it must be the stone.

Sounds pretty, but this is just a tease! Where are the photos?!

I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing with my backsplash tiles, too. All to a collective yawn from the rest of the household. Can't wait to see photos.

You are awful for teasing like that! We need actual pix ;)

Smiling: I had to read this post based on the title! I knew I was thinking about my backsplash too much when I had a dream about the tiles I originally picked out. (I settled for some I wasn't thrilled with because the ones I really wanted were outside of our allowance.) Luckily for me the tile shop sent the wrong tiles for DS's bathroom, and those were installed before I saw the mistake (and before the backsplash was installed.) So I told them to either rip out the wrong bathroom tiles and replace, OR give me the backsplash I wanted. Yay! Got the backsplash I wanted and DS is more than fine with his bathroom tiles.

I can say with absolute certainty that no one else in my family would do a grid of their backsplash or dream about their tiles!

Very interesting combo you've got there. Like the others, I want to see a pic!

Now that's just mean. You find an audience who'd really, really like to see this bs, and then there's no photo. What's with that? We even like photos of in-progress, or pictures of the tile in question - any little crumb. Deliver the crumbs!

now is the time to adjust one's grid.

after four rows of tiles are laid, the base line (for caulking) and the grout lines will turn your 12" height into something near 13" total.

One way to workaround this is to buy a Schluter profile strip.

They make them for "finishing and edge-protection profile for outside corners of tiled surfaces found on walls, countertops, and other tiled edges" . One or two variations of Schluter thingies are made to be inserted in the middle of a tiles surface. It gives you a thin linear strip of stainless in the middle of your other lined up stones.

Here is a thin one.
"Schluter-SCHIENE" thin and space age-y.
and
"Schluter-DECO finishes and protects the edges of tiled surfaces at transitions to other surface coverings of the same height ..." + "... The exposed surface of the Schluter-DECO is wider than the Schluter-SCHIENE and can also be used to create decorative lines within tile fields."

Here is a thick one.
"Schluter-DESIGNLINE is a 1" (25 mm) border profile for creating decorative designs in wall coverings."

Here is one that gives you two perfectly parallel lines sandwiching a row of stone tile (that will stick out a little bit).
"Schluter-QUADEC-FS is a double-rail profile that features a recessed section with dovetailed grooves to which field or accent tile is bonded. The profile can be used to produce accents in tile fields on walls, chair rails, and various other decorative applications. The profile is designed to integrate with Schluter-QUADEC. Note: The same corner piece can be used to produce a 90 inside corner and a 90 outside corner. It can also be used as an end cap."

On www.schluter.com is a good article "Maximizing Ceramic Tile Installation with Trim Profiles"

One other way to workaround the grout line (thickness = height) problem is to buy a small small batch of ultra high end glass tiles and use them as a strip of filler when you want to get an exact height to match something (I see several things lining up perfectly). You go get a large batch of loose sample tiles from the high end store and use a few of them on the day of installation, as dummy spacers that you will remove later. Then you go buy the quantity you need. Bisazza makes glass with real gold in it. 20mm by 20mm glass tiles. And they have hundreds of other colors too, all the same small size glass tile.

Yet 3rd way to workaround the grout line thickness is to plan for it (a little bit thicker than the minimum). Start somewhere at mid height and let the caulking at the bottom compensate for overshoot or undershoot.

This helps you get full tiles everywhere. It looks unprofessional when one row is reduced to a sliver of tile. It might be OK to have one row of tile be cut to an almost full size.

Hth

OK, here's the pattern I was finding so mesmerizing:

And here's what I came home to just now:

Not grouted, etc. And my apologies but I left the camera cable with dh and so it was Utterly AWOL. I rousted another ;)

David, I'm sure you're right about making this more perfect than it is, but there's no way I have the energy to understand, much less fight about or affect this! Someone else will. I'm just in 'makeitstopalready' mode. It looks like a ton of good information though ... another day!

OK, so here are the crumbs. Not trying to tease, just that I can't contain my own excitement while simultaneously excruciatingly aware of how ridiculously unimportant this is. Anyway, how bout them Libyans? Greeks? You gotta admit, backsplashes shouldn't loom this large....

