Style mosaic
Catching up on trends in kitchen backsplash design
Technically, you don’t need a backsplash in your kitchen. It can be complete with a stove, an oven, a refrigerator and a sink, cabinets and counters; maybe a microwave and a dishwasher.
But choosing a backsplash — the tile on the wall behind your stove meant to protect the wall from your cooking — is fun, and, guess what, doesn’t have to be limited to the wall behind the stove. There are thousands of choices, including tiles made of porcelain, glass, cement and marble. The potential combinations of color, texture and size are limitless.
A cursory Google search will inundate your screen with ideas, from the “peel and stick” backsplash available at hardware stores to high-end installations of custom tile.
Janet Longe and Jamie Davies, coowners of 23rd [and Fourth], a furniture and design store in Saratoga Springs, get to know their clients well before giving them guidance about their choices.
The women, a mother and daugh-
ter team, have designed interiors for everything from a modern farmhouse to condos decorated in a modern contemporary style.
Any color tile can be used in a backsplash, but Longe and Davies say local homeowners tend to shy away from bright colors in favor of earth tones.
In terms of new trends, they are excited about back-painted glass. Instead of small glass tiles, which are common, this look is a whole sheet of glass that goes on the wall like a large slab of marble. Longe and Davies used this style to beautiful effect in a Saratoga Springs condo recently. The glass is floor to ceiling, and because of the way the kitchen is oriented to the windows on the other side of the room, it reflects the natural world outside, giving the homeowner a constantly changing design on her backsplash.
And, as a practical point, Davies noted, the glass is easy to clean because there’s no grout to worry about.
Maegan Marchitto, a showroom manager at Best Tile in Schenectady, said she is also seeing a rise in the popularity of earth tones replacing the grays and whites that reigned supreme for several years. If a client is willing to take a risk, it’s often in the form of accent tile — a smaller arrangement of tiles with a pattern or a design on them installed amid a field of plain tile over the stove. The accent tiles can be encaustic tiles, which means different color patterns are created with different colors of clay. There are also hand-painted tiles, which Longe and Davies recommend as a pop of color.
Marchitto said small glass tiles are fading in popularity, while brick-feel tiles and other textured tiles are trending. So too, are shapes beyond the rectangle. For example, a client may choose a white kitchen, but instead of white subway tile as a backsplash, they choose a lantern shape.
“People want to walk into their homes and feel welcome and homey,” Marchitto says. “It’s more inviting than the colder industrial look.”
Subway tiles are still popular, but in sizes and finishes other than the 3-by12-inch, glossy white tiles. The choice among subway tiles now includes matte finish, a crackle finish and what’s called a handmade or rustic edge, which means each tile has a softer edge.
Layout has become more frisky, too. Instead of the offset, why not herringbone? Or grid? Or vertical? It all depends on how much space you’re working with, your budget, and what you want to look at for years to come.