argh! How do you pick out backsplash tile & granite countertops

[minniecarousel]

We are redoing our kitchen countertops and backsplash. We will pick out granite from a particular shop that our contractor uses. But we need to pick out the tile backsplash from a different place. Do we get some tile samples and take them to the granite place? I don't know what I'm doing!

 

[sbell111]

Your best bet would to bring a sample tile to the granite place along with an example of your cabinet wood and wall color.

 

[LvsTnk]

We had picked out a pretty common granite, so the place where we got the tile had the granite as well. You know you can go all the way up the backsplash with the granite as well. It really is alot to co-ordinate! Have fun!

 

[dis-happy]

I'd get ahold of a decorator to help you co-ordinate things. Oftentimes the granite places and tile places have them in house. You are going to be living with the granite and tile for a long time and it's nice to have professional eyes pulling it all together. They can also pull other elements in from your house (cabinets, wall colors) to give a great look, seeing things you may not have even noticed.

A friend of mine pieced her things together, and while they looked good before installation the combination (granite and wall tile) kind of misses the mark...the colors are off and it's a bit jarring. For what you are investing, even if you have to pay a consultation fee, it would be worthwhile to talk to a pro.

 

[Disney Doll]

We installed the backsplash last.

I went to the tile store and spoke to the salesperson there. It was a store that had been around a while, and the salepeople were knowledgeable...not just kids at their summer job, if you know what I mean. They had books to look at with other peoples' backsplash jobs, which was quite helpful.

Our granite is a charcoal gray background, with splashes of peach, lavender and celery green. Depending on the time of day and the amount of light, it can look almost black or almost pewter in color, and the celery green is the color that "ops" the most from it. Our appliances are stainless.

We ended up with white tumbled marble subway tiles in sort of chalky white (so it was a natural looking stone product). For accent tiles, we got glass tiles 1' square in shades of celery green, deeper green, light gray and charcoal gray. With these accent tiles, we did diamonds scattered at various points along the backsplash. The greens and grays in the glass tiles really make the color sin the granite stand out.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

What is your house theme? In TX we had a neutral granite with dark/light colors in it, it was pretty. Our backsplash was stone tiles. The house was "earthy" as a way to describe it.

This house has black granite with flecks, not as nice, and I have to do the backsplash here. I am probably going to go with something that pulls the color out of my cabinets that have a cherry finish.

I would certainly bring samples to match it up and get some other opinions if you can.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/

I used the slideshow here & went thru all the kitchens looking for ones that had same color/wood cabinets & floor. Then I narrowed it down to which ones of those I liked the best & copied as best I could.

I have a hard time visualizing things. Its works better when I see it already finished like in the photos.

In the slideshow, if there is a kitchen you like, click the photo & it takes you to more photos (sometimes another link) and a list of products used.

 

[Pakey]

I couldn't do it so opted for the full up granite backsplash too. I'm an accountant, we aren't a very creative breed.

 

[asta]

I agree that you need to install the granite first but it doesn't matter what order you select the backsplash and granite. In our case, we were adding granite and already had a tumbled marble backsplash. I just asked the granite place for samples of my leading candidates and they broke samples off for me to take home. I also needed the sample of granite to pick out a color for a new sink.

 

[crz4mm2]

Pictures? We can help you!

 

[minniecarousel]

http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/

I used the slideshow here & went thru all the kitchens looking for ones that had same color/wood cabinets & floor. Then I narrowed it down to which ones of those I liked the best & copied as best I could.

I have a hard time visualizing things. Its works better when I see it already finished like in the photos.

In the slideshow, if there is a kitchen you like, click the photo & it takes you to more photos (sometimes another link) and a list of products used.

WOW! what a great website - thanks!

We're keeping our oak cabinets (gasp! how passe, I know!) and the flooring is an oak hardwood. I picked up a few tile squares from a store today. We'll take those with us when we look at granite.

whew! There are soooo many choices!

 

[OctMtnWoods]

WOW! what a great website - thanks!

We're keeping our oak cabinets (gasp! how passe, I know!) and the flooring is an oak hardwood. I picked up a few tile squares from a store today. We'll take those with us when we look at granite.

whew! There are soooo many choices!

When I say copied their kitchen, what I should say is copy as close as possible but working within the colors you already have present like your wood.

I also sent you a PM.

 

[Buckalew11]

I've got to do this in a few weeks. I know I'll be overwhelmed with it all.

 

[Va-bear]

We installed the backsplash last.

I went to the tile store and spoke to the salesperson there. It was a store that had been around a while, and the salepeople were knowledgeable...not just kids at their summer job, if you know what I mean. They had books to look at with other peoples' backsplash jobs, which was quite helpful.

Our granite is a charcoal gray background, with splashes of peach, lavender and celery green. Depending on the time of day and the amount of light, it can look almost black or almost pewter in color, and the celery green is the color that "ops" the most from it. Our appliances are stainless.

We ended up with white tumbled marble subway tiles in sort of chalky white (so it was a natural looking stone product). For accent tiles, we got glass tiles 1' square in shades of celery green, deeper green, light gray and charcoal gray. With these accent tiles, we did diamonds scattered at various points along the backsplash. The greens and grays in the glass tiles really make the color sin the granite stand out.

Wow - any chance you have some pictures you could post - this sounds almost exactly the way I was visualizing our new kitchen.....but then kept thinking I'd never pull it off. Well, the granite color sounds like what I want and I REALLY want glass tiles in colors of green and blue for the backsplash. Would to see it! Sounds really cool!

 

[Disney Doll]

WOW! what a great website - thanks!

We're keeping our oak cabinets (gasp! how passe, I know!) and the flooring is an oak hardwood. I picked up a few tile squares from a store today. We'll take those with us when we look at granite.

whew! There are soooo many choices!

We kept our oak cabinets too, and our floor is oak hardwood. Our kitchen had actually been done once already by the previous owners, so the oak cabinets were already custom cabinets. DH & I discussed a total redo, but I actually love our cabinets, so if I had ripped them out, I'd have put essentially the same thing in...I know...cherry is the way to go these days, but I don't like real dark wood.

We changed the cabinet hardware and DH spiffed up the cabinets...tightened screws, leveled hinges etc. We left the hardwood floor. We got a new stove & dishwasher in stainless, fridge is white but when it dies we'll get stainless. New counters, sink, backsplash. Our house is pretty "simple"...6 room Cape, so we tried to keep the "level" of the kitchen with the rest of the house. It would have looked stupid to have this $5 million state of the art kitchen in an otherwise pretty normal 1800 SF house.

 

[mom2rb]

The granite was already in my house when I bought it, but I like it. The previous owners used granite tiles in the same color as the granite counter tops. It looks great and you don't have to worry about it matching.