There's a story to the fossils. The piece was given to us by some friends who are professional fossil hunters who got into a lot of trouble a few years back collecting on government land (maybe). As you can imagine, this is the short version of a very, very long tale. Net result is that we have what they considered essentially scrap, that I've tucked away in a closet and moved with three times over the past 18 years. I always thought I'd make a table with it or something... I am so thrilled about this! It is indelibly linked to the most gorgeous view of the sun setting over a braided red river way up in the Dakotas somewhere ... I think it was the Red r., maybe a tributary ... gotta ask dh. Anyway, it was peaceful and about as pretty a sight as I've ever seen. I hope the cooking grease doesn't smear all this.

Beautiful! We share your excitement and can't wait to see the finished kitchen!

You had me at fossils! It's beautiful! I am very happy for you. I love fossils and think that this is a great way to incorporate them.

Thanks for sharing!

I love the backsplash layout! I think it will look great. What colour grout will you be using? I'd also like to know what your range hood is . . . I love it and would like to see if it would work in my kitchen (currently in the planning stage).

OMG--are those green river fossil fish? And the rest of the stone has fossils as well? THAT'S MY BACKSPLASH! That is the backsplash I have been dreaming of since we bought this house...where'd you get your tiles? WANT. That's what I would have for my one "splurge."

Hi Lisa -- the range hood is a Wolf (with the tag removed); it's just the guts I put the blower remotely "in-line" - that is, inside the ductwork in the attic; it vents straight up then over and out within the attic. It's a great setup (IMO). I recommend this route if you can get away with it. The range is 36" and the hood is 42" x 27". No issues at all with it being too deep to cook or anything.

Grout will be "fawn" I think we chose ... it's a warmish neutral to link the cabinets and stone.

Hi mjsee -- yes, it's from the Green River. I was essentially given the fossils by collectors almost 20 years ago; I never knew what to do with it.

The tile, which I also love, is from the Phoencian Collection at Carmel Stone Imports. It looks far better IRL than it does on this website picture. I'd recommend scaring up a piece to look at in person if possible, though you could order by trust if you want I suppose. It's really neat (IMO). I can't stop looking at it, tracing and finding the fossils.

But if you'd like to buy some, I'd suggest these guys. Man is their stuff gorgeous. I could never afford any of it ... OMG. I just remembered that I had a couple small pieces of fossil I bought and wanted to incorporate in the BS!!!! They were really cheap at a stone yard. I forgot!! Aaagh!!!!!

aliris19--we hauled some big rocks home to NC from KY so that we'd have fossils in our wall. Here is a picture of a trace fossil--something was hungry!

The link you posted is the tile company I hope to use...though I think it would be even more fun to go collect them myself. (Not any less expensive,I'm sure...once one figured in hotels, airfare, shipping ROCKS...)

Hi mjsee -- do you mean the Carmel Tile company or greenriverstone.com? The latter is a really cool, small independent outfit, as far as I can tell. I'm not so sure about the former, which is more commercial I think. Though I do love my tile from there. But it's a tile product as opposed to a prepared fossil, IYKWIM. Check out the pictures of kitchens on greenriverstone's website.

I have a similar looking fossil in my kitchen that I use as a base for keeping stuff on it. Not decorative but I use it. I believe it is limestone or sandstone or something (not sure). Anyhoooo, if you have smiliar type of stone, it stains easily with oil. You need to really seal it well.

Thanks, kaismom. I used 511 (I think that's right; "911"?) as per the recommendation of the guy at greenriverstone.com . It's really expensive sealer but said to be good. And my tile guy suggested it needed 2 more sealings next week after the grout dries. My plan is in the interim not to use the burners on the back and if I do anything beyond boiling water, I'll cover it with aluminum foil ... oh wait, I have much baking to do and that releases gunk from the space at the back of the range. I guess I'm going to have to cover up that pretty tile for a week for sure now. :(

Thanks for the info. Your tile may be from this formation: Green River Formation fossils There's a ton of amazing material gotten out of and still being gotten out of all of the time, this chunk of deposited (now-)rock.

