Oh wow, totally agree with you, this picture makes it clear why not to do certain things.

BS looks oh-so-wrong to me, too. And is that the sink? Who wants to sit at the counter, in front of the kitchen sink, and eat a snack?

Also get the seating thing--although some have made a case for it in certain instances. But my eyes are always wandering outside. When we chose our seating at our dining room table, I picked the one that had a view out the picture window. Downside of that is, when I am not there, everyone sits in my chair.

I think there's around 12" of counter behind the sink, which is the minimum to contain splash.

The kitchen is the only room they did anything to, and they didn't fix the flaws, like being unable to open drawers all the way because the fridge blocks them. Kept the crappy faucet, DW, and stove. But they did add a two story sunroom addition on the back of their house. That open doorway is a slider in our house. Priorities.

Where all the kitchen money went:

Yep, knowin' when to quit is important.

Thanks for sharing!!!

Well, I don't see anything wrong with a backsplash extending beyond the wall cabinet. The purpose of a backsplash is to provide an easy to clean covering on the wall over the counter.

To minimize the wall cabinet from obscuring the view out the kitchen window and family room slider that it sits between, we went with one that leaves a couple of feet of wall on either side. The backsplash goes the full length of the counter. The mixer is used at one end and the sink is under the window so that is an area that needs splash protection:

It is functional and looks right to me. What looks wrong to me in the photo May_Flowers posted is that the gold tone of the counter and backsplash fights with the yellowish cabinets and the wall color doesn't do anything for either of them.

I like having seating at our counter in addition to a kitchen table. If you don't have room for it, of course you need to compromise and choose one, but I don't understand the knee jerk hostility to having more than one table or counter seating area.

In that kitchen it looks like they don't have room for it - or at least, if someone is sitting on a stool at the counter, the chair behind them can't pull out from the table without moving the table more toward the sunroom.

We don't use our counter seating for eating very often but someone will sit there to hang out with the cook and chat at eye level. Our grandchildren like to sit there and watch what we are doing which from table height they wouldn't see.

Sometimes when I'm doing a lengthy kitchen task, I'll set up to sit there rather than having to stand. Or if the kids are doing something messy they can do it there where it is easy to clean up.

Cloud swift, you put your finger on why counter seating is a mistake in that house -- no room. There was no knee jerk hostility -- she said "not every peninsula".

The carried on tile works in your room because you have a cabinet under it, visually grounding it. It doesn't work in the first photo because it is just hanging out in space with the countertop projection so it doesn't look tied to anything. You are right, the difference in colors does not help.

In our new kitchen we put in an island between the work area and kitchen table. We decided to add stools to the island for the very same reasons as cloud. Grandchildren's activities, casual chats. We don't plan to use them for eating meals. I would never want to eat a meal with family at an island. I am a firm believer of meals around a table. Just old fashioned I guess.

Had a similar problem with our old place ... solution was to go diagonal. Now be kind y'all, this was my 1st ever try at doing my own tile in 1996 (and 28 years old!)...

The things we do before we know what we're doing :) I think this tile experience made me fall in love with subway and mosaic tiles!

I agree about the backsplash comments. Our place may be guilty of the seating issue, although the space between the peninsula and table is much larger, and there is 2'+ between the back of the sink and the back end of the countertop.

I need to take/post a pic...

I guess I always thought that the backsplash "belongs" to the counter, so it goes where the counter goes. As in the job is to protect the wall from whatever is happening on the counter. Apparently my assumption was wrong and the backsplash "belongs" to the cabinets. It seems backward to me.

As to the stools, I can see that it might need to be staged differently to sell, but if people want "homework stools" in a more cramped space, I don't see a problem with it. For most people the kitchen is the gathering spot for the evening and I can understand the kids needing to be easy eye access to a cooking parent.

And finally, the room that they added is to die for. I would take the kitchen as is to get that room. WOW!

This post was edited by glitter_and_guns on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 7:48

I love that room too. It looks out on woods with 60' tall Douglas firs, so they must feel they are in the trees on the second story. I don't think they're getting their money back on it though, and the buyer will need to factor in bringing the rest of the house up to that level. These are entry-level homes for young families in the high-tech field and they usually move on after five years without upgrading anything.

If they hadn't done the overhang, they could have had a little more breathing room in the dining room and not had to use that ridiculously small table. As for tiling, the way I view the overhang is it's in the dining room, not the kitchen. For comparison, here is what we did, though we haven't done backsplash yet. When we do, it will start at the cabinet. I don't have a problem leaving the 12" of DR side counter untiled. I think of the peninsula cabinets as DR, not kitchen.

