. Hope you find something you love.

If not too late, check out Vihara Puka Iridescent 1x4" tiles. It'll pick up your colors. The iridescent acts as a chameleon so you can't go wrong! We are using it in our kitchen and have white/grey/blue/stainless steel.

Please let me know how your mosaic turned out. The Vihara is gorgeous it does act like a chameleon.

How do you deal with inspecting the tile?

This post was edited by yolo56 on Thu, Aug 15, 13 at 20:55