I'm using a very classic looking polished nickel pull on my cabinets and the one drawer in my bathroom. I'm thinking of using knobs on the upper cabinet rather than pulls, just to have something a little different (the upper cabinets literally are right on top of the drawer, this is a linen closet), but not certain yet. I need to look at pictures. I'm worried that people will get their clothing "hooked" on the vertical pull, but then, you can get hooked on a knob too. Perhaps I'll have another quarter inch put on the granite countertop so that we don't lean towards the cabinets quite as much. I'm going for a more traditional look, my feeling is that "no hardware" is more contemporary looking. I bought my pulls at Lowes. They are lovely, so bright and shiny.

Ok - another tip - clean up the grout lines the next day if you use thinset to set the tiles. It takes several days for the mortor to fully cure, and it will be quite soft and crumbly the day after - makes cleaning any high spots out of the grout lines rather simple. If you wait several days, it will harden (like cement should) and it will be very difficult to remove. I spent about 30 mn this morning carefully going over the grout lines in my one wall (I have learned to be anal about this so I don't have "spots" when I grout) - I normally end up ruining a fingernail or two in the process but that is normal for me. BTW - here is what I got done yesterday. I mixed up too much thinset the first time, I forgot I was dealing with a small wall area and not a big floor! it looks a lot better after I took down the spacers and cleaned it all up. I had one "sliver" I had to cut for up by the range hood, it was 1/4" wide by 2" long, and the tile saw handled it fine. Ceramic is so much easier to deal with than porceline as it's softer and does not crack as easy when cutting. I used the rotozip for any "U" shaped cuts around the outlets and the tile saw for everything else. Here is an "in process" picture I had boards cut for the area needed for the border. By using them I could get my tile edges very straight - just make sure you don't accidentally cement the boards to the wall. This is what I got done the first "batch" and then I fitted and cut the rest of the perimeter tiles (they are laying on the coutner in this picture - ready to install). I put the border in after all the rest of the tiles were set. Here is my mixing setup. I use our smaller hammer drill (but not hammer mode) and a five gallon bucket so things don't splash. I have a scale (it's a fish scale, I'm not using a good kitchen one on this) to measure the powder and measuring cup for the water. Add the water to the bucket and carefull add the powder - if you simply dump it in, you'll get a plume of cement dust! And I have a timer - you mix for five minutes, wait for ten and mix for two and then use. one wall down - one to go! Now, we'll see if the resident experts come on here and rip me a new one for all the things I've done wrong. I think I'm learning why people rarely show "in progress" pictures on this forum. I'm showing the way I did things, I am not saying that I think this way is the only way to do it.

Very timely thread for me. I'm trying to decide on which size subway tile as well. To mix things up I'm considering a narrower and longer size (2 3/8 x 7/12) or a wider and longer size (4x8 or 4x12). Is there any design guidance on how to decide between one size or the other? For example (I don't know, I'm making this up) the smaller, longer tiles look great in modern kitchens or the wider, longer tiles look best in kitchens with no uppers. Can those who picked subway tile backsplashes explain why they picked the size they did?

I am going to take pictures and upload them later today - headed over there right now - but my builder is suggesting using the 3x6 bullnose on the long edge and running it perpendicular. I know that is how this is usually done in a bathroom but what about a backsplash? Our counters are L shaped with the fridge at one end so this is only an issue at one end (the open one). The other option would be to use another one of their options for trimming it out on the end, like a molding of some sort, but I don't know that they would have one that would work. Any thoughts? Do people usually just run one edge of perpendicular bullnose? I guess theoretically that could be cut down to a super skinny bullnose but that may look even worse. Or a pencil liner???? I am at a loss. Here is a link that might be useful: Cappricio trims and moldings