Oh that is so cool and amazing! I love that it is completely unique.

Wow! What a unique and totally gorgeous backsplash! We understand!

Looks good. I like the syncopation.

Thanks everyone -- mpagmom and others, I posted some later pictures at this 'Quick: too Grecian?' thread. Including the thing grouted, Lisa.

Florantha -- yes, that's what I was thinking: syncopation. It turns out to be that a vertical line is offset by 2" for four rows then goes back the other way. So it's regular while being 'off', because the thick row of tiles, 2 such rows, go in a AAB pattern with B half the width of A. The thin row is regular, at the A width. So it does all get syncopated vertically though not horizontally. Hey, I just thought of this: my island is a piano shape, so this is sort of a music-leitmotiv, eh? geesh...talk about over-thinking.

What I'm really happy about is that the cuts do not disjoint the view or sense of the fossils at all. I was really worried they would be disrupted but that is not an issue. The fossils are small enough and numerous enough that both things can go on very happily together, syncopation and fossil hunting. I'll never get any cooking done.

mjsee -- Oh, I get it (I think?)... my apologies but I'm not quite seeing the fossil in the picture you were showing. Are those thought to be actual claw marks? It's not the Green River of course; something else. And very, very cool. You should nip up to Dinosaur NM and grab yourself some gastroliths -- you yes! That's what we need in a glass jar: not apples but a huge honking bowl of gastroliths. That's what you need at least mjsee! Let me hastily note for the record: it is illegal to collect on federal land. :) But there's plenty of the same land surrounding, and an awful lot of gastroliths as well (though not if everyone fills up their kitchen with bowls of them so please note well: I really am kidding).

Oh my that's so great! I love the fossils and especially love that there's a fun story behind it.

Oh, I get it (I think?)... my apologies but I'm not quite seeing the fossil in the picture you were showing. Are those thought to be actual claw marks?--

Not claws...probably front of body. Those are traces left by something (probably trilobites) digging in Ordovician mud for dinner. It's the only one I have a picture of...but I have several others in the two walls we built that have actual fossils...brachiopods,bryozoa,echinodermata,gastropods,and others. My husband's family is from Northern Ky--and they have a creek full of fossils. I'm not sure if the stone is suitable for turning into a backsplash...but I'd love to THINK it is. I found the greenriver fossil company years ago...and have been planning to include a piece in my backsplash ever since. I was wondering if the mass market stuff had fossils in it as well--I know that limestone frequently does. I've clipped this thread so I can study it when I FINALLY convince The Husband that we really MUST re-do the kitchen.

(Don't worry about me collecting fossils on federal land--I know better.)

Hmmm...Elder Son's girlfriend's parent's own property in NM...and I think THEY have fossils...I may just have to make a trip out there...

Went and took three pictures for you aliris--my camera's macro function is less than fab, but you should get the idea!

The above are three different stones.

Oh wow, that is beauteous!!! I just love it.

I would be a little worried about it as a backsplash to the range if you cook greasy stuff. It might settle in the crevices and be hard to clean. But maybe for the back of another exposed section, say a beverage center? Or, quite frankly -- I'd love to see it on the floor of a glass shower -- I think the nubbliness is very functional for foot cleaning (!) and very pretty and very aesthetically consistent in terms of putting all that benthic activity fore and aft through time, IYKWIM. Just a thought. It will look terrific behind the range too, worries aside.

I love all three pieces, all a little different.

I'm really excited for your impending green river purchase too! sigh ... to be locked up all night in the AMNH. Wait, I was...

Well, those three pieces are part of a large wall...so I won't be using THEM. But that is the strata I would be pulling from. I wouldn't use 'em behind the stove...it may be a long while until I do the GR purchase. The Husband's job status is (potentially) in flux. I'll be renovating the kitchen either way...but if we need to move it will be a VERY different reno!

And one day I want to hear about the night you were locked up at the AMNH. That would be scary-cool.

;) -- actually, dh used to work there so we'd have access at night all the time. Much fun! But I don't think we were ever in the exhibit part after-hours. Probably that's not even kosher. Dunno, but I wouldn't allow it (not that anyone's asking me).