I put a strip of wallpaper behind my stove in our first house. Worked great and was super easy to wipe up. Great way to add some interest, I think, and inexpensive enough in most cases to change easily.

You might wish to google vinyl wall paper, or washable wall paper. Seem to recall this topic has come up before on GW and elsewhere.

Deedles was planning on doing this with some lovely paper she had. I think, in the end, she decided against it. You should be able to find it if you search around.

What's the worst that can happen - you put up wallpaper (much easier and cheaper than tile) and if it's hard to clean or looks bad after a year, peel it off and put up something else - that was my thought process anyway.

I put up paintable wall paper behind my stove and its been up for at least 5 years. It wipes clean easily and hasn,t been a problem.

Thanks for the responses. I love the wallpaper beadboard. I will do some searches for vinyl and paintable wallpaper.

I had vinyl coated wallpaper for years as a backsplash and it was very washable. And I'm talking about the wallpaper outlet stuff that cost no more than $10 a double roll.

That was back in the day when every wall in my house got papered!

My in-laws put up vinyl beadboard wallpaper as a backsplash...it melted behind the range and looked like a Dali painting!

I was going to do this as Breezy said, but the reason I was thinking of glass or plexi is because the paper I was thinking of was British pulp paper and not washable. In my current kitchen I have painted anaglypta behind the stove and it washes up just fine.

AboutToGetDusty, did they have a fire? I can't imagine doing something on my stove top that would melt anything on the walls. Our range has a back to it, too it's not a countertop inset range. It would require a large fire on the stovetop to affect the wallpaper in our kitchen. Anyway this stuff is not vinyl it is a type of foam, and meets CA fire code or it wouldn't be sold here.

ao34, ours is the Allen and Roth brand from lowes, link below. It was less than $20 for the 55 sq ft roll, prepasted and pretty easy to install.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lowes Allen and Roth beadboard wallpaper

Tinan, no fire, but it definitely melted from the heat! Now they have tile behind their gas range.

In my last kitchen, I had a mural painted for the backsplash (well, at least above the 4" granite part). If you go to my "almost done" post and scroll down, you can see it. It lasted 14 years and was in perfect condition when we remodeled this past fall.

So glad I read this post. I have been agonizing over a back splash and I just don't want one! The granite wiill have a 4" bs edge around the perimeter. I was just going to paint behind my induction cooktop but I just fell in love with the Allen+Roth paintable ceiling tile wall paper. I would paint it in an eggshell finish paint. I am loving Benjamin Moore paint and think Casabella is a gorgeous color!

We had this in a vacation house we recently sold. We didn't put it in, but it was gorgeous and very durable. Just plain, fairly delicate paper (no vinyl) and plexi over it. I would never have thought to do it, but it was nice.

Saw this photo wallpaper with plexiglass over it.

Below lots of other examples.

Here is a link that might be useful: wallpaper backsplashes