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Honed or polished marble for the backsplash

12 years ago

Have decided on a marble backsplash to go with our polished quartzite. We were really limited on BS choices b/c of money. We are renovating our entire place so we need to stay below 9 sq.ft for BS tile. My DH did not want a solid color tile so we choose this tile that is mostly white with some grey/tan undertones, but not a lot of movement at all.

Should we do polished or honed. Our quartzite is polished so I was thinking honed b/c I do not want to take away from that. The kitchen will be opened to the DR/LR/ and office area.

Comments (6)

peonybush
12 years ago
I love it. Really picks up the cream, greys and khaki. Can't wait to see it done. My choice would be the honed.
Give us some more info...who is is made by? Where did you find it?
ratrem
Original Author
12 years ago
peony--- the BS tile is from daltile's marble collection, it comes to about $12 sq/ft after delivery charges and taxes, so a bit over our budget, but it is the closet to what I wanted.
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Cali - I think the tumbled marble is a different story though isn't it? It seems like such a different product to me somehow! bostonpam - I know...it's a risk. But it's the marble countertop that I'd (for me) be most concerned w/ my family destroying. Backsplash gets splattered now and again for sure (especially considering our countertops aren't very deep) but on white marble I imagine I'd see it/notice it often enough to keep it mostly regularly cleaned up. Also, I was wondering if worst-case scenario it couldn't be sanded up or bleach-stained in a certain spot. I'm sure the answer is "ack - no!" but I'd probably go for it if nothing else worked. ;) We'll only be putting in marble (honed or satin I guess) backsplash if we do the countertop in stainless. I think that combo is so darn pretty. Thanks!
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Hi - thanks for responding! The Lansdale has a creamy, taupey tone which I think (hope!) sort of blends with the copper. Regular Carrara didn't because it is all gray and white, but Lansdale seemed to blend it all-- the brown tones bring out the copper, and then then the whiter tiles tile in with the cabinets, while ones that are grayer tie in with my stainless steel.. I know the galaxy has the sparkle/flecks, but in general I think of it more as a neutral since you pretty much just see black counters. I didn't want anything too sparkly/glass/iridescent even though I LOVED that at first, but it competed with the sparkle, whereas the Lansdale is muted while still being warm and bringing some interest. Thoughts? I can't think of anything that would incorporate copper as I don't want to do a dark backsplash, and don't want accents because it is a very small area. I wanted neutral, and soothing and something to warm up kitchen.. I saw a picture of something who used it on this forum and looked similar to mine. Granted she has very dark chocolate counters (not granite) but i was thinking of my copper like the brown.
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If you're doing a polished granite counter I think the honed splash looks better. Also, the honed won't show etching from wayward squirts of lemon and other citrus, or tomato sauce splattering as much.
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Thanks Sharonite! So glad to hear you love your backsplash. I'm also a little jealous of your garden-grown tomatoes! What with our drought and the hottest July on record, we got about three pitiful tomatoes before the vines gave up the fight completely. Thanks also for the grout advice. I'll definitely talk with the tilesetter about the non-sanded grout. Thanks for the reality check about the etching Roarah. All my windows are currently masked and, since it's new construction, we have no real artificial lighting in place. The lack of light means I may have to wait a while before making the marble decision. Is it a bad sign that i can hardly stand the idea of intentionally etching the beautiful polished tiles?
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peonybush
12 years ago
Thanks ratrem for the info. I think it's amazing.
jalsy6
12 years ago
We went polished. Got our venatino marble 2x4s at lowes believe it or not for under 10 psf. I'm happy with how it turned out and was okay with polished because my counters are soapstone, so a little reflection is okay. I've sealed them once and will do so again once the grout is totally dry. What I lived about getting them at lowes was that I could hand pick each square foot for the shades I wanted. I didn't need to get lots of overage to account for tiles I didn't like. Here's a link to the thread with pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: Marble backsplash
hottois
12 years ago
We had the same decision to make and went back and forth for a couple of weeks. Our counters will be polished granite (installation next Thursday!) so we decided that we didn't want a highly polished backsplash as well. We went with honed marble.
ratrem
Original Author
12 years ago
dgs1 can't wait to see it. I was thinking the same way!! But I love how the polished looks too

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