The Kitchen Backsplash Tile You Didn’t Consider (But Should)

Installing a new kitchen is an expensive and stressful experience.  You have survived the initial design phase, the demo, and the behind-the-wall installations for water, gas, and electrical.  The floors are installed and you are headed for the finish line. Your very, very expensive cabinets are on order and your new appliances have already been shipped.  Now, you just have to pick out the finishes that make your kitchen really shine: the lights, the cabinet pulls, the faucets, and of course, the backsplash.  There are so many stunning backsplash choices in the tile store, but there is only one problem.  You have run out of room in your budget.  What do you do?

As I flip houses for a living, I often find myself up against a very tight budget.  Occasionally, I will find an amazing deal on a pretty mosaic tile or subway tile for the kitchen.  Or something else during the renovation came in under budget and I can splurge a little on the kitchen.  But more often than not, I need to find a way to make the kitchen backsplash look beautiful and upgraded without the high cost.  This is when I turn to 12 x 24-inch tiles.

A 12 x 24-inch tile is my choice for a beautiful, yet inexpensive kitchen backsplash for several reasons.  First, the tiles tend to be much cheaper per square foot than mosaic or subway tile.  So, I am saving money on the materials before I even move on to the install.  Second, I save money on my labor cost as well.  It takes much less time and effort to install larger tiles than it does to install mosaics or subway tile, and therefore I get charged a lot less for the labor.  Plus, I prefer to install my 12 x 24-inch tiles vertically in a backsplash, making the times even faster to install (less work to align the tiles and even fewer cuts) and it leaves me with very few seams.  The tiles are cut just at the top and one tile covers the entire 18-inch height of the backsplash.  The only grout lines are the vertical seams between the tiles, once every 12 inches. This also ends up giving a similar feel to the very popular and more modern slab backsplash look, with a considerably lower price point. So, lower material cost, lower labor cost, and fewer grout lines?  This really works well when on a tight budget and looks so much nicer than using a matching 4-inch granite backsplash in its place.

The only con for using these larger format tiles as the backsplash, other than it having a simpler look than a mosaic or subway, is that you will be discarding a portion of the tile during install.  You will be literally cutting off a portion of the tile to bring it down to the 18 inches that you require, and will probably have nowhere else to install that chunk that was cut off.  So, some of the tile will probably go unused.  Lately, I have found some 10x 20-inch tiles, which means you only have to cut off two inches at the top of the tile during install, thus wasting less.  You would still get the benefit of the tile and labor being less costly and the fewer grout lines as well.

Essentially, if you are looking for a lower cost, yet still beautiful option for your backsplash, a 12x 24-inch (or 10 x 20-inch) large format tile can be the perfect choice.  Would you use a 12 x 24-inch tile on the backsplash in your kitchen?