I'm no expert, but I've always thought your backsplash designs are just beautiful...especially the mural! :)

Oh no, not again!

The mural is too large in proportion to it's surrounding space and the size of the field tile that's being used around it. There are too many cut tiles and not enough whole tiles before the mural begins. I assume the mural cannot be sized down, so I would use a different tile entirely as the field tile around the mural. Possibly just buy 12x12 cut to size with minimal grout lines, or else use smaller tiles like a 1x2 so there are a lot of grout lines and you don't focus on the cut tiles.

Why do they have cut tiles at the bottom??? You start the pattern at the bottom and make all of the horizontal cuts at the top so they'll be hidden at the cabinet tile juncture. If you did the smaller tile around the mural, you could integrate a section of that as a liner in the rest of the areas including the sink area in order to tweak the height and end up with no horizontal cuts. It would be easier on them, still be simple white on white, but add an additional layer of pattern.

For your sink wall, the bottom tiles should be whole ones and not cut ones. Any cut tiles required will be at the top and hidden by the cabinet when looking straight on. Just like LWO said. This was explained to us by our tile guy as it should have been explained by yours. Unless there is some reason you want it otherwise.

How big are your carrara subway tiles? They do look somewhat chopped up around your mural and a little disconcerting to look at. What size is the mural as compared to your stove top? Same, smaller or bigger? It looks like you have supports on either side of the stove vent - are those necessary or just for prettiness. I'm thinking that if you do without them then it cleans up the area and the mural will stand out with the carrera acting as the frame. Right now it looks like you have two frames with a chopped up matte in between.

Beagles- I like the narrower tile along the countertop...it makes it look like a border. You have one of the few homes (it is a French Manor home style) that will look amazing with carrera marble subway tiles! As for the business of the pattern, I don't think that will bother you, since you love the blue bahia. You obviously love color and pattern. And...the mural has always looked amazing over the range, in every plan that you've posted. I love the (aren't they spice racks?) on either side of the range, too.

Since you've asked for advice, I'm sure you'll get plenty of informed opinions...but I think you have a very good sense of what you want in your home. It's going to be stunning and I can't wait to see it all finished! :)

The cooktop is a 46" miele and the mural I believe is 42" but I have to check. We only have 6 inches of space on either side of the cooktop (yes, I know, breaking a function rule but I know that and am OK w/ it)

The hood and its supports are already made. The supports are pull-outs w/ corbels. The hood can't change. On the other sides of it are just pot rack shelves.

The mural size also can't change.

I will tell our tile people that the whole tiles should be used on the sink wall from the bottom so the cut tiles will be hidden. I'm not sure why they did not do that.

I may like the idea of doing just a 12x12 around the mural to avoid cuts, I'll have to see if that is something that we could do.

lavender_lass the spice racks are just inside the corbeled cabinets supporting the hood, you won't see spices or anything. There are pot rack shelves on both sides though.

Pattern does not bother me, you are right about that, and I don't think so much that it is busy. I'm just not sure the tile people laid it out right...

We've improved the process now though b/c at least the not-laid-out-right happened on paper and not actually on the wall this time!

It looks to me like the mural is the reason for the cut tiles at the bottom. If they started will full tiles at the bottom, they would end up with slivers of tiles above the mural. And since they have cut tiles at the bottom of the mural wall, they carried that look through to the other wall. Surrounding the mural with a different tile, as suggested above, would eliminate this problem.

You have to be careful when you are installing something that will be permanent. When you go to sell your home, you have to think like a potential buyer. The last thing that you want a buyer to think about is that they have to do a lot of work to move into a home. Tiles are permanent, and while the mural that you have picked out is beautiful, most buyers (usually 20's or 30's) probably would not like it. The mural is too specific to your own taste, so they would move on to the next house that is for sale, and eliminate yours.

ksissy my entire house is very personal and designed to appeal to me, not to buyers. I also have a permanent tile mural with pictures of my dogs in a dog room w/ built-in grooming tub. We are not planning to sell any time for many, many years and I want to have a place I love to love, not a place for some future phantom buyer.

I like the size of the mural. Murals are not my thing usually, but letting it occupy the space is great, I think.

beagles -- If the mural size cannot change then I would find marble in the same material as the subways and have them cut 4 pieces that fit into the niche perfectly around the mural. That will make it like the mural is installed in a slab and echo the counters. You'll have natural stone pattern but that will help the mural pop.

