florantha, I agree with you 100%. I too was originally drawn in by the stacked stone, but the glamour of the glass tiles drew my attention away. I searched EVERYWHERE for the perfect glass tiles, but upon ordering the samples, and mock-ups on my kitchen, I decided that it was really too busy for my already busy granite. I just received my stacked stone, and it is going in tomorrow (fingers crossed). I know it may seem dull compared to the glitzy glass, but I know it is something i have always liked. Maybe glass for the bathroom will be my solution....

This could be one reason why a fun pattern behind a cooktop is so popular, with larger tiles comprising the rest of the backsplash. (That and the cost of doing the whole backsplash in pricey mosaics.) If you put your mosaic just in one spot, you might love it even more because it's a special focal point. It's nice that the Rojo Alicante has a coordinating 12x12x3/8 tile... as you have found so many of the colorful glass tiles have nothing that matches in a larger size. It does seem that the larger tiles get, the more ho-hum the colors are.

my problem is physiology. I have astigmatism and there are a lot of things I can't even look at without my eyes going out of focus and I get instantly dizzy, or nauseous if the pattern is just right.

I run into this often with clothing - someone will ask me to look at their new outfit, and I have to think of something to say because it does not go over well to tell them that looking at it makes me want to throw up.

Cathy

macybaby,
You're right--there's something to this physiology thing. Hadn't considered aesthetics be connected to my oddball sight problem. My close vision muscles are too weak to hold a focus. I have a lot of eyeglasses with different focal lengths and prisms to compensate. Other people have "bad hair days" but I have times when my eyes are just unwilling to focus without help. Before the problem was diagnosed, I had a lot of fatigue. Maybe I still do, when looking at things like a backsplash while using ordinary progressive lenses.

but...

I have looked at a lot of sample kitchen photos recently and my irritation with large expanses of mosaics is not a focus problem, it's an aesthetics or gestalt issue. The scale of the wall overwhelms the tile.

The only time the mosaic, especially glass mosaic backsplashes look like something I might be able to live with are when they're shades of white, beige, or light green and beige. And even then, I'm not sure I could live with them long term over large expanses. Don't get me wrong, some of them are beautiful--but they're just too busy for me.

Florantha, I love the rojo basketweave! It would be idea for over the cooktop as a focal point. But I don't think I could live with it everywhere. IMO the basketweave would have more impact as a focal point.

Cathy, I didn't know astigmatisms could make it difficult to look at patterns or even make a person sick. I have one too--maybe that's why I tend to chose plain or "calmer" patterns.

Florantha-- This is a really interesting thread. I feel the same way you do about mosiac tile-- I like it on the shelf, but when I see it installed in a ktichen, it is just too busy for me. I also have a stigmatism-- interesting idea that it could be related! I like the idea of using a mosaic as a focal point over the range. I think in small quantities, that they are beautiful. The tile that you mentioned is really pretty-- have you thought about using a brick vaneer type backsplash (in regular brick sizes)-- I'm totally new here, so I'm probably not using the right terms, but I hope you know what I'm talking about! I'm leaving a link to one on the web for you. It would be larger tiles, so less busy, but still give a good color variation. I hope my link works!

Here is a link that might be useful:

ekatiel,
Funny you should mention bricks. I had been telling myself that a brick-sized piece would be a good thing. Haven't seen much in the stores that looks like this, though, except for a slate one at Tile Shop.

Brick patterns in kitchens were all the rage in my earlier days, back when we wore bandana patterns and had fondue pots.

I like the photo you have shown.

As for using small patterns exclusively over a range, I think that the grout issue would make it a problem. If I'm only going to do a back of range area, I would make it more practical to clean because the grease and spaghetti sauce splash is inevitable. We have a niche behind the new range area to work with and will need to make things practical AND attractive AND compatible with bottles of condiments and salt shakers and etc.

If all goes well, I have only a month left to decide. If all goes as it has been going, I have 6 months. Sigh.

