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Tile question -- white and blue

16 years ago

We are in the final stretch, and your help has brought us that far to a very large degree!

We have thought that backsplash will be just travertine with the travertine bolding...

Now I am not quite so sure wondering if we are losing an opportunity and going for "safe" may not be!

Our kitchen will be open to a great room, it'll have Lacanche (Cluny), no wall cabinets, satin Cambrian Black and a beautiful granite that is called Abstract Brown here but looks just like brown/red marble. Cabinets will be creamy white on the perimeter (with Cambrian Black (satin)) and fruitwood stained island (with Abstract Brown). The hood will be black/gold trim French style to match the range.

So I started thinking if we have subtle porcelain tile with just a little bit of pale blue in the 18th century style of drawing -- that may look very nice! What do you think? (It'll be creamy white cabinets/satin black and the white/blue as the background)

If you think it'll be nice, the question is where to buy such a tile at a reasonable price? Someone published beatiful handmade tiles that I think would be great http://shopping.dutchvillage.com/tiles/harlingertiles/harlingerindex.htm, but at nearly $60 per tile, this is way too much for us!

Any suggestions and recommendations?

Thank you!

Tanya

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Comments (9)

mbarstow
16 years ago
Have you seen the tiles at www.artontiles.com? Select "index" and you will see their French tiles, about $15 ea.
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bill_vincent
16 years ago
How about using standard 4 1/4" wall tiles that go for about 1.75 a foot, and using them in design? The tile in the following picture is standard Daltile 101 white 4 1/4" with denim 4 1/4" tiles cut up to make smaller accents:

You could even add more to it, if you like, using something like Daltile's rope trim in Denim, or adding more accents. The point is there's nothing that says you need to give up your first born in order to have a nice, and even impressive, backsplash.
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On the wait until later train of thought: in the time between now and when you'll reno this kitchen, hang out here and find out all kinds of interesting stuff. You'll definitely not want to repeat the electrical switches and outlets which stick out like sore (& mismatched!) thumbs on the tile backsplash. You'll find alternatives here. You'll probably want your new cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling - check out others' kitchens to be sure. You can participate in agonizing over which granite, or maybe quartz, or soapstone, or laminate? Is there room for a pantry somewhere? You'll find things that others' do that you love and never would have thought of and things that you'll *know* you'd never want in your kitchen. For your husband to answer the question about why you'd want to replace those cabinets, there was a thread recently about WHEN it was time. I've linked it in case you missed it or want him to read it. Here is a link that might be useful: Time to replace cabinets?
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remodelfla
16 years ago
When I read your post I thought of light blue marble.
Below is a link to a thread that shows a pic of Blue Celeste marble posted by bluekitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: light blue marble
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caview
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you, guys, for the recommendations! Much appreciated! I'll keep on looking and like the idea of starting with the basics and then see why it won't work : )

Tanya
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rosie
16 years ago
No shopping recommendations, unfortunately, but I think the tile would look lovely. It would read as cream from farther away, pulling everything together, but just get more interesting and charming on approach. And it would be happily out of what's been the ordinary for the past 20 years or so now yet still classic.
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kitchendetective
16 years ago
The tiles here are usually less expensive than Country Floors, Ann Sacks, et al.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lots of options here
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bill_vincent
16 years ago
That's some awesome tile, but BOY what a pain that'd be to grout!!!!!
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remodelfla
16 years ago
kitchendetective... great find! That would look beautiful in a kitchen like the OP's. It would be surprising and different too. I could see matching it with a field tile and doing that as a focal point behind a stove. Then mix in the textured ones among the field tile elsewhere.
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gsciencechick
16 years ago
Someone here pointed me to Overstock for some interesting tiles.
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