They can measure for the slab pieces so the two verticals (side pieces) of equal width run full length from counter to below under hood. I'd fit the solid horizontals in between to line up with the outside mural edge. Minimial minimal grout, of course.

Then subways are only exterior splash. Otherwise, it will look piece-y no matter what because the area is not perfectly symmetrical.

rococogurl I like that idea but I'm not 100 percent sure if it is possible for a variety of reasons. I will have to look into it.

The mural is really much too large for the space, technically and visually. It should be about 1/3 smaller. The ideal size for a cooktop mural is that it begins above the average size pot on the stove---about 6-10 inches off of the counter. And the same for the top and sides Those should be 6-8 inches in from the top and sides. I'd chop a few inches off of the mural and re-center the remaining in the space. It looks like you can cut more from the bottom than the top, but the sides look like they can be cut in a few inches with no problems.

I would not cut anything off the mural, as I believe doing so will make the still life look squeezed. Beagles has been focused on this mural since the outset of the kitchen design, had a lot of input into the coloration, and probably wouldn't be happy with it altered. Also, she will almost never have a pot on the stove, so I'm not sure the "average pot height" consideration matters here. However, I do think the top of the mural will be truncated from certain vantage points because of its proximity to the hood. It's probably too late to modify, though.

Perhaps this is slightly off topic, but I've noticed that there is a tendency for people to think that they have more space behind a range than they really do, and consequently, to order murals, vignettes, mosaics, etc., in sizes that are too large for the visual space. It would be nice if the mural designers would mention something about this in their advertising, too, as it would be nice to have their work displayed optimally.

kitchendetective is right, I don't want to cut the mural. We designed the mural ourselves (Stone Impressions sent us their graphic files and let us create it with exactly the elements and color we wanted).

I agree that it would have been nice had we been given some information on appropriate sizing. Our tile people sized it for us, we didn't have input on that part. As you all may know, we've had some significant issues w/ these tile people during the duration of this project (the ONLY downside to otherwise perfect vendors) so I am not surprised we are having issues with this as well.

I think the marble "frame" is the best idea, although it will be handicapped by the fact that there is more negative space at the sides than the top and bottom.

I don't think it's too big. In that kitchen it would be lost if it were smaller. I don't mind the visual cut off (she has a lot to see in there) as much as I mind the odd scale issues that these medallions propose. Their proportions are rarely right for me and I'd err of the side of too large than too small. Most of them I see bug the heck out of me visually because they are too small, the field tile around them is put in on default and no one has really thought it through in terms of the entire wall. In many cases, the medallion is a distraction rather than a great feature that works.

Country Floors always has sold them and knows what to do but then they became trendy and other tile folks jumped on it.

The issue is what they relate to visually/architecturally. That only gets resolved really well when the tile designer is working with the architect (or whoever is drawing/planning) or the owner is architecturally savvy and on top of it. But it should be done properly by the pros.

At the stage of beagles project it's really about a workaround and she's on top of it and managing the art of the possible. In the end, it will be there where she wants it. But the current issues she has occurred in the design stage and not caught/adjusted by the contractor far enough in advance. It's a big job; it happens. It will be fine in the end.

I have asked the people doing the backsplash if we can do the marble frame. Since they didn't do our marble counters (were supposed to but we "fired" them from doing them) and because of a series of other problems we've had w/ them, I'm not sure if it will be possible but I'm going to try.

Could Stone Impressions create a surround for the still life that would frame it and fit the space within the hood and supports?

kitchendetective I don't know. I can find out. What color/size would you then have them do?

If you use a molding tile in marble as a frame, you could fill in the sides with long marble pieces that would be less noticeable with the 3D frame being more visually up front.

dianalo are you talking about something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/Carrara-Bianco-Carrera-Molding-Polished/dp/B004WAAKEA

Could Stone Impressions create a surround for the still life that would frame it and fit the space within the hood and supports?

Yes. There are different widths, so you can find one to fully fit the top and bottom and then just have the sides filled in with a large tile cut to fit so you have fewer grout lines.

kitchendetective I don't know. I can find out. What color/size would you then have them do?

dianalo, I like that idea. Maybe I could do it the whole way around though. The problem is, it seems they only come in 12 inch. long increments, so I'd still need grout lines between them, yes?

You would have some grout lines, but those would be expected. I'd make sure to pick the grout to blend and not a bright white.

the subway tiles look cut 50%. This can be a full tile instead.

the mural can have an inch shaved off three sides.

