First of all, lovely cabinets and island! Definitely tile both parts of the corner. I am one of the few people out there who does not feel the need to continue backsplash along an entire wall. If you want to just tile the cube above and to the right of your range, do it. We will probably only tile directly above our drop-in (freestanding? I forget; the term keeps changing!) range and not along the wall to either side of it.

Tile the side wall by the stove. And you don't HAVE to tile the opposite side but it would look nice. I think it might look better tiled, actually.

It looks great, by the way.

Beautiful kitchen! What color did you use on the walls?

Here's some pics of ideas. I linked an image off the John Bridge forum. I think it's a way cool treatment of a side wall :

Some more pics:

One without:

I found a ton of images at:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=kitchen+backsplash+pictures&view=detail&id=271ADCCEE112B4DFE2010E4D3789958232F41B89&FORM=IGRE2
HTH!

Here is a link that might be useful: John Bridge forum

Thanks. We will definitely be tiling the entire back wall minimally as I'm already splashing over the sink!

Remodelfla: The pics are helpful. I can't get the link to work though.

Joycede: The wall color is BM Straw.

More thoughts?

I would tile the side wall and even think about tiling all the way to the left even around the corner to behind the TV. Backsplash is not only for function, but adds beauty, depth and texture. I would even suggest continuing the look throughout your kitchen over all of your counterspace. Just my opinion :) good luck!

I like the last photo. The key is the bullnose pieces. Visually, I would rather "see" just the back wall tiled. But you are right in that this is a functional kitchen. Although, if you have the right paint, it would be cleaned just as easy as a splatter on the backsplash. A splatter is a splatter.

As coastal suggests, I would tile the side wall next to the range and also the entire area all the way to the TV nook. If you look at your last pic, it'll make the most sense. I feel that having that whole "zone" (end of room with cabinets above and below) tiled will feel a lot more whole and intentional, and less arbitrary, that stopping the tile at the end of the sink run and not continuing it along the adjacent counter run where the TV sits.

I agree that if you tile the area on left, it needs to go all the way around to end of cab run by the door. That corner will look odd if there is only tile on one side of the outbumped corner. People look at things like this and ask themselves "what is the rule" and the irregularity would bug them.

If you wanted to be minimal, just put formal backsplash on wall behind range and put plain glass or similar product on the wall to the right. There would be no question as to why it's there. This is done in my mom's sr. housing with plexiglass.

Or put backsplash on two sides of range and nowhere else--this makes sense to the eye also, although I'd make it a lighter color. OR stainless steel.
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I like your color choices.

In thinking about what Coastal and Staceyneil say, I think they've got a point. Interestingly, my husband wanted to tile behind every surface that has a counter originally, and I thought he was wrong. Now I'm rethinking it. If I go that route, would you also do this piece to the left of the frig?

I have seen plexiglass like florantha suggested. Another idea is tiling just the back wall (even by the tv area) and putting a sheet of stainless steel instead of plexiglass.

You really should tile that combustible wall or put a metal plate there for safety. From the picture it looks like you might not have required clearance there.

If you're going to tile behind the tv, then yes, I would also tile to the left of the fridge where the phone is.

As an aside, the one thing I would have done differently is place my outlets either under the cabinets or horizontally closer to the counter top. Oh well.

Any more thoughts?

Same, tile to the left of the fridge.

Sorry, didn't read all the responses, but we had to put our range in the same place - no choice either. It's a bit of a PITA but you get used to it. We tiled to the wall to the end of the upper cabs. I think that looks best and keeps the wall mostly splatter free, but just my opinion.

No I wouldn't do that area by the fridge - I think a little chunk of tile in there is functionally unnecessary and it also visually isolated from the other counter area by the fridge and tall pantry.

I like the look of just doing the "back" splash but you really need to stick to the back (My Mom did hers this way:

This approach doesn't make sense for your layout though (unless you do beside the stove in a different material) She didn't do by the phone (one, because we only had a field tile) as it just wasn't necessary (in her case it becomes this little patch of tile - in yours at least you have some of the tile on the same wall - though visually still pretty far away). would at least set the tile everywhere else and then make my decision about which I thought worked better (it isn't like you will be wasting so much tile if you decide not to do it)

I'm wondering what tile you decided on. Do you have a picture?

I'd try like caryscott's mom and do all the backs but not all the sides.
I'd do the side by the range like a triangle on the diagonal, taking the tiles from the front of the range back up to the edge of the upper cab.

Our tiling is along the entire back and around one side corner, it also continues past the upper cabinets to go behind our wall-mounted TV. We also have an exact replica of your separate pantry, fridge, small desk and we also put the backsplash there as well. I like the flow of continuing the backsplash. To me it's like a shawl-wrap around the kitchen and should go from end to end. (JMHO)

hungryheart,

I have that little area as you do next to your fridge. I originally did not tile it as I felt, as others do, that it's visually separated from the rest of the kitchen. However, after living with it like that for almost a year, I've decided it needs tile. It looks like it doesn't belong to the rest of the kitchen without the backsplash. So, it's my next new project in the next few weeks....as soon as my miserable cold leaves.

Helene

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I will try to post a photo of the tile soon. I liked the idea of the diagonal and spoke to the salesperson at the tile store today. She said that would be very difficult to do using the 3x6 subway tile that we selected. She is going to speak to my contractor (who she frequently works with) tomorrow and brainstorm with him too. I am still having such a difficult time deciding on which way to go - pluses and minuses (IMO) to all the ideas!
I just want to be DONE!