Your best bet is to grout the accent first, making sure to leave the joint that runs directly above and below it, open to be grouted when you grout the field tile. If you tape anything off during this first part of it, just tape the end of each perpendicular grout joint where it runs up to the accent. The border joint you can clean out with a utility knife after you're done grouting. Once the accent is grouted, let it dry over night, and then tape off the edges of it, being careful not to let it run off and cover part of the border joints. In the case of the pencil liner, just put a liece of tape over each joint in the liner, and then take a utility knife (with a new blade for a crisp clean cut) and cut off the excess tape, off the edge of the liner. Then you grout the field, pull the tape, and WAA LAA! :-) Matter of fact, I'll be doing that tomorrow myself, on a kitchen backsplash I just did for a friend-- black grout in the accent stripe, and a tan grout called chamois for the tumbled stone field.

Thanks so much for the detailed instructions!! I think we were going to do it the other way around, and I wasn't feeling it was gonna work out, so this is great!

Hey- your work is so gorgeous, how about a little photo tease when you are done??!!

Thanks,
Sarah

I will. Looks like it's going to be tomorrow, instead. His parents are coming to dinner now after church. :-)

Here you go. First pic is after the accent was grouted black. I taped over each individual grout joint:

And then once the field was grouted, the tape was pulled, and here is the result:

Here's the finished backsplash. Keep in mind, although it WILL contrast against the tile (by design, to show off the pattern changes), the grout WILL lighten up considerably. These pics were taken immediately after grouting:

First, that looks really great, second, that looks really great... wait, I said that already!

Really, really appreciate the photos, the visual really helps me when I try to explain to DH what I am doing (you know, I am from Venus, he is from Mars- it's a different language).

I will be picking up the darker grout this week. DH wants to grout the upper half of field tile above the mosaic before putting the shower base in so we don't have to try and place the ladder there to reach.

We are the handiest folks we know.... we need to find friends that are talented who can come and grout our kitchen- ahem, I mean bathroom!