Marble

Smaller marble

Ceramic hand made looking

I love the marble, but I can't even pick my own backsplash.

How do you decide which size of tile to use? Does one size make the room look larger, smaller ?????

What is the design reasoning with the sizes?

1", 2", 1"x2", 2"x 4", 3 x 6", 4x8, 4" x 12"....

Yes, marble.

I don't know! I'm totally clueless. I just picked what I liked next to the other materials. I imagine the ceramic one would be more in-your-face because of the shininess, and the other two might be more receding because of the matte surface. There were 1 billion tiles to chose from. This is not an easy task!

I like the smaller marble.

#2 long skinny marble

Hunter - I like all of your choices - but do like the smaller marble better than the bigger one (I wanted bigger but ended up smaller)
Peke - LOL - you are so close!

Odd (wo)man out...I like the larger marble subways. Either would be lovely. The shiny ceramic seems to detract from the beauty of the soapstone to me. :)

I like the larger marble, definitely not the ceramic. What do you have on the floor?

@kksmama, wood on the floor, yellow pine, matte finish. I think the jury stands on eliminating the shiny. My husband doesn't care for it either. I assumed I'd go plain subway tiles all along, but when I got to the shop, I sort of lost interest in them. I also had recently seen this picture on the Texiera Soapstone site that I love, but the shop didn't have this style.

Soapstone and marble are such a gorgeous combination, I don't think you can go wrong.

I like the 2x8's.

Go for #2!

I like #2. Good luck!

the ceramic with sheen would work in that you have really upscale cabinets with the painted inset option, yet the floors /sink/counters are really subdued in their "look". I could see the case for the shinier nickel or antique silver look hardware that I've seen, and with the sheen on the ceramic tiles would give a little "zing" to the whole feel, in a nice way......I think painted inset can handle, and in a way, works well with an element somewhere around it that "stands out". The marble is nice, I like the larger one of the 2 marbles......it is just sort of the expected choice...don't dismiss the ceramic necessarily.....keep going on to the hardware and see how that sheen can really work with a hardware style/finish with a bit of bling.

If you can, wait to choose a bs until you find tile that you love.

Are you at all interested in introducing color in your bs? What is your wall paint color? If you want to keep the tile monochromatic and the "shades of grey" color scheme, how would you feel about introducing a shape in the tile? Also, what's your budget in $/sf?

This is a monochromatic star and cross pattern in Pine Grove from Fireclay tile - many other manufacturers offer something similar. It is available in their Debris and Vitrail tiles in many colors and in a smaller format. Below that is the Ogee specialty field tile in Sapphire that GWers refer to as an arabesque.

Star Cross

For color, it looks like you would be most comfortable with something like Rainy Day, but think about something with a little more presence, like Sage Green or Crater Lake, as an alternative.

Rainy Day
{{!gwi}}
Sage Green
{{!gwi}}
Crater Lake
{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Fireclay

I like the larger marble. It seems to echo your cabinet door dimensions.

My vote goes to the smaller marble. Beautiful!

@ EAM44 funny you should mention adding some color, my husband brought that up last night. With a sister with Santa Fe roots, he is not afraid of a little artsiness and deviation from the expected. And I just love the star cross and ogee examples, with blue/white being my favorite color combo for almost everything. I love the matte finish on the star cross.

So, our discussion last night was to consider adding a patterned/colorful tile to the small horizontal space between counter and bar top, leaving the other side of the "L" a more basic tile like my choices above, and I wondered if that would look just wrong.

@herbflavor I agree with your comments about the shiny, and the hardware we are pretty set on is a typical brushed nickel bar pull (on counter in photo) grabbed at home depot, but which looks just fine. I think the shiny could work bc everything else is pretty dull. We are dealing with olive-y green wall in the neighboring room, and the walls in the kitchen are, white, and we have a smallish butcher block-topped island with a few stools.

I am attaching a photo of the potential spot for colorful tile if anyone can tell me if that is a terrible idea. Thanks so much for the input!

The idea of a special tile for the area below the bar top sounds fun and charming. It would look wonderful as long as it coordinated nicely with the other tile in style and mood. If you were to go Santa Fe, maybe a simple glazed tile elsewhere that shared a color. Or not. The more it conformed in other aspects, the more it could go its own way in that.

I like the gloss on the glazed tile you show because it sets the matte counter off. I also like the dull marble; but if I chose that, I'd still want gloss somewhere for it's liveliness and just to add a little more complexity to the picture, even though I don't care for a lot of it in my kitchen. Of course, if I were going for a very "earthy" look, I might well further that by doing without gloss altogether.