We had a similar (but hopefully more attractive) set up in out our old house. Thankfully I knew enough to stop the tile at the cabinets.

The sink, peninsula, breakfast area combination worked really well for us. I could prep food and do dishes and watch kids through the back window. My kids and their friends loved to belly up to the bar and I often served their meals there.

Would adults fit at the peninsula and the table at the same time? The set up was probably too cramped for that but we never ran into that situation,

I think cloud_swift's backsplash looks right extending, because the line it goes with is the counter and lower cabinet. But the original example photo's does not because the visual line is the upper cabinet to the cabinet support for the counter, not the actual countertop.

:D @ macrojohnson's "I think this tile experience made me fall in love with subway and mosaic tiles!"

I refer to those projects as having left a last-timing impression.

The thing that I dislike most about the backsplash is the accent tile. At first I thought it was a stupid little shelf. It also draws attention to the length of the backsplash and makes that area over the peninsula stand out.

May flowers, your kitchen is lovely. I do see your point about the overhang being dining room rather than kitchen. I can see how that would change things. I am not saying that I love the floating tile - I probably would have added some open shelving right there to ground the tile and tie everything together.

I wish that I had an overhang that I could use for a homework station even if it would crowd the dining area a bit. Again, I totally do see that it isn't the greatest thing for staging a house sale, but my house won't be sold anytime soon and I need the spaces to work for me - but galley kitchen = no homework station.

Just wanted to say the I really like Cloud Swift's rug. It brings together the FR and kitchen.

I listened to my Kd with small wall leading to laundry room. If I decide I don't like it in time, I have plenty of tiles left. Personally, I want some backsplash to prevent staining of walls. woops, must have lost that picture. will take a new one and add later.

People kept pushing us to add seating on our peninsula, but out layout is almost identical to the ones above. I'm glad I stood firm. (No. It's not in yet, so no photographs yet.)

I think glitter_and_guns has a good idea to add a shelf right above the tile, but I think it needs two, which might get crowded.

My next-door neighbor with the same peninsula/DR painted their cabinets white and got granite counters, but they kept the overhang. Another neighbor is having her cabinets refaced and switching to a solid surface counter. She has an angled peninsula that cuts into her floor space, which means only one person can fit in the kitchen. Yet she's not changing the cabinet layout. I think she said she's keeping the overhang too. My neighbors need to read GW.

Not a kitchen forum regular, I popped in to search for topics on the insinkerator instant hot water/filtered water dispensers (specifically looking for reasons ours might have needed replacement twice in less than ten years) and found this topic.

We did a cosmetic update of our kitchen about ten years ago and replaced the tumbled marble tile backsplash with subway tile with a wide grout line. Our tiler, a woman in her 70's, came up with a pretty good way to finish off the backsplash going past the cabinets in a tricky corner:

The photo is horrible quality---cell phone ten years ago. Eagle eyes will see a very tiny strip of green wall between the door moulding and the cabinets. This has since been painted the cabinet color :-)

I think there's more wrong than just the tile and bar situation. The paint doesn't jive with the cabinets and tile. That shelf bracket looks horrible and cheap. The furniture looks like they got it from Big Lots. Maybe the prospective buyer will see their own furniture and ideas for a better matching paint and will like the house just fine. Those cabinets are very cheap looking too. But for a new family starting out, I'm sure it's a great improvement over an apartment.

That's a very smart solution to a side slash where needed, kswl, like where there's water or grease splash. But sometimes they put full-height splashes on the side walls under the cabinets at the end of a run. I don't like that look.

Arkansas_girl, if they made improvements to match the sunroom, I bet that little starter home would list for $400,000. It's listed at $327,000 now. It sold for $162,000 in 2000 and $260,000 in 2005. I don't know if the owner with the good taste who built the sunroom is the same owner with the bad taste who remodeled the kitchen. It's hard to believe it's the same person, but neither owner touched anything else, and it's pretty much builder basic.

mayflower, you are the one that said it was an entry level home:

You said:
"These are entry-level homes for young families in the high-tech field and they usually move on after five years without upgrading anything".

There is thread that began 9/9/14 (and is also still active), interestingly on the same topic, at the same time the above discussion has been going on.

Here is a link that might be useful: Where to end backsplash?

Arkansas, it is a starter home, but at a much higher price than most starter homes. I was just pointing out the price to see if it would come as a surprise. Even I can't believe how much prices have risen.

kswl, well done! I think that is the perfect solution.
The areas in question are usually at the ends of cabinet or counter runs and typically aren't where the messy activities take place.