So enough about the counter … you’re probably dying to know what I did about the backsplash, right?! Because you remember that whole other blog!! (Of course you do.)
The backsplash is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen now. It’s made up of three different colors of Fireclay tile seconds. And why it’s three colors is a story of serendipity.
When I went shopping in the Fireclay boneyard, I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but I did have a color palette in mind: tomato-soup red, cornflower/periwinkle blue, and golden butter yellow. I found enough of the blue for about 2/3 of the backsplash and enough of the yellow for 1/3. I didn’t find anything, however, for the trim piece – no bullnose or quarter-round. So I went into the main shop and looked at the full-price stock. I didn’t make any purchases or decisions in there, but I picked up a single sample tile in my shade of red, thinking I might go for a red bullnose edge. Back at home, I decided against that, but wasn’t quite sure what the solution was, so that issue remained open for quite a while.
Several months later my contractor and I finally worked out a trim detail; we would run a single strip of Douglas fir trim around the whole kitchen perimeter that would serve as both the bottom trim on the windows and the top trim on the backsplash. It came together really nicely, and solved that particular problem.
The day eventually came for me to lay out the backsplash. I had decided on a pattern for placing the blue and yellow time – somewhat random, but roughly for every two blue tiles I would insert a partial yellow tile. Sometimes it was just one blue, or sometimes three, but on average two blue, one partial yellow.
As I was laying the sections out on my living room floor, I came across the single red tile in the box, and had a brainstorm! I had that tile cut into four not-quite-equal strips, and I placed one strip into each of the four separate sections of backsplash – just a little fun, unexpected element nodding its head to the tomato-red cabinets. It makes me smile every time one of those bits of red catches my eye.
That’s the thing I love about design work. You can plan most of it, but being open to the odd inspiration can make all the difference. And all the better when you can make good use of something that otherwise might be wasted!
A final note about the sink occupying the full counter depth – actually, it wasn’t quite as deep as it should have been. We solved this by putting two layers of cement board behind the tile backsplash, allowing us to pull the sink forward about an inch. This also accomplished another one of my original wish list items – the backsplash can be removed more easily (if and when someone wants to) because the tile is not adhered directly to the wall. You can’t tell, though, can you?
For more details about this project, see my Pinterest board.
Ann Edminster is a nationally known expert on green home design and construction. She is also a principal author of the LEED for Homes Rating System, and author of “Energy Free: Homes for a Small Planet”. Her website is annedminster.com.
See Ann’s earlier blog on Green Countertop Dilemma.
