@traci_from_seattle yeah, the cabinet ends about 22" from the corner, as cabinets wouldn't have fit around the window trim. The space between the cabinets and the wall will be filled with three floating wood shelves, about 10" deep (the cabs are 15" deep), with the lowest shelf even with the bottom of the cabinets. You can see the shelf brackets in my last photo. So it will have something casting a shadow over it, but the whole area kind of is a feature. I'm planning to put my big blue le creuset on the lowest shelf, and feature some nice glassware and plants on the higher ones.

In terms of just hiding the mess, what do people think about the notion of caulk or quarter round or something? I CANNOT look at those atrocious spidery blobs of dark grout.

@User I don't know! All I can see right now is the corner, but my designer thinks that i should prioritize the window, and she is often right about things like this where I get obsessive tunnel vision.

@Skippack Tile & Stone that's what I want, except that the right hand wall is most of the tile job -- probably 10+ square feet of tile already done there, and I think there's no way my contractor would pick up the cost. And the tile went in on Sunday, so I assume the adhesive is set and we'd be trashing all that tile, probably about $250 worth, and having to re-order and wait for it to come in. What would be involved in taking it out and starting again? Would they have to replace the drywall at this point?

I do agree with your designer...the window is the focal point and will always be on display. The corner will not be noticed once the shelf is up and the counter is accessorized. When I look around my own kitchen, in one corner I have a tiered basket with a plant and a radio, and in the other I have cutting boards and a knife block.

I don't think a caulk or light grout is going to fix that transition or lessen it's effects. So, I guess the next question is are you willing to put out more money to replace the long wall of tile and drywall? What a mess to be in....

@Leslie Kreger yup, she's usually right about things like this. A reason we're really grateful to have her working with us.

We are (supposedly) in the last week of a pretty major whole-house reno which has already run three months over schedule, so I am super worn out and frustrated and this was kind of the last straw. I know that our general contractor's usual tile guy wasn't available so he had to bring in someone else for this job. I don't think our gc supervised him adequately, which has been a recent theme. We're also dealing with trying to get a sloppy paint job fixed right now.

@User Honestly, maybe. Within reason. I'd probably agree to pay for the replacement tile (would be under $200 i think) if my contractor would cover the labour. We are definitely talking drywall replacement here? I have some OCD-esque hangups around patterns aligning correctly, and can see this grating on me for the next 20 years.

I am the same way and think the money up front (although painful) would be worth it in the long run. Hopefully, you wont have drywall damage from removing the tile but who knows? Again, so sorry!

Using dark grout was not a good choice. I’ve yet to see a truly “square” corner in any house, old or new. Having used wallpaper with a similar pattern many times over the past 50 years, I choose the “final corner” where it all falls apart, very carefully.

if you do choose to have this redone, choose matching grout.

I know that the other wall is longer, but the window wall is the one that has an "open" feel; so that's the one to keep and redo the other.

its bad, bur if it costs a lot to redo, can you put a vase or something in front of it to hide it? lol

@Anglophilia the dark grout was a deliberate design choice to tie in with black hardware and faucet and make sure the design stood out. But I understand what you're saying. We have a quirky old house, but also those walls are both newly reframed and drywalled so I didn't anticipate this being so difficult.

If we do redo on the right hand side but keep the left hand side as it is, we are still going to have diagonal grout lines meeting the vertical grout line in the corner, and I'm worried there will still be some messy-looking grout as a result. Would replacing all the right hand tile AND caulking the corner help?

too many comments to read, but I would have started in the corner and cut the tiles in half and put the seam together that way. Even with 3x6 tiles, it would be done the exact same way.

He should agree to fix it for free, he did it totally wrong. I watch a lot of pros doing tilework on Youtube and all of them tell you to start where corners meet and do half the tiles at least on the first bottom row which would mean alternate tiles on the next row would be full tiles in the corners and the others would be half tiles. If he was a certified tile installer, he would have known that

This how my GC did it - dry run on the floor with grout spacing accounted for and all cuts planned out - all before a single tile was cut or installed. He also consulted with me to make sure I was happy with the centering and the cut locations. We adjusted as necessary. Laying them out on the floor also allowed me to remove any tiles that I thought had a "defect".