What kind of colors and shapes and materials would you like for the bar area tile? I was peeking on a tile site to suggest something but realized I had no idea of what you might be looking for in terms of color, size, shape etc.

Ok, ok, you mentioned Santa Fe, and my mind immediately went to a mexican tile mosaic that someone here at GW has used in a vertical orientation. This is not at all what you've been looking at, but I just have to show it to you.

I love that mosaic, and it could work for you in the horizontal application throughout the kitchen, but it is miles away from what you're drawn to. OK, now that that's out of my system, here's what I think might work for you on the subtler side. The tile below is a mesh mounted mosaic and the sheet measures about 10.5" x 11", so you get an idea of the tile size, very roughly, 3" w x 4" t. The solid color field tile below in the same glaze (light green) is available in square and subway formats in a variety of sizes.

I think in order to keep the look cohesive you should either keep the color the same and use a different shape for the special areas, or keep the shape the same and use a harmonizing, deeper color for the special areas. So, you could choose a light green brick subway for your counter area, and a light green ogee mosaic for the special areas. Or, you could use the ogee everywhere, in yellow quartz for the counter areas, and light green for the special spots.

Wow, love it. I had actually made some photocopies of ogee and star cross fireclay patterns and put them in the "fun area' to see what they looked like, envisioning finishing the space with basic white subways. But I love the idea of matching the manufacturer/finish for the fun part AND the regular part (though my wallet might not like it) using a shape/pattern in the fun part, subway in the regular part. I also looked at Tabarca tile which has some great stuff for the fun area. But wasn't 100% about what to use for the rest of the room. Now that I have branched away from marble (I think I have, despite my absolute love for it this weekend) the possibilities are endless. That is a problem. The yellow quartz in an interesting color. I have a sample pack from fireclay coming to me.

Another Tabarca option.

I love what you're looking at now! They are both stunning, visually interesting tiles. I somehow managed to omit the info that the tiles I posted last night are from the Tierra Y Fuego website. Their mosaic offerings are much more limited in color than Fireclay's, but they also have absolutely gorgeous hand painted Talavera Mexican tile with solid color field tiles to match in a much wider color palette - and some of these are on sale! The possibilities are endless but I think you'll know it when you've found the right tiles.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tierra Y Fuego

Ok, I don't have the right house for those tiles, but the latest ones EAM44 posted are gorgeous! I particularly love all three down the right side.

Back to the OP's question, I'm personally not a big fan of having one type of tile in one place and another completely different tile elsewhere in the kitchen. To me, it feels disjointed. But it's such a personal choice. If you want to do a mixture of more quiet tiles and some loud tiles, maybe you could carry a line of the more bold tiles through some more quiet tiles on the other side of the kitchen.

I'm partial to the star and cross but love your 'other tabarca option' too. (Like the 'smaller marble' too).

I have this in the pantry:

and this in the kitchen:

If you post a picture of the full area, I can try to photoshop a few options. Love the ones suggested in this thread!

OB2B I love, love, love both of your tiles - I know I've told you that before. Prickly I love all of those too. It is more challenging in an open area to incorporate two different tiles and have them look like they belong together, but it's doable.

I wanted to mention that Fireclay has a minimum order requirement on some of their tiles so please don't fall in love. I have to stop recommending them so much, even if they do make beautiful tile.

I thank all of you for your awesome suggestions, and beautiful photos. My gut tells me it will be tricky to mix tiles in the two areas because they do connect. But I think it would be fun, and do not want to rule it out. My contractor is resigned to the fact that I am not coming up with a tile choice in the next few days. So, I am waiting for the pendants to go in, new tv, faux rough wood beam, a few rounds of day/night, to see if it puts any great ideas in my mind. I also have a sample pack coming from fireclay. Tabarka wanted a showroom visit and it's pretty far so that is likely out of the running. I returned my marble samples on Saturday and am leaning toward something with a little sheen. The soapstone and cabinets are reading very matte to me, which I love, but which I think can 'take' the shiny. One of you wisely said that. I was hoping for a quick decision,but I doubt that will happen. Unless I get totally lucky!

Greetings tile friends! I have made my tile decisions...hurried choices due to pressure from my family and contractor, but I'm happy to be almost done!

I'd love an opinion on what color and type of grout to use on my Fireclay Whitewash tiles. I am leaning towards a light gray. My contractor provided a few sample lines, none of them quite cutting it. Any recommendation on color and sanded vs the plastic-y stuff?

I will add a second photo after this that shows what I chose for my "special" tile. While I loved it uninstalled, I'm not sure what I think installed. Too cutesy?

Thanks!!!!