Thanks Triton Stone! I will look into the 2x8 tiles.

I get what you are saying miacometlady. Perhaps a flat shiny white tile wall would look nice and give me the look I'm going for, which is a warm, relaxed vibe with a timeless look.

Tile the whole wall. If you tile an 18" backsplash under the upper cabinets and a 30" under the hood you have those other awkward spaces where the soffit only goes part ways. Another option is to install it 30" high in the areas where there are no upper cabinets and 18" under the upper cabinets. That said, I always think it looks best to take the tile to the ceiling or to the crown molding when you have a hood of your style. The ceiling will look taller and the room less linear if you tile to the ceiling on this wall.

I can see your difficulty. If it were my kitchen, I would tile up to the level where the hood and chimney connect. That way you get some wall color to influence your design, but also you get a sort of wainscot effect. An off-white, matte-finish, subway tile leaning toward the gray tones and a complementary wall color would give the wall some interest without being distracting. Best of luck to you!

Make sure that whatever tile you choose has an edge tile you like since you will be using a lot of them.

The thing that nobody is addressing is the asymmetry in your design, with the soffit above the cabinets on the left only. I think that if you tile to the ceiling, you'll be left with choices that only emphasize that and make it feel even more imbalanced. I would take an option something like rawketgirl's #3, a half wall of tile, and paint the soffit to match the rest of the walls above.

thanks everyone for your thoughts! Rawketgirl that is so helpful to have the visuals. Does #4 have the tile on the soffit too?

acm you are right, it will be important to not emphasize that imbalance.

I vote bevelled white subway tile and whole wall. Good luck!

The whole wall - I would do glass! Good luck!

Looking at photos, sometimes the whole wall ends up looking overdone (like when entire bathrooms were tiled in the 80s). We're about to do white penny tile in our kitchen, up to the height of the range hood, with one layer of floating white shelves going across the top of where the tile ends. As someone else pointed out, the tile going up to a certain height creates a high-end wainscoting effect.

My vote, all the way, not beveled

Is there a reason for the soffit/no soffit look? If the soffit is necessary on the left to hide ductwork, etc, can a balancing one be built over the right-hand window anyway? End it mirrored around the vent duct. Paint them both white to blend with the cabinets. End the backsplash at the bottom of the soffits.

Borrowing rawketgrl's markup drawing:

Ooops, just realized how long ago the OP was. *Nevermind* :-)

Good grief, just noticed also Lianne

thanks for the ideas!!! here are some photos. I still need to get some window treatments and a cushion for the window seat. It is a very comfortable kitchen to work in. And the asymmetry doesn't seem so bad

Good choice going up to ceiling! im going to do it in my bathroom.