Bill - can't a tile person do it this way? Can they be set almost touching, grouted WITHOUT filling the pits in the marble?? If the marble is sealed, how would it then be a breeding ground for bacteria? You CAN NOT set tumbled marble that close without culling through alot of stone to get the proper sized ones you want. I'm about to do a wall hanging project where I bought literally three times the entire square footage for just this reason-- to be able to cull through and get the stone I want for it. That's 45 square feet for a 15 square foot project at 7.00 a foot. Tumbled marble varies so much in size that to set it tight like that would end up in misalignment of the tiles pretty quickly, and then the whole thing would end up looking like hell. appears to be mostly contractor types with will intentioned advise but laced with poor opinions of kitchen designers. Actually I'M the one with a poor opinion of MOST kitchen designers. Many of them don't think things through. So long as they can create a piece of eye candy that THEY like, they're happy. Now, NOT ALL of them are like this. I know of several good KD's. But I've also heard more than my share of horror stories about them. I feel that contractors objectives on a backsplash job may be to get in and get out as quickly as possible, and to do at least a good enough to not get called back for rework. If you'd gone through my gallery AT ALL, you'd never make that statement. They may not want to do a project with grouted joints but leaving the aesthetically desirable voids of tumbled travertine/marble unfilled because it would be hard to do and take too long. That's simply ludicrous. If someone's willing to pay for my time, I'm willing to do what they ask, no matter HOW crazy I think it is, so long as it's not detrimental to the installation. There's a project I've posted many times here and at John Bridge's forum of a roman tub, deck, and circular floor that I did years ago-- total about 150 square feet, and it tooke me three work weeks to install because of the way the homeowner wanted it installed. So don't tell me I'm not willing to put in the time. Concerning some earlier questions, the tile are spaced at about 1/16" +/- You've got two courses of the same sized stone together. Try doing an entire backsplash with that small a joint!! and are set in white mastic. This one speaks for itself.

Hi Grannabelle, We just finished our kitchen a few weeks ago, and we put in the 3 x 6 inch tumbled travertine subway tiles ("Philadelphia" with the creams and beiges and grays) against our dark, "Tiramisu" granite. We don't really have a significant backsplash area, so I think the subway tile look works to give it enough interest but not overwhelm the small areas where we have it...I'm posting a few pix...

Plenty of people here have used travertine. But here are a few reasons why I did not go that route and instead had a ceramic crackle subway tile installed. The brown colors can turn gray or pink under certain lighting, not something I wanted with my granite. A friend told me that there was staining around the sink area because of the water splashing there. But, I ultimately decided against it because it is a trend that is soon ending. Many of the kitchen here look great with the travertine (Or the tumbled marble) but you will not be shopping at the same place they did nor will you be getting the same thing they got. There are so many variations in the stone. You can get a few samples, and then when you get the box, there will be even more variation. Is this the look that you want? I also ripped out one backsplash because the white tile had a gray cast when installed! I lived with the sample tile for weeks and no one noticed a bit of gray in it!These tiles can be trickly.

Granite is a Magmatic rock, formed deep under earth's crust where molten magma mixes with many elements & minerals. Travertine is a Sedimetary Rock (as is slate and limestone), formed from ancient mud. Marble is is a Metamorphic rock, which is formed from magmatic and sedentary rocks whose structure and mineral components have been transformed by external forces such as pressure and temperature. So now that the geology lesson is completed, what does this mean? It means that Marble and travertine are not the same. They have similar characteristics, but they are different. Most of the time if you see someone who has a "tumbled marble" backsplash and it is tan colored, it's really not marble but travertine. Since both are similar in care, get whatever you like. I have tumbled travertine and find it to be very easy to keep clean and gorgeous. It wipes right off.