Looks like a pain to clean! It is a backSPLASH after all...

I agree with Angie - I'd skip this one.

But you love it, so I'm delighted to tell you that you don't need a tile-setting mat. You can find these pebbles already mounted onto a mesh sheet in a variety of hues tumbled or polished, sold by the sheet for around $17.00/sf at the link below. They also carry borders. The image below shows Chateau stone.

If you want a natural element, you might also consider a flatter pebble, like the one below, that might work well if you also have a fieldstone fireplace.

If your kitchen opens up onto a cottage garden, or you're trying to mimic the look of a garden wall or some other natural element like a stacked stone foundation, you could also go with something like this.

None of these looks like bs material to me, but if they do to you, enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: Pebble

Thanks for your input, I wouldn't spent that kind on cash for the small space I am doing, its just to dress it up. n
Not much goes on in that area, its just around a window & sink.

We did this pebble tile on our br floor, it is beautiful! DH had to set quite a few of them by hand so as to not see the outline of the squares. Bear in mind that once it's grouted the stones are in much shallower relief. We did 3 coats of sealer: one before grouting to guard against the grout color staining the pebbles and twice after grouted. Maybe 3 times after grout, actually. I think it could be a really neat backsplash but I'd have a bit of the counter for the initial couple inches of backsplash just for the 'crumb and grunge' factor. Love the pebbles!

It is NOT a good idea to go out and find your own pebbles and glue them to a wall. The original example looks like crap, so I wouldn't take that as any inspiration at all. If you're going to do this, look at the preformed sheets where the rocks have all been sanitized and sorted to a uniform size so that it actually works to put them up with thinset. And then grout it. Don't leave it without the grout for pancake batter and other crud to collect in the crevices. Especially if you were to use unsanitized rocks with who knows what that could end up growing on and between them.

I happen to like the look myself. I plan to use the rock you buy at lowes or home depot. here is another photo above, that first photo was on tile mat before grouting.

With the commercially produced stone tiles and grouting the installation, you will avoid most of the way too amateur vertical lines in the first picture. You still have to be careful about where the sheets join and that's why you do have to tweak that area by hand as deedles noted. If you are talking about buying a bag of rock and not the sheets of tiles, then I think you will be in for a shock as to how much work that is ahead of you after you boil the rocks.

"After you boil the rocks", lol.

Yes, my DH spent 6 DAYS on the floor in our 10x10 bathroom. 75 pounds of grout.

Him, the rocks, the thinset and a butter knife. However, I designed a flowing river of green pebbles within a white field, so that complicated matters a bit.

On some diy tv show, they did a countertop and backsplash in like.... 20 minutes!

It would be a great look, though. And the rocks are uniform and flattish enough that I really don't think wiping them down would be a nightmare. I HOPE not anyway, since I have 100 sq ft of them....