Backsplash tile pattern to hide 'unlevelness' ?

flatcoat2004

16 years ago

I have a single 14' run of cabinets. The countertops are going in this week so the backsplash decision is looming fast. I have been playing with some ideas of using a row of subway tiles at the bottom, a 1/2" liner, then a field of "rhomboid" tiles from the Tile Shop, then a 1/2" liner and subway at the top. I love borders, so the liner would be like a border around the field tile.

But having just had two bathroom floors tiled with borders, I now realise that if your walls aren't perfectly square, the border can really accentuate the "unsquareness". Armed with this knowledge (and knowing that my house is VERY slopey), I measured the distance between lower and upper cabinets at each end of the run, and they differ by about 1.5".

In this case, is a horizontal liner a bad idea ? A 1.5" drop over 14' seems fairly noticeable to me. What type of tiling patterns on backsplashes can camouflage "unlevelness" ?

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Comments (9)

bill_vincent
16 years ago
Nevermind the backsplash!! I'd be getting that shoemaker of a cabinet guy back in there to do his job right!! 1 1/2" is WAY unacceptable!! I would hope that you paid the bill by credit card so you can dispute the charge!
green-zeus
16 years ago
That's gonna be a problem with any tile pattern. I have the same amount of run on one of my kitchen walls and the difference is 1/8"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Sure you can do it. So long as both the wall and the countertop are completely straight and totally flush it will look great. But if they are not, part of what the backsplash is covering is the fact that they are not normally perfect. That said sure you can put in some kind of (clear?) filler between the countertop and the wall. Whatever you do, I would definitely put in something between the countertop and the wall because you know the first thing that will happen is that somebody will tip a glass of water over and all that water is going to go right down behind the cabinets... I personally dislike backsplash. However, the house had a tile backsplash and it served its purpose, although I particularly disliked how it looked. When I changed out the cabinets and countertop I just went with the 4" backsplash (that everybody on this website seems to hate because it is so old-fashioned) which I infinitely prefer over a full tile backsplash. The countertops were perfectly straight, the walls were certainly not. There is no way that I would go without something at the counter edge-wall. A little bit of backsplash creates the perfect visual line and protects your cabinets. I have Corian countertops with 4" Corian backsplash. The backsplash and countertop are merely glued (caulked?) together, not the more expensive seamless procedure that Corian offers.
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nicoletouk
16 years ago
Well I had the same initial thought as Bill did, but I'm going to assume that these cabinets have been around a while and settled with the house, and any recourse on correcting this problem is non-exsistant.

I wouldn't install the type of backsplash you describe. With both the subways and the liner you are creating a strong horizontal effect, and this will only highlight your sloping situation. A backsplash with a vertical emphasis - like vertical mini-bricks or even beadboard - will help to minimize your problem. With the vertical application you are less likely to notice a horizontal grout line or long liner run out of space and fade into the counter before the end of the run of tile.

Nicole
paul_ma
16 years ago
The difference you report means that either your upper cabinets aren't level, or the lowers aren't level, or both. At a guess, the lower cabinets were probably just mounted to the floor rather than leveled, which is a no no.

I agree with the others - get your cabinets fixed.
rmkitchen
16 years ago
I'm confused: are you saying that your uppers and / or lowers are not level? I don't know enough about construction to appropriately weigh in, but I know they shimmed underneath our (lower) cabinets to make sure they were all level and the same height.

But back to your backsplash: Why can't your 1/2" field tile and rhomboid pattern be centered (and as close to level as you want) and then the surrounding subway tiles cut to accommodate the slope? In my mind's eye it wouldn't be so noticeable (the slope cut in the subway tile). ???

This might be a terrific time for you to attack your backsplash with either a pen (drawing out your proposed design) or paper cut into your backsplash shapes and tacked on. Then you can get some real perspective on how it looks in situ.

But I'm really interested in the 1 1/2" difference ....

Good luck -- you're almost done!
bill_vincent
16 years ago
If you're not going to do anything with the cabinets, I'd go for a pattern that's visually a little confusing, so you won't as readily see how graduated the cuts are. Something in the line of using subway tiles and doing a diagonal herringbone. No accent stripes, because that'll only defeat the purpose. If you want to accent, use occasional accent pieces, rather than a continuous stripe.
flatcoat2004
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow I am glad you all caught that ! I went and remeasured during daylight hours (no electricity in the kitchen yet) and the difference is actually 5/8" across the 14' run ... hopefully that is not quite so bad ? I know that my carpenter struggled with it a lot, since the floor is not level and neither is the ceiling (about half of the upper cabinet run is flush with the ceiling). I think he said that he split the difference between the floor and the ceiling, so neither is perfectly level but the slope is not super-noticeable. The lower cabinets were definitely carefully shimmed to his reference line, and the upper cabinets were also mounted to a reference line, and the gap between crown and ceiling hidden with a scribed filler piece.

Ah, the joys of old homes !

Even so, what I am hearing is that accent stripes (even though I love 'em) would still be a bad idea. I like the idea of herringbone subways, but I am still interested in my rhomboid/harlequin tile also. Would the angled grout lines of harlequin tile be enough of a visual distraction to camouflage this 5/8" ?

Thanks again everyone !
bill_vincent
16 years ago
It should be.
rmkitchen
16 years ago
Yeah, flatcoat -- can you do an all rhomboid backsplash? That would look lovely in your gorgeous kitchen!

Backsplash tile pattern to hide 'unlevelness' ?

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Backsplash tile pattern to hide 'unlevelness' ?

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