Wow, mountaineergirl, you have me blushing! Thank you for your kind words. The backsplash was one of those things I went back and forth on--I originally was going to put small glass mosaic tiles above the chair rail. Then I thought that it would detract from the rest of the design and would just be too much. Once I decided that wall (the baking area with the shorter splash), I knew exactly how I wanted to treat the sink wall. The cooktop wall was decided long before the other two. While I was working out the design in my head (I do a lot of staring at the space-ha!) and on the living room floor, DH was tapping his foot waiting for me to get my act together. When he is ready to go, you better not be too far behind him. LOL. Good thing I have always worked well under pressure! ;^)

The reason my kitchen isn't in the FKB is because we are not finished! We have done things a little backward in our kitchen. I know that most people do the backsplash last, but we did it before the floors and before the rest of the trimwork. We have ordered and are waiting for back doors--a back entry and storm/screen door. Once those are installed, we will install the flooring. After the flooring, we can finish the rest of the trimwork, baseboards, etc. With the doors not coming in for a couple of weeks, I see us finishing sometime this fall (ohpleasepleaseplease). Such is the life with a DIY install. *sigh*

I promise to post a reveal when we finish.

I like how you are thinking ahead in case you have to replace your current microhood. You are so right about specs possibly being different, so the "not quite" splash really works. Is your kitchen all done--except for the backsplash? Hmmm, maybe I should look on the FKB? I look forward to your posts with pics of YOUR backsplash design in YOUR kitchen! Have fun with it! :^)

~S.

Thanks so much for replying!! We just got back from Lowes and I picked up a couple more pieces of tile to play around with. But I am so disappointed with the price of the chair rail tile. With my desk, I have around 34 linear feet, X 2 (for 6" tile) X $3.59 = way more than I thought LOL! Plus that stip of "notty" tile (for lack of a better word) so now I don't know! I was really hoping to get the backsplash for next to nothing haha!

If I decide to just do the chair rail tile at the desk area - how do I end it? was there end pieces available for the chair rail? like chair rail bullnose??

I really am a rookie at this, and I have no creativity. I know what I like when I see it, but cannot think of something on my own :(

To answer your question, no I'm not finished with my kitchen re-do. It's not a complete re-do either. We built 12 years ago, and went for square footage rather than upgrades. Now we're empty nesters and finally doing some upgrades, so we're getting granite counters. Keeping our cabinets. Well you know how things snowball and one things leads to another etc, new sink/faucet/hardware and now lighting. Had the kitchen painted this week, counters will come on Thursday woohoo! We are replacing one cabinet that had an appliance garage below it. since it was a corner cab, we had to remove the one beside it to be able to get the corner one out. So that's 2 cabinets off the wall right now. :( anyhow I also plan to get a new range and OTR microwave but that may have to wait until next year. My white range with the electric coils is going to look really bad next to my new granite, but oh well.

So that's where I am. I can't wait to see your pics when you're done. I would like to see your backsplash from a distance. Thanks for being my inspiration!

Hi mountaineergirl,

Do you have a Menard's where you are? Because that is where I got the majority of my tile. The beaded liner was the only thing I bought from Lowe's, and that was very reasonable--especially since that comes in 8" sections.

The Menard's chair rail was only $1.79 (in Minneapolis), about half the price of Lowe's! As far as ending it, that was going to be my dilemma as well, but mine ends at the door frame, window frame (both sides), and the corner. I had thought about a wood trim piece on the end. In fact I bought one before we decided to turn the corner with the tile, instead. It was just a piece of molding that would cover the edge of the chair rail--which was the "fattest" piece to cover. I don't know if that is something that would work for you or not. There is chair rail bullnose for the more expensive tiles, but definitely not for my Menard's special. LOL.

Which wall would you like to see from a distance? I just killed the battery on my digital camera, but I took a bunch of photos the other day, and I may have one from the distance of at least one wall. I can scrounge it up for you, if it would help you.

Happy Sunday!

~S.

Hi Shelayne!

I googled Menards and it appears there is one in Lancaster, OH about an hour and a half from here, but it apparently doesn't have tile!

I am trying to talk DH into just tiling the entire 18" back splash area, maybe do one row of the tile that has the swirls in it just to dress it up a little. I may go ahead a purchase a new OTR microwave now (get rid of the white and get a black/stainless) and I could still wait awhile on getting a new range. But I think I could get the MW for the price of doing all the fancy tile I would do if I did a partial backsplash. Well I know I could if I spent $3.49 per tile for the chair rail LOL! That strip alone would be over $200, and then the strip of the beaded, which was $1.80 per 8" I think. Anyhow, as much as I love your back splash, I think I may stick to my original plan and just go with the plain tile all the way up.

Well I have time to decide - I mean some people take a year or more to decide on a backsplash right??

So, the next question I need to post is do people that have OTR MWs tile before installing or after??

Thanks so much Shelayne, no matter what I do, I will always covet YOUR backsplash!!