bump for Palimpsest to see...

I know we had talked about tempering mine but I am not sure whether it was or not. This might be because the first one cracked when they were trying to install it so I am not sure the second one was tempered.

The second one cracked from one of the corners up a few inches and stopped, soon after installation. Since the first one cracked here when they were installing it, it must have been the wall in that location. This was nowhere near the cooking surface, it was near one of the edges.

I know someone who used mirror and it was not tempered. And I don't think the inspector asked.

I think it definitely has a greater chance of cracking than tile if something hits it. But I've never hit the backsplash hard with anything. I think this would be difficult to do behind the range, and behind the sink you'd hit the faucet first.

I suppose it could happen, but it's not happened to me or the people I know who have done this.

If you are doing mirror be aware that if you have seating where your eyelevel is significantly below the upper cabinets that you may see the bottom of the upper cabinets reflected in the mirror.

My friend with the mirror, you could sit right outside the open kitchen opposite the backsplash and I could see the back of the light rail and wires for lighting and stuff. It bugged me, but I don't think they noticed it.

Thanks so much for you detailing your experience!

We were thinking we would put the mirror from countertop (or just up slightly to allow for electrical) up to the 9' ceiling and have no uppers. We could then put the vent right up against the mirror. The view it's reflecting is the view with transom windows that go all the way up to 9'. This way we could get the full reflection of light coming in. It's so tricky with mirrors as it's not always what one would initially think it's reflecting back for the "view", the under cabinet wiring for one that you spoke of. If we go up to 9' though, from down below looking up, it's apt to see a lot of ceiling, but just in general, it should be flooding a lot of reflecting light in the room. Then sink will have it's own large window.

It sounds like the wall needs to be absolutely flat or cracking happens. I was planning to have it glued down so an absolute flat walls so it's imperative. If the wall is glued down, though it could still crack, I'm thinking it would just stick to the wall with it's crack showing. From what I've read, I'm guessing if it cracked and didn't break into a million pieces, it was likely not tempered. I of course could be totally wrong.

I feel like we get this floorplan nailed so we can move ahead, and then some other crazy, but good idea comes along and just sets me back again having to rethink everything. It's just when I realized I could maximize the great view, I had to persue it. With all the neighbors doing major remodels, I'm really getting the itch. Besides several of them have had some contractors that they have been happy with so that takes a load off finding someone.

Thanks again for responding, and all your help to all of us.

If you have to allow for outlets and don't want them cut through the mirror, I would mount them low in a short backsplash of whatever the countertop material is and match them to that material as much as possible.

When I have mirrored something and had to have electrical through it, I use good quality polished chrome switchplates. I think they look better than mirrored switch plates.

I would never have thought to use polished chrome instead of mirror for the switch plates. It gets me to wondering if I could do this entire backsplash in polished chrome instead of a mirror. I would guess though, it would distort the reflection quite a bit compared to an actual mirror. Hmmmm.