I agree that the bottom tile should be a whole tile. I also like the idea of filing the area between the frame and the columns with larger carrara tile. I've seen tile in that marble up to 24 x 24. You can also go to the other extreme and use 3/8" X 3/8" mosaic there. With matching grout it will read as a texture and shouldn't fight the subway tile.

I think the mural should have a frame around it. I wouldn't use carrara for that though. I would use a soft crackle 1/2 liner that looks handmade in a grayed blue in a similar color to the mid tone color of the plums. It's needs a contrast between the carrara and the light blue or it will look washed out.

You can continue the liner over the cut tile on the bottom row around the kitchen. Would be really pretty. In that case you would keep the partial tile on the bottom.

Just lost a post. No clue about the I-pad double post either.
Anyhow, what first came to mind was something in the mottled pale blue of the mural background, but raised, like a frame. Or a soft white frame without pronounced veining. Or a pale blue marble that blends with the blue stripe in the mural linen. Somewhat depends upon nearby materials. Is the mural done on Carrara? Also, please refresh my memory--is the hood white wood? Stone?

Ksissy, you can't design your home to appeal to the lowest common denominator. You're the one living in it and it has to make you happy. I can guarantee you that matter what you pick, or how exquisite your taste is there will be many who won't like it, no matter what you do. If you're going so bland as to not offend anyone, then why bother redoing at all?

Tile isn't forever. All you have to do is watch one of those kitchen redo shows and you can see it's just about gone with a hammer and chisel in no time at all.

I like the idea of using large pieces of the marble around the perimeter along with a molding piece to frame the mural. Crackled might look very pretty but I'm not sure there's enough room for the border too.

I don't think there's room to cut from the top or bottom. The image needs to breath. If it hasn't been made yet, maybe the size of the painting or transfer pattern can be reduced to allow for a piece that's a bit smaller (for the visual cutoff at the top).

Thing about a frame is how it all lines up with sides and what's above and below. There's so much going on there it might just look better floating since it's nearly full size.

KDs idea about matching 1/4-inch marble mosaic as background is a good one as alternative to slab pieces. Might even look better.

I'd speak to the mural folks and ask them if they could supply the total look with/without frame and background. Solves all the cutting problems since the tiny tiles will fit and look more or less solid. Great suggestion KD.

Just wanted to update. Here's what we ended up w/. I appreciate all the suggestions and incorporated some of them, as you see. Others I was not able to do like the slab because we were in danger of holding up closing, getting a lot of pressure from everyone to move forward and had limited cooperation from the tile store. But, I think it came out really well anyway!

WOW... this is shaping up to be a very special kitchen. I can't wait to see how it progresses. I missed this post originally and was thinking the same thing LWO said about keeping full tiles at bottom where they are more noticeable and cut tiles at the top where you might not notice them as much. It looks fantastic. - the sink is gorgeous - I have never seen one like it.

Love seeing more of your kitchen. Beautiful! But a question about the cabinets (of course). Are those glass cabinets full overlay?

Bee

Thanks mamadadapaige. The sink is custom made, it was done from the same marble as our marble slabs so it matches :) They did a beautiful job with it too, we're very happy!

beekeeperswife, I assume you are referring to the mirrored cabinet here since the glass cabinets are not in that picture? All of the cabinets in my kitchen are full overlay. BUT, we did feet around the fridge cabinet and a border so it sort of looks inset even though it is not. Here are some better pictures of it, along w/ an example of the inset cabs they did for us in the bath so you can see both. The toe kick isn't on here- we're having them make the toe kicks out of the wood from the wood floors so the toe kick disappears and gives the feel of floating furniture (yup, Dutch Wood can do that, they are amazing!)

If you want to see more pics of my cabinets, there's lots more on the blog- not sure if you've seen it or not.

The whole backsplash wall is just so darn pretty.

I was looking at the cabinets near the sink. They look like glass maybe they were empty and the mirrors are in there now?

Anyway, thanks for the blog link. Everything looks great, and your tub is to die for. I'd be one wrinkled prune if I had that baby in my bathroom!

Sorry beekeeperswife, I didn't even think about those since I hear "glass cabinets" and my brain automatically goes to my big wall of glass cabinets and I forget about those little ones over the sink. Funny the way your eyes don't see what is right in front of you some times!

Anyway, those are in fact glass and they are full overlay.

Thanks blfenton!