I am planning a small kitchen going in this summer and am having the same debate. For cleanliness, I struggle with no backsplash whatsoever. We slop around too much or someone spills and I am always wiping the countertops back to the backsplash. My painted walls would not hold up. You have a better chance of getting away with it with your prep area and sink on the island. I am going with Cambria and what I like about them is they offer a thin backsplash. I am seriously considering the thin Cambria behind the range and 4" up all the way around. I like the look of the thin backsplashes vs the chunky ones that come with granite. If I do decide to tile it is going to be a simple solid, probably small brick pattern that highlights one of the colors in my Cambria. Palimpsest - interesting idea back painting glass especially behind the range. How did you attach it to the wall?

Ooooh, you have me a little worried. I am planning a white on white kitchen...but back to the topic at hand. No I definitely don't think a lip of a backsplash is at all unfinished. In fact, i think most houses just have a lip? I wonder if the wall of a BS is a new thing. In fact i just took a quick look at property listings (no I am not a realtor, haha) and the 3 houses I clicked on (close to a million$) all had a lip of a backsplash. I think it is personal preference. And your right it is a dust catcher=). but better to have dust than me rub off my wall every time I wipe my counters down. (good paint may well solve that dilemma) but I do think that it looks naked with nothing. We cook alot ( and I am messy) so I have to have something behind my stove...and personally i do like the full wall of backsplash. If you have soapstone, that may break up the white enough to not make it so stark. You could possibly consider the lip of soapstone and then tile above that....? Best of luck

So tired of hearing " but that will make it look dated" or "it wouldn't be good for resale" Everything is going to be dated at some point, the kitchen designers, cabinet companies and appliance companies make sure of that. Example: stainless steel appliances were just coming on the market 15 years ago when we gutted our kitchen for a remodel. It was hard for me to find stainless in my area at that time, I live in a small mid western town. So, have you noticed in the past few years appliance companies have been trying to bring out new colors, grayed looking stainless, now ice white etc. they are trying to make people think their stainless appliances are soon going to be "dated". But I have read in several articles that stainless is still the number one choice. I chose a cinnamon stained cherry wood for our new build. I thought about white because that is the trend right now, but I reasoned cherry cabinets will always be in style while the white trend Has just a few more years. I won't be a slave to trends. Just my opinion.

While it can depend on the overall style of the room, as a generic statement I'd say that I wouldn't have one tile pattern meet another pattern straight on with no transition between the two. That's for most people and most installations. I think what you have to do is look at a lot of online photos. Or do mock up with your materials on hand. You may not be able to verbalize what you like, but when your eye sees it, your brain will give a "yea" or "nay" vote, and that'll help you define your style. Stye-wise...if you were going for a minimalist design? Simple? Clean lines? Minimal visual distractions? Then having one pattern butt right up to the other can look just fine. But the two tiles should relate to one another in some manner: Pattern, shape, size, color, texture, material, etc, etc. Some folk find pattern-abutting-pattern pleasing. But it depends on the tile, the pattern, etc. Others find it jarring. For a more traditional design, having a border or transition of some sort between them may be the better way to go. For a border or transition? If your shower wall was, say a marble subway. I'd terminate that pattern at the edge of the tub with a vertical run of tile. For a less busy look the tile for the vertical border could be the same used in the shower. If you want to blend details, it could be a darker tile, or something for example you used as an accent elsewhere in the shower, perhaps the same tile you used on the back walls of the niche. Easiest and safest is to use the same material as the shower tile. The vertical of the border will act as a transition between the marble in the shower and the backsplash pattern on the sink wall. In the end, trust your eyes and your gut. If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong. For you. Good luck.