Same here. I think the first tile backsplash I saw was 5 years ago (in an actual home, not a magazine) at a friend's house who hand painted random white tiles with blue flowers...so Bohemian! My mom redid her kitchen3 years ago and guess what?...painted walls...I think the tile industry found a canvas that they could make a lot of money on at the same time beautiful materials became available and designers took hold...I would love to hear more about the history too

My guess is that folks got tired of the 5" backsplash and decided to add a design element. Interesting question!

We built a home back in the late 80's and backsplash tile was "in". Mostly you saw the the laminate countertop return and the tile sat on top of it and went all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. You didn't see tile going all the way down to the counter...you always saw a 4" return up the wall.

Maybe it's a regional thing. At the time we were living in the Chicago area. Middle to upper end market model homes from the 80's on showed tiled backsplashes. Don't know about before-hand since we weren't in the home buying market. However, I grew up though in a home with a tiled backsplash.

Hmmm, we have a home built in the late 70s in California. Tile backsplash (same exact 6x6 tile as the counters) went up to the bottom of the cabinets.

So maybe it is a regional thing.

Yes, it's regional. In the West, we've always had tile counters that went up the backsplash to the cabinets, at all style and price levels. Formica was very rare in kitchens. I remember some pink Formica in someone's place, with a metal rimmed pink sink, and don't really remember the backsplash, but I think it was tiled. Stone counters started to come in for bathrooms in the '60's, with sheet mirror backsplashes, sometimes with the 4" rise. Stone eventually spread to the kitchen, but people weren't giving up their backsplashes, so they got decorative tile to go with the stone, or continued the stone up the walls.

I've been installing tile backsplashes for the better part of 20-25 years now. They didn't really start getting fancy until about 10 years ago, although I did one that was pretty outrageous in my home in Ct. in 89.

Our 1940s still had the original ones until recently, but they were around the whole kitchen (like a tile wainscotting)and not just behind the counters. All the houses on our street had them.

Sacramento, Ca backsplash circa 1958!

I suspect that most of those tiled backsplashed from the "early days" were regular glossy squares of color, perhaps with a trim band or bullnose of contrasting color. The tile was very affordable and available. Today, you can only find a few of these tiles at any outlet; most of the action is on the higher end, so much so that it's hard to find many colors in the glossy square tile.

I think the trend toward glam backsplashes occurred with the outbreak of more irregular glazes on decorative tiles in the 1970s and 1980s. Instead of making things regular and "sanitary," kitchens got decorated with macrame twine and coarse looking tile as if peasants had invaded the formerly pristine, controlled space. Chrome gave way to stainless steel and wood and formal tablesettings began to disappear. Everyday drinking glasses were made of colored glass (gold or green especially) and "smoke" colored glass was everywhere. Cloth napkins were made of large prints in coarse fabrics or people used paper towels and paper napkins. Earthy wooden salad bowls and hand-made pottery became the in thing. So... Bathroom-style regular square tiles made too slick as a contrast and a new aesthetic entered the kitchen and bathroom.

Cooks of thirty or more years ago would be aghast at the rough-finish tiles and stones now appearing on backsplashes. However would they have cleaned them?