Hi Steph-
I'll chime in. I have had tile counters in my last 2 houses. After living with them for 16 years I suppose I have enough experience to tell you about the good and the bad.

The good is pretty obvious. The price is right, they look nice and clean, you can do cool patterns like you are considering.

The bad: Grout is a pain to clean on the counters, but more importantly, a large tile (over 4") will be subject to cracking if you keep something hot (like a coffee pot) on the counter. There is no problem with putting a hot pot off the stove. It seems that it is the continued exposure to heat that makes the tiny hairline cracks.

In the first house I decided to do the counters myself. After all, I am a capable woman, I am good with measurements (measure twice, cut once), and I had successfully tiled the floor of a room all by myself. The tile guy who had just done a bunch of work for me said that I could call him if I found myself over my head. Needless to say, I had to call him for an emergency visit when I was 90% done with a 9'x4' island. I was near to tears when he told me that I had nearly done it right, but I had made a series of tiny mistakes- as small as a single grain of sand. Why am I giving you all this detail? I just want you to know that the counter is less forgiving than a floor. Your choice of a big tile (if you choose to ignore my heat warning, or if you are willing to not put your coffee maker directly on the counter), will make your layout easier. I have used 6" and 8" because bullnose was available that suited my needs. By doing a diagonal pattern you will have lots of cuts, and your ability to lay the tile easily may affected. Just have someone on standby in case you hit a snag, and make sure you have plenty of tile in case you have to cut more because of mistakes.

I did manage to do my own backsplashes. For some reason they were easier.

Could you straighen the backsplash wall before you do the counter by shimming the recessed area of the wall and installing a thin backboard to hold the tile? I am drawing a blank on the name of such a board, but its something like green board.

I hope some of this babble was helpful to you. Good luck!

Oh, yes, very helpful. Great to know about the coffee pot. We have a tiled island that is about 15 years old that has held up well. My dad and I built it (mostly him) so it's staying. We may try to put a couple of the cherry cabinets in, but not immediately.

With this pattern, all of the cuts will be hidden by the front strip or the backsplash, with the exception of a couple around the granite. I'm going to use a darkish gray grout and narrow grout lines. I used very dark blue grout on the island and it has been great - no cleaning problems at all.
I will plan to order plenty of extra tile. I got fairly comfortable with the tile saw (will borrow the same one for these if it's big enough), so hope not to embarrass myself. If I cut all the pieces first, I can stick the ugly ones in the back under the backsplash!

Not sure the wall is out of true enough to warrant using the backer, and was hoping to tile right on the drywall, but I can check into that.

Thanks again for your comments. Good to know I'll need to be super careful with the layout.

where do you live? (curious about those extra cabines... ;)

steph, I've got a set of "new to me" cabinets too. Mine came from a kitchen shop display.

As for tile, I've only done a bathroom countertop, so not much chance of error. I too was wondering where you are, in DFW by any chance?
Kathe

Hi - I'm in New Hampshire - long way from DFW! I looked at some kitchen displays, too. The Restore has them frequently, but the prices are pretty high there. Mine came from a Craigslist posting!

We picked up the granite piece we're planning to insert into the tile countertop. They did a nice job cutting it so it's exactly the right size. Now I'm thinking ahead to fitting it into the tile. Given that the edges are very sharp corners, I'm wondering if it will difficult to get a good edge with the grout. Has anyone done this?

The other question that came up, since we are about to pick up the plywood for the countertops, is this: we will be putting a full height pantry next to the refrigerator. My dh figured out yesterday that in order for the doors to open fully it will need to be set forward, essentially a bit farther out than the fridge. It's ok space wise, but I'm having trouble visualizing this. One option would be to pull the next cabinet forward as well making essentially a bump-out that includes fridge, pantry, sink base. That's the prep sink base. I'm beginning to see the need for a drawing. Right now it's on paper, so maybe I'll see if I can do something more 21st C. Stop laughing.

Hey Stefb, I think there is a filler piece that you have to put in between maybe so that the doors can open all the way? We just got our cabinets from Hollman in Irving. They are DELICIOUS! Macassar Ebony - sort of a Wenge brown with blondish/caramel stripey-ness...so if anyone needs cabs in the Dallas area, Hollman is the GO-TO!

Just finished installing a porcelain tile floor underlaid with Ditra over a plywood underlayment. We used it because our soil is potentially going to shift and Ditra is a "crack isolation" product. We had to plan depths and sequence of products carefully because Ditra is thick and requires a special thinset different from the second thinset that holds the tiles. Ditra is expensive because it doesn't come in small amounts as far as I can tell. I have a portion of a roll left which I may donate to Habitat or something.

It will add to your cost and the time it takes to install. Spreading into the Ditra takes some muscle.

There is a second crack isolation product which we were shown by a competing tile shop, which is essentially single layer of fabric-like stuff. It's very thin compared to the thick Ditra orange plastic waffle-shaped product. DH decided to go with the thick stuff. The thin fabric stuff would have been much faster to use.

Hi - Many thanks for the feed back on Ditra! I'm thinking a floor would be considerably more difficult than 40 sq' of countertop. But I can also imagine that it will be harder than it looks, since most things are. Was it difficult to place the Ditra so it would lie flat? We picked some up at HD since we were trying to load up before we lost the extra 5% on Discover this month. Ordered tile, got plywood, etc. Came home to a phone message that the tile I ordered has been discontinued. Waaahhh! I chose the granite to go with this tile, but at least it's bland enough to go with lots of tile. Dh is worried that we won't find another the same size and he has the counter width planned based on 12.5 (really 12-3/8) tile. I'm sure I can find something that will work, but it took me forever to find tile I liked.

Susantiger, the reason we can't use a wider filler piece is that these are reused cabinets, so I'm squeezing what I wanted to use into the space. We have a little fudge room, and I'm hoping that we will be able to actually set the cabinets in and see how it fits before we commit. We're kind of getting to like the idea of swapping the pantry and fridge, but the issue is that the stove is in the island directly across, and there's the bumping butts factor to consider. Spacing may be wide enough, though. I woke up the other morning thinking that this whole project feels like playing Tetris!

Stefb, sorry I didn't respond about Ditra. Meant to.

Thought you would like seeing this photo. Ditra wasn't particularly hard to lay, and it doesn't have to be laid straight or fancy. Biggest problem is that it adds a day or two to the project because it goes down first, then dries, then the new floor is laid above it. And if I recall correctly, each needs a different thinset.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ditra is laid. Click arrows to see subsequent floor laid.

Well, it might be too late to say this, but don't do it. Grout has no place on a countertop used for prepping food. Even if you used a stain-resistant epoxy grout, the recess is a perfect home to zillions of bacteria and mildew. Constant, time-consuming cleaning if you want your countertop even close to sanitary.

I have tile countertops and would gladly trade them for laminate.