Center the first tile in the middle of the stove and work right to left off that one. Due to grout you end up with sliver? I think all you can do is adjust the grout a bit to avoid the slivers. As for the end. I like the second picture where you continue the shorter up to the back wall and paint the area behing under the cabinet.

I know that the small tiles on the ends of the wall may bug you now but after install you will not notice them. No one will. I installed my tiles in front of fireplace incorrectly, not centered. This cause tile on right to extend 2" farther than the left side. Not one person, even on close inspection, has noticed this. I also installed a slate floor tile wrong at base of stairs. Was staggering pattern like you but for some reason installed the slivers that ended up hitting stairs side by side. Not one person has noticed. But they are all fun reminders to me when I really, really think about it.

What brand is your subway tile?

I just laid 5 Daltile Subways end to end and got slightly shy of 30-1/8".

They are lugged slightly on the sides to allow room for grout. Perhaps your tiles are not lugged and will need to be set slightly apart for grout.

I just had tile installed in my bathroom, and on the floor, there are indeed slivers of tile along one wall (match-stick sized). When I have had to cut very small slivers of ceramic or glass I used a glass grinder as used by stained glass hobbyists. They are relatively inexpensive and you could probably sell it afterward.

Because of your situation turning the corner, I would probably choose option #2 and run full-height the depth of the cabinet as well and leave the sliver of unpainted wall at the edge of the opening. (Didn't we talk about some of these issues last year sometime? :)

Hi palimpset,
I think we did talk about it before! Boy was I jumping the gun, huh?
Actually, I was looking at it some more and now that the tiles don't line up like I thought, that inside corner might not work as in "b". I have to keep the right side of that in some decent relationship to the end of the counter and the end of the opening above it, and it doesn't look like the end of the tile would line up with the outside of the cabinet door now. It worked great when I thought the tiles were 6" long!
The tiles are distributed by Architectural Ceramics and they're by a company called Cermiche Gabriella out of Brazil. They have a nice, almost handmade look, not quite as uniform as the Daltiles. But I did lay them out and 5 of them (using the small spacing ridges, not quite lugs) obly equal a shy 29.5" :(

Start with centering the tile over the oven, then make adjustments when you reach each end of the wall. If you have a very narrow area left at one end then shift the row until you have an even amount of tile on each end. After the first 2 rows, everything is a repeat, right?

I would go with the first diagram, stopping the tile when it intersects the wall on the right. I wouldn't do the second drawing since you're not carrying that height across the whole wall (the one with the pass-thru).

Also, be sure to check level of your cabinets and draw some plumb, vertical lines before laying your tile.

Annz made the comment I meant to add. It would bug me if you had the tile go up the next wall but not us the wall on the pass through openings. When and if you paint the wall with the pass throughs the subway tiles may stand out if you have them go up that one side and not on the pass through areas.

The idea of making sure you are plumb is good point. Bummer to get all installed and have them be wonky when you stand back.