Preference. The sliver will become tinier eek. I don’t know my GC is handling the backsplash, but want tiniest grout possible. Do you know what that is?

Are those tiles perfectly square and level? That will dictate how small or large your grout lines will need to be. If the tiles aren't identical and flat, then you will need wider grout lines to avoid lippage and the higer points casting shadows on the backsplash.

your installer will make sure there are no grout lines either side of the window and work from there. i'd not worry about centering.

IF the bottom tile will actually be sloped, then would definitly take the bottom tile all the way to the end. You could then add another piece to the upper horizontals but cut off those upper horizontals to either put one vertical of the same kind at the end (especially if you're adding yet more horizontals) or, if three horizontals are all your installing, you could add an interesting square tile at the end -- same material but just a different color and/or design.

chispa brought up a good point.

My backsplash tiles aren't perfectly square and level so our tile installer set the grout thickness to work best with the tiles to minimize lippage, etc. I just measured: grout thickness varies from 1/16" to 1/8" to accommodate the slight changes in tile shape. We chose a grout very close in color to the tile, too.

I'd rather minimal grout, too, but today's grouts are much better products than they used to be so stain and other issues are much less of a concern.

Here's a close-up of my backsplash:

And a photo taken from farther away:

Pretty!! Def all tiles will run horizontal. No clue if they have measured for grout thickness ugh but want as minimal as possible

Thanks!

We wanted minimal grout but since we chose tiles that weren't rectified - cut with a machine so each one was exactly the same - we weren't able to do that. The tile setter needed some flexibility to accommodate the slight irregularity of each tile. Any narrower and it wouldn't have looked good at all.

Are the marble tiles you intend to use all the exact same size and thickness, one tile to the next? If so, you should be able to get by with minimal grout. How expert is your tile setter? Is your wall dead plumb? It takes more skill to lay tile with minimal grout lines on a wall that has any bowing to it, especially given the size of your tiles.

Is your wish for minimal grout because you're concerned about keeping grout clean? Today's grout products are so much better than they used to be. They are much easier to keep clean. The marble tiles will be more of a maintenance issue than the grout.

Is your wish for minimal grout lines because you just don't like the busyness of tile + grout? If so, have you considered going with a slab backsplash?

Tailored Glamour · More Info

When you finally get the backsplash done - Dolomite marble - mostly all white minimal veining (when you get a better price online that has 80sq ft minimum but need less than 50 sq ft — and you go through each and every piece... I love it!! It doesn’t compete at all with the countertop quartz veins at all.

FYI after a rush purchase of thassos marble locally (due to pressures by contractor) I put the breaks on the backsplash as my gut said it was too bright and didn’t want to make an even more expensive mistake by installing it. I took a break from the kitchen and after a few emails back and forth with the online supplier expressing what I was looking for and seeing images of the dolomite lot I knew I found what I had been searching for (I had a lot of white tile samples that just never felt right🙄) When it was time to install the tile, I hired the nicest contractor that found amusement (instead of annoyance) of my search through all the boxes for the perfect tiles.

Now