Just to throw in another idiosyncratic physiologic twist, here is my experience with pattern. First, I must say I love pattern and color of all kinds. During all of my pregnancies, however, I experienced what only can be called morning sickness at all hours of the day when I was in any space that had strong patterns. Oriental carpets, mosaic tile bathrooms, cocktail parties with a plethora of women wearing Diana von Furstenberg (can't remember the exact name from the 70's) dresses just sent me running from the room with a deeply queasy feeling. I couldn't even watch TV in my own family room back then b/c of the carpet. My "baby" is now 23 years old but I still remember the upset as one of the most hideous and strange of my life. All of the symptoms disappeared post partum but if you have these experiences as part of your everyday life I'd just say that you should look for a more relaxing tile background.

I think that backsplashes are often chosen without full consideration that there will be a lot of things in front of them on the counters, and in that regard should be considered a backdrop. I find that some kitchens look very good empty, but when the countertops are in full use, a busy backsplash adds to visual chaos. imo.

What kind of stone were you looking at that "couldn't be custom cut easily"? I just did a backsplash with 12" Silestone tile. 6 outlets, a window, two inside corners, about 15' of bullnoseing, 24' total length. Not one single tile was put up without some degree of custom cutting.
It was time consuming fussy work , but not particularly dificult. If that clerk new anything about tileing, she would not be selling tile for near minimum wage! Find a good tile guy and ask him.

Florantha,

Yes, Yes, Yes... I too have issues with too much pattern
around me. I wish I could say it was my eyes or my age or
my temperment or style, pregnancy (not)or even the excuse
of finding the right colors,

But
it is all about peace of mind. I need to be surrounded by soft,
gentle, plain, okay down right boring patterns to unwind
from daily life. My kitchen is such a busy active place
that plain colors do best for me.

If you want a delicious meal from me, it has to be made in
my simple white kitchen with a boring white backsplash,
gray black counters, SS appliances and plain soft lighting.
And you will enjoy your meal. Really you will be so busy
eating your delicious plate you won't notice the kitchen
is simple. Or plain to the eye. Or boring. You will be
biting into the creamy Rissotto, tenderist veal and soft to
the teeth asparagus while sipping your Pinot Gregio.

Put me in a kitchen with elegance, colors, textures, Rich
fabrics, patterns, criss cross, diamonds, tiny or big or
details every where, dots, stripes, flowers, intricate
patterns,... One of thoe HGTV kitchens, or something out
of House Beautiful Magazine and your meal will be burnt to
a black crisp. You can't idetify the remains as you try
to gulp down the warm beer and the too salty potato salad.
I will feel so flustured as I try to prepare a meal that
it will fail. Truly fail in such an elegant surrounding.
Take out would be the only way for me in such a kitchen. : )

I need simple surroundings to keep my soul at peace.
When my soul is at peace I believe all those things grandma
taught me about cooking just come to me like a duck to
water.

Thanks for this lovely post and all who contributed.
~boxerpups

I like them best when they are a tight knit of closely allied colors and not glittery. I think in a small kitchen, they can be adorable.

But I want tile to be the background for my days and current likes/dislikes. Wasn't it you, palimpsest, who spoke of Design attention deficit disorder? Cause I has it and I know it.

I'm trying to be aware of the phrase - if everything is special, you can't see anything - and avoid making the same mistake twice in the same house! I want my kitchen to turn out to be inviting and warm - not a work of art, but a place where a little flour feels at home.

This is why the finished backsplash and the finished kitchen forums are so useful. You can see the impact of the size of tile on various types of kitchen. Even though I find small mosiacs attractive I too was worried about them being too busy and ended up with subways.

What type of granite do you have?

I agree with Bmorepanic. I did a small mosaic backsplash, the whole backsplash. I typically err on the side of basic. I think it works well because I have solid color countertops and the mosaic squares have very slight color variation throughout. I think it would be really tough to pull off with busier counters.

The only small tile patterns that I find disconcerting are the random mosaics with a lot of different strong colors. Someone I know (not on this forum) has a glass mosaic backsplash which mixes four distinct colors - red, orange, dark blue and yellow - in a random pattern. The look reminds me of a TV screen pixilating when a DVD freezes.

I love bold color and made some very strong color choices in my house, so it's not color per se - in fact, a big splash of color is energizing to me. But small-pattern color with lots of contrast sets my teeth on edge and gets me testy and annoyed.

