People w/black granite kitchen countertops, what color is your backsplash?
I am helping a freind since she has a hard time matching things and really likes my taste and design style. They hve light maple cabinets and will be repainting all the walls (not sure what color yet), but want to tile the backsplash. Altho black seems easy to match, they dont' like grey and dont' want too much of color committment (like blue, green, etc). I have been showing them some glass tile and those tin-like panels to match thier SS appliances, but what else looks good w/black granite and light maple?? They like more contemporary as opposed to country/traditional.
I work in design and specifically work with lots of tile for kitchens and baths.
You haven't mentioned it but I want to caution against doing a matching black granite backsplash, it will be to strong and dark. I also absolutely HATE the look of the 4-6" splash matching the granite, so hopefully you aren't already stuck working around that.
For a kitchen that sees a lot of use, I"m not a big fan of the stainless splash. It looks great, very contemporary, but those things are a big hassle to keep clean looking, so if you cook a lot or are a messy cook, find something easier to maintain.
The glass tiles are very contemporary, and there are lots of options. The ones from Home Depot are the bottom of the barrel, but affordable and good looking. Similar lines from specialty tile stores can run as much as $70/square foot, they're usually nicer...I personally prefer the look of etched glass to shiny glass, it's softer, but for a contemporary kitchen either would work. You can use the glass as the full splash or use glass accents with tile or stone.
For something relatively simple and inexpensive, look to a straight edged (the more pillowed the edge the less contemporary the look) slightly warm (to coordinate with the maple) white or off white tile or stone. Dal tile is readily available and very cheap and would work. A relatively inexpensive way to get straight edge stone tiles is to have your contractor cut down larger stone tiles. You'll have to pay him to cut them down, and be sure he cuts off the slight bevel of the edge of the stone on all the pieces, otherwise some edges will have bevels and some won't. A honed marble or limestone would be ideal. Travertine would be ok if it's good quality with not a lot of fill, but this probably isn't where I'd put travertine just because I woouldn't want to bring the fill up to eye level.
I'm remembering some of the beautful limestones I've worked with...if you can get hold of 18" pieces you can just use the large pieces as the splash. Because it's a natural product and every square inch is different, depending on the look you want and the designs in the limestone, you may not even need to add any decos. As the 12" stone tiles are much more common, you could also use 12" tiles whole coming down from the cabinets, with a 4 to 6 inch strip of the same tile right above the counter and some sort of decorative line, like a strip of your glass 1x1 tile between. Could be one row high, could be a few or several rows high. This is clean and comtemporary too.
I always put a 4-6" span of the field tile against the counter before I start the decos. The bottom of the backsplash gets the most stuff on it and decos are harder to clean than field tile. The bottom of the backsplash is also often obstructed by objects on the counter.
Hope this helps, have fun with it!
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