Will you have any sort of backsplash there? 4"? Or just drywall painted?

Could you place a piece of paper towel there when you use the sink to get an idea of how much water lands there? We seem to get a ton of water, but maybe we are messy. I also like the tile for cleaning. I'd worry that cleaners I use on the counter tops and sink might affect the paint if they got on it.

Thanks daisychain01! Yes, I will have a 4inch backsplash there but your idea of putting a paper towel there when I use the sink is brilliant. I will have to try that. Currently, I have a white marble and water marks do not show on it. If I did put tile there, how high do you think I would have to go? Until the mirror? That's what I have now. Also, my toilet sits to the right. I wonder if I should tile the whole wall (it's only about 4 1/2 feet of wall space until you hit the shower which will be tiled, of course).

I can't give unbiased advice because it sounds like we are doing exactly what you are doing. I think it's a personal preference thing. We are tiling 12 inches above vanity top (to the bottom of the mirror) and doing the whole wall behind vanity and toilet right to shower which will be tiled in the same tile. This is how we had it before the reno and I liked having tile behind everything - for both ease of cleaning and the look of it.

The sales guy from the tile shop said that most people weren't tiling whole bathroom walls these days, but I have a classic, old world aesthetic (not necessarily traditional) and his clientele is mostly the Mcmansion or new build owners. Like I said, personal preference.

Daisy, the sales guy from the tile shop isn't a very good sales guy ... he should be encouraging tile on every wall! ;-)

I tiled my whole powder room, another bathroom will have tile on the wall behind the vanity and both showers being redone will have tile all the way up to the ceiling and on the ceiling. It makes so much sense to have tile instead of paint, when water is involved.

Right now, I have tile on the wall with my vanity and toilet (left side of the bathroom) and tile on the wall with two towel rods (right side of the room). And it seems like too much tile. I just did it like that last time because that is what it originally had. For this reno, my gut said that I should tile behind the vanity and toilet but I thought it would look uneven just tiling the left wall.

If you already have a 4" back splash of countertop material, you should not tile above that. I prefer the look of tile meeting the counter instead of the 4" splash, but if you don't want tile, the 4" counter material is okay.

I'm doing mine just like daisy. I will not have a 4" backsplash, just the wainscot height tile on the wet wall.

So you're both tiling one wall, tiling the shower, but leaving the opposite wall untiled? That seems unfinished to me.

Mayflower - that is what I was concerned about. Both walls (and the shower) in a small bathroom seems like too much tile. But one wall seems uneven.

I am putting daisychain01's suggestion to the test and putting paper towels up behind my sink/faucet to see how much I splash.

So you posted in another thread that the vanity will be 24'. It's probably against a wall. You could use a higher granite backsplash. The only thing I don't like about the look is the thick chunk of backsplash against the side wall when you cut the splash from the slab, but maybe you don't splash to the side and won't need it. I know I don't. Some granites are pretty uniform and you can buy thinner tiles that will look like the counter, as in this bathroom. Not sure if this is all one piece, but ask your fabricator.

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mayflowers, I'm going back to the idea of just doing a 4 inch backsplash. I am reusing my absolute granite vanity top. And I also do not love the idea of a chunk of backsplash against the wall especially since its going to be black (I'm planning on using white wall tiles in the shower, a gray floor and white vanity). I'm going to do, as you suggest, and see if I can have the backsplash made thiner and then maybe an inch or two higher. Daisychain01, I did the paper towel trick this week and I think there was two drops of water that hit the paper towel. Not much for an entire week.