well, to be honest i never thought about this. i didn't in my last house. the tile was extremely pricey and i wouldn't think of putting it somewhere no one would see it.

the inside of the appliance garages were painted the wall color. GL!

I don't know about appliance garages, but I HAVE gone inside built in breadboxes. If you look in the corner, you'll see what I mean:

No, I put appliances in my appliance garage and tile in a cardboard box.

I'm sorry I couldn't resist.

I'd guess the answer is actually no. We didn't tile behind the microwave shelf just put a couple of coats of finish paint on the wall. It's completely hidden back there. If I can't see it I'm not paying for it.

To me it would be one of those nice touches that would surprise me but leave me with an impression of a very nicely detailed job. Like buying a handpainted box and opening it up to find some painted detail inside, and the bottom of the box finished as nicely as the top. An easy place to cut out without sacrificing much, but a nice detail if it isn't expensive or price is no object. But then again, I also like my cabinets and drawers to look nice inside as well as the outside.

JMHO

Sue

I would tile the splash & then install the appliance garage. That way, if you decide to reclaim your counterspace, you can remove the appliance garage & not have an ugly gap in the splash.

Ditto ci lantro.

But wouldn't the tile make the appliance garage stick out beyond the cabinet a little bit? Or would you install the garage first and then tile up to the sides on the outside and then inside??? But then if you removed it you'd have gaps in the tile. I guess you just trim down the sides of the garage to make it sit flush with the upper cabinet? I dunno but I didn't tile inside mine, just painted the wall color back there. We don't leave it open for any length of time and the only appliances we have in it are the Food Saver and the electric can opener. I guess if I had a coffee pot or toaster in it it would probably stay open for longer periods of time.

The back of my appliance garage is actually finished cabinetry. It looks nice when open, even though it is typcially only open in the morning.

I'm with ci lantro, lsandler and the expert bill vincent. Finish it.

A) The price is small. Less than 2 sq ft of tile? I do believe "take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves" but in my kitchen, I'd look on this as a foolish economy.

B) Think 5-10 years down the road if/when styles change, or the door breaks or you make a layout change or something -- there's that big gap and no matching tile.

My parents had a similar situation in their bathroom, and were very glad their tile guy 35 years ago tiled something invisible, or they would have had to retile the whole thing! Bless him, wherever he is!

Same as Susan205, the back of my garage is actually wood cabinetry. However, if it weren't, I'd have had the backsplash completed behind it. Bill's photo says it all.

According to my kitchen installer the proper installation method of a garage is bottom cabinet, then garage and then top cabinet to make sure it sits on the garage with no space in between, where as you install the top ones first when there is no garage. I can't remember where in there the countertop gets installed. But it is so everyting fits tightly. So, since it gets installed with the cabinets, you really wouldn't do the backsplash first. Some have cabinet backs and some do not.

Sue

Our garage was the last thing installed. That way there are no funny cuts in the tile. I have 2 plugs in there as well and it is nice to have it finished.

L

That is good to know, that means I could have one installed later if I want to. My installer didn't give me that impression at all.

Sue