How to Design a Backsplash
The purpose of a kitchen backsplash is to protect the wall behind the sink from moisture. But it's also an opportunity to dress up the look of the room. A well-designed tile backsplash should augment both the countertop and the rest of the colors and materials in the kitchen, while also standing out as a kind of tile mural or backdrop. This is where you can get creative with colors and configurations of tiles, even using sculptured tiles with shapes carved into them. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Choose what kind of materials you want to use for the main body of the backsplash, and have them on site as you create your design. Ceramic or porcelain tiles in relatively small squares are typical, but you can also get large-square granite or marble tiles, rectangular tiles, very small mosaic tiles, and even pressed metal tiles (make sure they're galvanized, to stand up to moisture).
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Decide on a border material for the top and sides of the backsplash area. Regular tiles don't have finished edges, so something has to go around the perimeter. It can be as simple as buying 'bullnose' (rounded-edge) tiles of the same color and style as the rest, or as ambitious as bordering the whole thing in milled and varnished wood trim. One popular approach is to buy thin, decorative trim-tiles that are different in color, shape and style than the tiles in the middle.
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Measure and mark the outline of your backsplash on the wall. Make it any size you want. Typically, backsplashes are 16 to 18 inches high, and slightly wider than the width of the sink.
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Mark out a corresponding area on your grid paper, with the border determined by the number of tiles you're planning for the backsplash. If the tiles aren't square (as are the squares on grid paper) then draw out your own grid on plain paper to mimick the shapes of the tiles. If you want a diamond pattern, then turn the grid diagonally.
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Use your colored pencils to approximate the colors of the tiles you're using. Lay out the design you want--multi-colored checkerboards, lines of differently colored tiles in specific shapes, color groupings--until you're comfortable with how it looks on the paper.
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On your floor, lay out your tiles in the shape of the backsplash, using your grid paper as the guide. Assess how it looks, making adjustments as necessary. Once you're happy with it, begin the tiling process, taking the tiles directly from the floor to the wall.
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Tips & Warnings
If the countertop is covered in the same kind of tile you're using for the backsplash, make sure the vertical grout lines line up.
