Kitchen Backsplash

Backsplashes are close to the eye and hand. The cuts, spacing, outlet alignment, and tile variation matter, because you’ll look at this wall every morning under task lighting from two feet away. It’s also one of the most common standalone jobs we do: a few days of work that changes how the whole kitchen reads.

Layout decides everything

A backsplash has more edges per square foot than any other tile in the house. Outlets, switches, the underside of the upper cabinets, the window, the hood, the ends of the counter. Every one of those is a place where a bad cut shows. We start by setting out the wall on paper: where the full tiles land, where the cuts hide, how the pattern centres on the range or the sink, and what happens at an outside corner.

Then we dry-lay the visible runs. With handmade tile that means arranging the pieces so the colour variation spreads evenly instead of clumping. With a herringbone or a chevron, it means finding the centre line and working out so the pattern lands symmetric at both ends. With subway tile, it means deciding whether the joints run through the outlets or the outlets sit inside a tile. Small decisions, and they’re the whole result.

Materials we install

Handmade and hand-glazed ceramic is the most requested backsplash tile right now, and the most demanding to install well. Each piece is slightly different in size, colour and edge, and that’s the appeal. We set it with slightly wider joints than machine-made tile and blend the variation across the wall.

Natural stone, marble especially, brings veining and depth that nothing else does. It needs sealing before grout and a sealing schedule after, and it won’t forgive tomato sauce left overnight. We’ll tell you that before you buy it. Details are on our natural stone page.

Porcelain and stone slab backsplashes are the quiet, continuous option: one or two large pieces, seams hidden at a corner or behind the range, with the counter material sometimes carried up the wall. They’re custom work, cut to template, and they’re covered under custom tile installation and large-format tile.

Glass, zellige, penny rounds, hex, picket, and mosaic all show up in our kitchens. Each has its own setting approach, and we’ll steer you off a material that won’t survive behind your range.

The range wall

The wall behind the range is where the kitchen makes its statement and where the material is tested hardest. Heat and grease mean the grout has to be a high-performance type that resists staining, and it shouldn’t be white. Full-height tile to the hood, a slab panel, or a patterned field centred on the range are all common. Where the backsplash turns an outside corner, at the end of a run or around a window, we mitre the tile so there’s no metal trim and the surface reads as solid.

Outlets, edges, and the counter joint

Outlets are cut tight and square so the cover plate sits flat with no gap showing. Where possible we work with the electrician to shift a box a few centimetres so it lands inside a tile rather than across a joint. The top edge under the cabinets gets a clean finish, either a bullnose, a metal profile matched to the fixtures, or a mitred return. The joint at the counter is silicone, colour-matched to the grout, so it flexes as the cabinets and counter settle. Grout there cracks; silicone doesn’t.

Sequence and timing

The backsplash goes on after the counters are set and before the appliances are slid into place. If you’re doing only the backsplash, we can usually schedule it within a few weeks. If it’s part of a larger project, our kitchen renovations page lays out the full sequence, and our kitchen tile renovation guide covers what to decide before you start.

Across the region

We install backsplashes from Vancouver to Chilliwack. Condo kitchens in Richmond and Burnaby are compact, tightly scheduled jobs. Character homes in Vancouver often have walls that aren’t flat, which we correct before tile. New builds in Surrey and Langley tend toward slab and large-format.

Send a photo of the kitchen, the tile you like, and the rough length of the run. Request a quote and we’ll tell you what the layout needs.