I agree with Florantha about using an easy-to-clean backsplash behind the cooktop. As much as I'd like to put a Celtic mosaic/tile as a focal point behind the cooktop, I'm 99% sure I'm going to put either granite/quartz slab behind it (whichever I decide to use as the counter). The rest of the backsplash will be a mellow subway tile (not sure if it will be white/beige/green).

Thanks for the validation, folks. I smiled as I read your responses. I am glad I'm not alone. Serenity is an important concept in kitchen design.

Here's a typical kitchen that I know I couldn't cook in very happily. It's a brag photo by a local contractor and there's obviously some time, money, fashion, and color wheel expertise involved. But imagine it with objects strewn about on the countertop and a news report on the radio and a couple people talking to you at the same time. Could you think? (Maybe part of it is gestalt--I can't see the faucet!)
___

Doraville: No matter how hard I try to make this project quiet and tasteful, a few clowns try to jump in, but I'm working to keep things in a collaboration and not competing on the main stage for the attention of the audience. My G-shaped kitchen will have a LOT of countertop. I can't allow it to be center stage at the expense of the rest of the kitchen elements. I don't have any granite in my old kitchen and there is no plan to put it into my new one. I've been toying with Pionite's "Bernard" which is a gentle fantasy granite of gray, off-white, and yellow-white, but I have recently pulled out my sack of laminate chips and am dealing them like playing cards, again. A red has migrated back into the deck: a rather dumpy pinkish red with a small grain texture. (Remember: I am a red freak and the founding mother of the quirky/modest thread. No matter how hard I try to make this project quiet and tasteful, a few clowns try to jump in, but I'm seeking to keep things in a collaboration and not competing on the main stage for the attention of the audience. My G-shaped kitchen will have so much countertop that I can't allow it to dominate at the expense of other kitchen elements.)

Here is a link that might be useful:

omygosh, I think I liked that one before I saw it implemented. egads!

My attention has been turning to backsplash the past day or so. I had even saved some in a folder today, but after this thread I can quickly start eliminating most of them :-)

I saw on one Spice Up my Kitchen, or whatever, she used a subtle wallpaper pattern, covered over with plexiglas or something.

Anyways, I don't know what I will do. I found this piece of art early on that I wanted to use behind my stove, but that was when I didn't cook much at home, but I have been cooking most every night since we moved in. But since the cooktop isn't in yet, I have been using the oven & microwave mostly.

So anyways, sure glad I read this thread this evening. Thanks for posting.

The link above is something that is quite beautiful in a Gustav Klimt kind of way, --in the abstract--but I could not live with it as a kitchen backsplash. It could be interesting in some kind of bathroom setting where everything else is kept to a minimum--or a commercial setting where you didnt live with it everyday.

Well if you are into quirky try this red backsplash! I love the color.

Here is a link that might be useful: red backsplash

Wow! Interesting thread! I also have astigmatism and knew from the start that my backsplash had to be very simple. I never considered my eye issues but now that you mention it, maybe this is why I don't like busy things either. I couldn't even do a pattern behind my range. My bling was a pot filler that I wasn't even sure I'd use much but I liked the look as a way to dress up my very simple backsplash behind my range. That was as busy as I could get.

Florantha, I definitely had a strong reaction to that backsplash. It hurt my eyes! LOL!

I wonder if design students are given discussions like this to consider. Look at that sample kitchen, with the repeated motifs of offset rectangles in the high and low cupboards echoed in the tile and then there's all that careful color matching between the countertops and the tile. There's so much which should by all rights make the space feel right and yet...the place is almost scary. It proves that there's psychological significance in physical objects and that mere stuff and abstract concepts are not enough.

By the way, the photo was on the glass vendor's website.

Oh my goodness, on the same site as the red 'splash there's a deliberate pixelated-tile bathroom. Like, on purpose. My eyes, my eyes....

Florantha, a word of caution on the small grain textured laminate. I have a "textured" laminate that I actually picked out almost 20 years ago (thought it would be different). I have hated it! It is a PITA to clean. I have to take a scrub brush & bleach cleaner to get it really clean. HTH!

Very interesting thread!

I have quiet (soapstone) counters, and have been considering mosaics of calacatta marble or glass for my backsplash. Actually it's not really much of a backsplash. I have about 2-3 inches above my 122" sink run and below a wall of windows. My induction cooktop is in the island. So my "backsplash" comprises the 3-inch high x 10+ ft. long area above the sink run, plus walls betwen three smaller counters and wall cabinets. So the backsplash is really more for form than for function.

