My opinion, and I'm NO expert, regarding how far up... I would run it to the bottom of the upper cabinets. And regarding how far over, while I normally like it to end at the upper cabinet vs the counter, in your case I would take it all the way to the end of the wall (not wrap into dining room...might look weird in there).

Good advice in the article below.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Side Backsplash Dilemma: Should You Have One, Or No?

OT: how did you post multiple pictures in one post?

Also, I agree with lcskaisgir, bottom of upper cabinets to end of the wall before it turns toward the dining room. You could go up to the ceiling around the sink if you like the aesthetic.

I'd think about running one row of the Morrocan tile along the sink, side, and range walls and leaving the walls painted. It looks lonesome just behind the stove, and not much will show because you keep a lot on your counters. Just a little pop of color. You can do oldbat2b's trick of wallpapering the outlet covers with photocopies of the tile.

I don't think you should add a second tile because the major elements have two finishes--two counters, two cabinet colors. It might start looking like you couldn't decide between two kitchen styles so you chose both. Even though white subway is as plain as they come, there is still pattern with the grout lines, so it won't disappear.

Hi may flowers, thanks for the suggestion again however we'll be using two tiles and not running the moroccan throughout. We like the more eclectic look personally.

SJ - like forboystoo said, I uploaded my files to Flickr and used their 'share' option to paste the photo link in my post directly. Looks like (img src="http://myimage.jpg";) but with those triangle less than, greater than signs instead of parentheses.

Feisty, interesting idea to end at the inside corner! All the examples she showed didn't have a cabinet opening on the short wall but I get what she's saying about the transitions.

Lckaisgir, thanks for the feedback! I'm thinking if I run beyond the side cab that it should maybe come up above the bottom rail of the cab a bit for some reason.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 13:12

Pretty kitchen. I'd run it to the edge of the dining room wall and to the bottom of the uppers. You can always add it up over the window later-- if it looks off -- but your wall color is neutral enough that it would blend right in. I think the subway will be a nice tie together if found on all three walls. I also like may_flowers suggestion though. You may want to consider running the decorative tile on all three walls alone or in addition. - perhaps a strip in the middle with subway on either side.

The moroccan tile is 8x8 and unfortunately doesn't look good in groupings of less than four tiles so it can only be used in large blocks. Which I don't want to do all over. So I will not be running it throughout.

Double post!

This post was edited by robotropolis on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 13:21

Do you have a close-up of the moroccan tile?

Agree with you on bringing the tile.. maybe one course and whatever trim above the bottom of the cabs. I'd also consider ending the tile just before the outside corner instead of at. Maybe an inch or a little less?

Would love to see you take one color from the moroccan tile around the room, though... as a tweak on mayflowers suggestion. Maybe just a simple row of liner tile or something... I don't know but bringing some color of that tile into the other areas would be nifty looking. It looks like beautiful tile!

Robo, does your tile come with trim pieces to finish the edges?

deedles, here's one 8x8 tile:

Here are 16 tiles together:
{{!gwi}}

You can see that a group of four tiles is imperative.

I think it's a nice idea to do a liner, even a multicolor one. Husband is SO not on board with that however, but I might be able to convince. Tile colors include black, grey and white in addition to the yellow, orange, cobalt, sky and olive.

jellytoast, no, and apparently I live in a tile wasteland because people around here have barely heard of tile liners or trim pieces. But fortunately my kitchen has tonnes of stainless so I can use stainless schluter where needed. Also I live in Canada so I can't order most tile online.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 14:39

Wow, is that ever beautiful! Love the colors. Didja ever consider white hex tile or even penny round tiles? Totally not trying to diss the subway, but the round thing going on in that tile just makes me think of those two types.

Just fooling around here. I love the white field tile with your tile...looks really crisp. They all look great imo.

Thanks for the photoshops deedles!! The tile has a really strong triangular motif going on. I think if I added another small shape I might go crosseyed. Personally I'd do 8x8 field tile throughout, another idea that husband nixed. So this 4x8 is a compromise.
The scale of the 4x8 to moroccan tile works out roughly as follows:

That's very pretty tile!

Robo, I have the same situation as you. I went to the bottom of the cabinets and then over to about 1/2 from the end of the wall. My tile has trim pieces, though, that are about 1/2 inch wide to finish the edges. There are so many colors in your tile that you can likely find some solid color trim pieces that would coordinate with it.

Why do you think your DH nixed the 8x8 tile?

Still fooling around while my grout sealer dries, so here's this. I really like the bigger tile and now I can absolutely see why the smaller ones that I suggested don't work. White glass tiles would be something to consider, too.

He's a child of the 80s so he basically hates all square white tiles.

I'm going for a sorta-utilitarian look so I think the large subways should look fine. What you shopped in as 8x8s are actually sized to 16x16 with my tile. In actuality there would be four to every one you posted. But I totally understand the nice look with fewer grout lines!

jellytoast, thanks for the idea. I think I can visualize it!

This post was edited by robotropolis on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 16:31

Hmm. Sort of how I feel about avocado green, harvest gold and contact paper with mushrooms on it. Okay.

No, I think the subways look really nice. Are you going with a white grout?

Do like the idea of stopping the tile just before the corner. Don't you have a big box around you? Tons of white subway and trim pieces on the shelf.

