Remodeling ideas for the backsplash behind your range, cooktop or stove.

A backsplash is frequently the focal point of a kitchen and it performs two duties. First, it's a functional surface that protects your walls from unsightly food spatter making it easier to clean your walls after any cooking accidents. Second, your backsplash can be a wonderful focal point that can set the style and tone of your entire kitchen!

Your kitchen backsplash can offer visual diversity and a splash of color or texture to your kitchen. You have a number of options when it comes to materials. From the functional beauty, and diversity of ceramic or porcelain tile, to metal, brick, or natural stone, with a little work, you'll find the perfect material to match your style and offers you beauty, functionality, and easy maintenance.

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Choosing the Perfect Material For your Kitchen Backsplash

You should consider durability and flexibility when choosing your backsplash. There are a number of materials you can use that will provide an interesting focal point in your kitchen as well as offering easy clean-up and low maintenance. Let's look at several of the most popular backsplash material choices of both homeowners and designers.

Ceramic or Porcelain Tile

One of the major benefits of working with tile is the great variety of choices available. Tile offers you visual diversity, a wide range of patterns colors, shapes and sizes and is a great material to use if you are interested in adding bold designs, patterns or colors. It's easy to install and easy to maintain.

Tile is extremely customizable. It's a wonderful backsplash option if you're looking to mirror an existing kitchen design or add visual interest. Tile is available in a number of different materials from ceramic and porcelain to glass and even metal, it comes in an almost endless variety of colors, styles, shapes, and sizes. You can find it everywhere from the big box home improvement stores to designer websites and if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, there are specialty tile retailers both online and off, that offer hard to file colors, designs, and sizes.

Popular tile styles include:

• Subway Tile – This classic choice is at home in any kitchen thanks to its wide availability and visual appeal. It's a rectangular shaped tile that pairs well with any color grout and can range from an understated white to almost any other color in the rainbow giving you a great way to add a focal point. Its shape allows it to be used in a variety of patterns as well.

• Mosaic Tile – A popular choice, mosaic tile is available in ceramic, stone, glass and metal. It's a great way to add some visual interest to your kitchen and extremely easy to work with as it comes in sheets on mesh backing.

• Penny Tile – If you're looking for a classic vintage look in your kitchen, penny tiles fit the bill. Often featuring small, light-colored tile and surrounded by dark grout, this style can recall a bygone era and add an air of classic luxury and elegance to any kitchen.

Metal, Brick and Natural Stone

While ceramic tile is the most popular choice among homeowners and designers, alternative materials can make a big statement. Let's look at the three most popular alternatives to ceramic tile.

• Metal – A metal like copper or tin can add a beautiful pop of color and texture to your kitchen backsplash. Metal can serve as a frame for another material and can incorporate details and patterns like floral, patterns and shapes.

• Brick – Exposed brick is an elegant option that provides an old-world charm or a down-to-earth country feel in your kitchen. This can be original to your home or is available as a porcelain look alike or natural veneer surface.

• Natural Stone – Slate, split face, travertine, marble, granite, you name it, it's available and can look amazing!. They all offer wonderful contrast to other textures you may have in your perimeter backsplash. If you want to make a real statement, choose a stone with a lot of variations in color and texture.

Creative Use of Tile in Your Backsplash

No matter what material you choose, tile lends itself to many creative uses in the kitchen. You can often combine textures and materials to create exciting designs that are both functional and aesthetically interesting. Some common uses include:

Frames – Frames give you the opportunity to add a second texture like a beautiful glass mosaic framed in natural stone to your backsplash. The best way to incorporate a frame into your design is by finding a complementary liner to use as a border.

Shapes – If you're unsure about adding a second texture or material, consider playing with shapes. For example, subway tile can be arranged in a herringbone pattern to add interest. If you're working with traditional square tile consider installing it in a 45-degree angle to create a diamond shape for an affordable designer look.

Seamless Design – You may want to keep it simple, especially if you're creating a modern or contemporary kitchen. If you're looking for simplicity, keep your pattern consistent throughout the kitchen backsplash. This can give your kitchen a seamless look that in itself can make a statement.

Accent Wall – Use a different material behind the range or cooktop to create a focal point. If you have a range hood, try taking an accent wall by installing a complementary tile all the way to the ceiling behind the hood. An over the range accent wall can provide a dramatic effect in a kitchen with tall ceilings.

When it comes to your kitchen backsplash you're only limited by your creativity. Whether you're creating a modern design and seeking the simplicity of subway tile, or a French country kitchen accented with exposed brick behind the range, your kitchen backsplash can be a focal point that you can use to make a dramatic statement in your kitchen design.

About Toulmin Kitchen & Bath Design - We're West Alabama's award-winning, premier kitchen and bath showroom. We're experts who are known for a design-build process that makes the construction process stress-free. Contact us to schedule an appointment for a design consultation.