I have third-nerve palsy (result of an auto accident) that makes it impossible for me to focus. I don't have binocular vision--ever! I see two images of everything. I'm pretty used to it for the most part; I choose the dominant image and ignore the secondary one. But I find that busy patterns (and busy stores) drive me crazy. So now I'm rethinking the mosaic backsplash thing, even though the 3" high backsplash doesn't leave many options. I really like the Ann Sacks Capriccio subways, but was afraid it would be too plain. Now I'm not so sure.

I love the small mosaics, particularly the pearly glass ones, in small samples. But on the wall they become far too busy for me. I think some of it has to do with proportion in relation to the cabinets and counters. I find the 3x6 or larger tiles more flowing and calming. The mosaics are too choppy.

I am bumping this up b/c I just too realized that maybe it is something psychological as to why I am gravitating toward "calmer" colors and textures.

I am looking into new countertops and backsplash and have gone back and forth a million times on what I like. I currently have white Formica countertops and a white 4x4 ceramic tile backsplash. I am leaning toward a charcoal grey/black color for the countertops (right now the front runner is Formica Basalt Slate) but I am having heck of a time finding a backsplash to go with it. I love the *idea* of the glass mosaics -- but only if they are all the same color. But I think all that grout would actually bother me! We did 2x2 travertine tiles around our tub surround in the master bath so I don't want to do that in the kitchen too...not to mention the texture of the travertine is too much. I know I don't want to do 4x4's again, so what does that leave me?...seems like not a lot of choices.

I too have a busy job (I work at a hospital) where the phone is constantly ringing, and there is constant noise pollution...plus I have astigmatism in both eyes. Maybe that's why I am looking for some peace in my kitchen.

chocolatebunny,
I think that we can get caught up in the manias of the day, in our case, the photos in mags and online that show these terrifically exciting (and expensive?) tile backsplashes. If it's any consolation, tile in the middle class and working class kitchen between countertop and upper cupboards is a rather new phenonmenon, in the greater scheme of things; for example, my 1970s kitchen had washable faux natural linen vinyl wallpaper which was applied to all exposed walls and which I would gladly reuse if I could. Because of images in mags, etc. I considered a daring red 9-inch square tile 'way back then because it was an intriguing new idea, but I decided against it. Too much money to invest in such an intense commitment to a design style, even for use just behind the range. I was a young schoolteacher in a very ordinary tract house built 20 years earlier--aspiring middle class. Although I still look back with fondness at myself at that time and wax poetic about that red, I made a good decision.

My point is that I agree with you. We are pushed about and given guilt for stupid reasons. What's wrong with a quiet, gentle place for us to unwind, cook, and finish our day?

As our new kitchen backsplash, we will probably put the same (dealer garage sale) tile we put in our lobby area--I have come to realize that it is roughly the same color combos as our old wallpaper but in a different texture and configuration as the linen pattern. I spent an afternoon in the wallpaper shop and gave up--too expensive! My tile is 13 x 13 and not at all dramatic. Our most creative question is how to line up the tiles--staggered, diamond, big one in center with pieces above and below, or something else. I've looked and looked and lived in this kitchen in my imagination with various backsplash materials including a really dramatic faux red marble tile 2 x 3 with gold glitter in it, but I couldn't commit to them. This one pleases DH and will be very neutral and cozy. I love your phrase "I am looking for some peace in my kitchen."

I also like the idea of using real artworks as a foil for the plain backgrounds of a room. Give yourself permission to haul in something dramatic that isn't permanently attached to the wall. You can look away to rest your eyes.

As I have made kitchen decisions (we haven't picked a backsplash yet), I have always tried to think of the moment late at night when I am exhausted and just need to wipe down the counters before going to bed-- could I live with this pattern or whatever at that moment? For example, I ruled out a granite because an acquaintance who had it told me that she couldn't see the dirt to the extent that she had to run her hand over it every night to see if it was clean. I knew that would bother me at my late-night moment, feeling around for the grunge and getting it on my hands. So I am pretty sure we will be going with a simple backsplash-- at most a mosaic behind the stove.