In case y'all haven't noticed, I rarely comment on design questions, what with my "X" chromosomes and all, but I like the idea of taking the tile to the ceiling at the window. If you do it, pull the window casing, shim the jambs the thickness of the tile and thinset, set the tile shy of the shimmed jambs, and after notching the sill for the tile/thinset thickness, reinstall the casing. The carpenter will hate you, the tile man will love you, but considering how long you're going to be staring at the tile while standing at the sink it will look much better than tile butted to the casing and grouted or siliconed.

Trebruchet: Wow, that would really make a perfect transition from tile to trim, never ever thought about that. But, that's only for tile (or any backsplash material) all the way up, correct? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for stopping the tile partway up the trim or is that just going to be butted to the trim and caulked?

What if the carpenter IS the tile guy? Would love or hate win out?

I had a look at Home Depot and Home Hardware and you'd be shocked how cruddy the tile selection is. Marble and granite trim pieces galore but little ceramic. I think because we don't get daltile up here (AFAIK) and that seems to be their main supplier for that kind of thing.

Robo, I'm afraid you won't have a lot of luck with coordinating trim pieces at Home Depot and the hardware store. You need a place with a bigger selection. No tile stores in your area? Even a small tile store will have a much better selection than Home Depot.

I'm going to repeat verbatim the conversation I had at the biggest tile store east of Montreal (at least the biggest one I can find) because I found it so unbelievable myself:

Robo: "So do you carry tile liners, bullnose, or trim pieces that aren't stone?"
Store: "Oh no dear, we don't get much call for that."

The best selection is actually at our local discount building supply place but so far they haven't had anything really nice. I've even been eyeing like the long rectangle mosaics thinking I could pop pieces out of them, but I haven't seen a lot I have liked so far. The easiest option to source around here would be a band of 1x1" mosaic tiles or 1x2" mini bricks, but I worry it might be too forward with the other tile.

[Traditional Bathroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-bathroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_712~s_2107) by Irvington Architects & Designers McC : Architecture pllc

This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 10:50

Omgosh, I love, love, love the colors and design of that tile! I don't give a hoot about the subway tile because I could never take my eyes off the Moroccan tile.
Diane

So is ordering your tile the best bet then? Then the sky is the limit as far as choice?

" ... I've even been eyeing like the long rectangle mosaics thinking I could pop pieces out of them ... "

Indeed you can! We did this with a glass mosaic splash that didn't come with trim. We used the long glass pieces from a different make of tile to line the edges. It worked perfectly! (not in my current kitchen)

This post was edited by jellytoast on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 12:13

deedles, the sad part is that in Canada, even ordering is fraught with: expense, lack of choice, and time wasted. A lot of places don't ship to Canada and if the tile isn't made in North America (under NAFTA), it's subject to heavy duty charges. So I'm not sure if I have time/$$ to order a bunch of stuff, wait two weeks for delivery, mull it over, and order again.

All that said, I did see some nice liners on Wayfair.com and Susan Jablon that might be worth a second look.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 13:22

I wondered about looking on the Canadian eBay site. You can select (left hand side) to only see listings in Canada, to avoid the duty fee hassles. I couldn't pull up anything under tile liners, but there are some listings under mosaic tiles, or tile borders. (Warning, every time I did a new search, sneaky eBay kept reverting back to showing listings world wide, so you have to reset the "Canada only" setting each time.)

Downside to this is, eBay sellers may not be able to send you a sample beforehand, like a real tile store would. It's hard to know if the colors are right, until you get it in your hand. Maybe an eBay seller could give you company info on a particular tile, so you could cross check the color elsewhere on the web, before buying.

I'm in total agreement about being able to pull apart any sheet of tiles to use what you need. Cannabalize away! Your tile/carpenter guy would have to place the tiles individually, after cutting them apart, but since you're not talking about a wide border, I wouldn't think that would be a problem.

And now, for a totally wacko idea (offered in the spirit of all-out brainstorming, because you never know where a goofy idea will go.)

Your tile guy could use his wet saw to slice the Moroccan tiles into thin strips, and you could build a liner with one or two rows of these strips.

Tierra Y Fuego offers a sliced-up version of their Mexican Talavera tiles, to give you a visual of how your tiles might look (after being cut into strips):

And Avente Tile now offers a sliced up version of their cement tiles, so it's not completely unheard of:

I kind of think this might work best when the entire tile installation is "sliced up". I'm not sure how well it would work when coupled with your lovely installation of the whole tiles over the range (which I certainly would never change.) But, it would carry the exact same colors around the room. I dunno.

I just feel better now that I've gotten that idea out of my brain. Since I've cut up tiles for mosaic work, I couldn't quite squash the idea. As I said...just kicking around ideas and brainstorming. ;-)

The problem with that otherwise brilliant idea, mudhouse, is that those cut-up pieces would lack the finished edge that trim pieces have.

jellytoast, that's true, but I thought robo was considering a way to insert a line of color, in between some rows of the white subway tiles. In that case, finished edges aren't mandatory. I think careful grouting would ensure cut pieces would look fine as a strip of color in a field of other tiles.

But I agree, these cut pieces would not work as trim tiles at the edge of a field, for sure.

Edited to add, after thinking about it, if the Moroccan tiles are much thicker than the white subway tiles, that would make this idea a lot less attractive, since you'd need to be able to set the cut edges low enough in the grout to look nice.

Details, details, always getting in the way of creativity...! :-)

This post was edited by mudhouse on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 16:48

Oh, I didn't know it was such a pain to get things up there, sorry.
Ever considered a painted glass backsplash?