Join the over thinking crowd on GW
I am not the tile expert but I would probably put tile behind - but will defer to others
Nice tile BTW

LOL - thanks a2gemini. Yes, I have been known to overthink things in general, so finding GW has only enabled me! :)

Thanks for the tile complement, but that's actually a stock photo from the ventahood site.

Here's my slightly sloppy mockup...

I hope my surplus will be enough to cover it!

Sweet! It will look nice. I went to the light store and mentioned I was an over thinker on the projects. The sales person(who has a bit of a dry sense of humor) looked at me and said - you and 99% of the rest of A2...
Good luck and can't wait to see the pictures - I am struggling with the backsplash for our kitchen but just had a cool idea pop in my head - but not sure if it is possible

Don't want to add to your stress bubble but we tiled behind the hood. And that was based upon the recommendation of this board and my research.

We just finished our kitchen remodel. Part of the remodel enlarged the doorways to the kitchen. We added wood floors to the kitchen and never even thought there would be a problem with the tile in the foyer (not part of the remodel). We needed 6 tiles to finish off the tile floor we had from the foyer to the kitchen where things changed. Fortunately for us, when we originally had the tile installed 26 years ago, my husband put the left over tile up in the garage attic and found them. We had just enough left over tiles to fix the floor.We were so glad we saved the extra tiles and don't have to replace the foyer floor right now. Our contractor installed and grouted them and you would never know the difference.

The point of this whole story is, if you don't tile behind the hood right now, order a few extra tiles in case things change in the future.

a2 - that's exciting! What's your idea? I've read about your struggle with the backsplash. I struggled too for a long time and went through tons of tile before I found one that I just loved.

remodel - I think you're right! Better safe than sorry.

Brandy5 - That is good news! Glad it worked out. My problem with ordering more later is that they hand spray each order and there is a lot of variation possible. I'm okay with a lot of texture in my splash - but would hate to see a few sq ft that is a totally different color than what's around it.

We ordered 48 sq ft total and that included our 10% extra. So, looks like I technically have about 4 1/2 sq feet extra. Me, being *me*, I ordered an extra square foot of smaller tiles to be laid next to my accent tiles because I didn't want the GC to cut my handcut tiles even though he told me that it would be okay. (yep, over-thinker. Luckily, he has a good sense of humor about my OCD)

So, I will probably have about 5 1/2 sq ft left over assuming that there aren't issues with the install. I just don't know if that is going to be enough...

Hi to one over-thinker from another : ) You are so right... The forum sure enables us....but also gives us great info!

It sounds as if getting the same dye-lot of this tile is important, so, if I were you, if it wasn't too much expense, I'd buy extra for peace of mind. It may not be necessary, but a good insurance policy to give you options down the road if you change things around (or if your extra 10% isn't quite enough)

We just tilted our condo floor last year with the plank tiles (look like wood) and I am so glad we got extra ones. Monday they'll be knocking down a wall to open up the kitchen to the dining area more. Since we are angling the base cabinets on either side of the entrance, we need 6-9 tiles to fill in. We never could have anticipated doing this even as recently as 6 months ago, so the fact that we ordered extra "just in case" sure paid off quickly!

Good luck....Post pictures! I'm sure your efforts (and over-thinking!) will pay off.

ayerg - just posted my idea and first pictures of kitchen

I don't think it really matters, but I'd do it now rather than have boxes of tile sitting around for year (I have 20 boxes of tile that have been in the way for 16 years.) Since you are putting in a new vent, the odds of replacing it any time soon are very slim. So if you replace, it will be at a time when you are doing a facelift of your dated kitchen, and you'll probably replace the tile then too. Or you'll move. Either way, you won't use the tile.

You may save a little bit of tile but it will be a lot more work to install the tile around the hood. Think of all the cuts that will need to be done to fit the tile pieces to the shape of that hood. And don't forget grouting has to be done too. Do you want to have grout possibly getting on you new hood during the process. No matter how careful the tiler is, some grout is going to plop on the hood.
I had my tile installed before the hood. That is the way my contractor preferred to do it. His guys had no trouble installing the hood after the tile was up.

It would be easier to tile the entire area than try to cut to fit behind the fan's chimney. Fewer cuts.

Also, if the hood has to be changed, you have the tile already there.

I doubt anyone is going to cut and fit tile around the hood. Instead they will mark out where the hood goes and run the tile to overlap, maybe using half tiles to save a few more where they can. Then they'll put wood shims where needed to install the hood.

Maybe you can save 3-4 sq feet of tile, I think someone posted they got a quote for about $15 a foot to install, not counting tile. If you get tile around $30 a foot, you could be saving $45 per foot, and so maybe $175 total savings,

For an extra $175, I'd ask them to tile behind the range hood.

Thanks guys!

I think I agree with the majority of you - there's just not enough financial gain to take a chance.

I'm going to make some phone calls today and see if it's too late to add a few more square feet.

Thanks for helping me feel that I'm not wasting money.