If you end up living with it, I'd replace the vertical grout line with a color matched to the tile, and then put something useful in that corner. A knife block, paper towel roll on a stand or similar. My sympathies - long renos are tough.

I understand why you chose a dark grout, but it’s made it harder. That big a contrast typically looks best on a large wall, broken up with shelves. In a smaller kitchen with less used, it can just look choppy. Your faucets, hardware and windows were enough “tying together”.

@diyher I have never installed tile but I also knew this just from reading houzz forums and reno blogs!

I may now be getting somewhere with my GC. He thought they'd started with whole tiles on either side of the corner (weird choice, but at least a choice) but now he sees that they started both walls from their respective right sides which is just stupid. Seems that the alignment around the window was just dumb luck -- but dumb luck we want to keep!

Thanks so much everyone for your suggestions and support. I'll let you know how this resolves. I am feeling stubborn and grumpy so am leaning towards insisting on having the whole right side torn off and redone.

The tile should be removed and reinstalled. Corners are part of the job. The pattern should have been continued around the corner the same way that you would with any shape or pattern.

I don't feel all the blame should go to the gc - initially you had said there were certain thngs you had specified. Be nice about it and split some costs and get it done the way you want . HOWEVER - If you like how it is by the window then you will still have small pieces in the corner as opposed to it looking like one tile was "folded" into the corner. I would strongly urge someone to actually draw , to scale, the tiles on soome paper and tape it up so it is obvious where every tile will begin and end. Time spent doing this will stop any other issues from happening.

BTW - I like the contrasting grout - it makes it much more interesting.

Good luck!

@Debbi Washburn that's a fair point. I'm open to some negotiation with my GC on splitting the cost of a fix -- like i'd be open to paying for replacement tile if we need it. I'm going to ask for the corner to be redone to look like this: https://www.tilersforums.com/media/main-sink-corner-picture.15608/full?d=1520700860

And i am totally with you on the paper drawings. I actually did a bunch last night and it was super helpful.

Thanks for the dark grout validation! I like it too :)

I noticed "start with a whole tile" right away and imagined that might lead to trouble -- both vertically and horizontally? starting from the bottom and the top? left or right?

one never knows what one needed to specify until it's too late. helpful to be around when tricksy work is getting done. your example photo was truly masterful work and not to be expected without discussion, but again, easy to see in hindsight.

if you know it will make you crazy, then redo one wall, and try to be reasonable about sharing costs. at the end of the (yet another, sigh) day, you'll love your kitchen, so try to weather the bumps on the road.

I would want it redone, simply because, it would bother me forever. I am another though, that dislikes the dark grout. I would have much preferred to have grout the color of the tiles, so it all looks cohesive, and it does also hide slight inperfections. Right now, it just looks busy.

You have to pick your poison. With competing focal areas, if you center one, the other will have slivers. This appears that the tiler chose to center both, and let the corner bear the brunt. If they had chosen just the window to center, then the corner wrap would have been asymmetric and then the range wall would have had slivers. And the reverse. If the chosen “perfect” wall was the range wall, then nothing else can be expected to be perfect. You can’t have every wall have no slivers and have a perfect corner wrap. You have to pick your poison.

@live_wire_oak I get this, and I'm not expecting perfection and am ok with some slivers. But actually, they didn't centre anything. They just started with a full tile on the right hand side of the window wall, and they also started with a full tile on the right hand side of the big wall with the range. My GC has confirmed that the centring that happened around the window was just dumb luck! So basically this was not a question of planning and compromising, they just slapped on a bunch of tile and waited til they were done to see where it all ended up. Not great.

Bummer

You had your tile installed by the GC. Lots of people do this and get decent results, but hex tile is not easy to install, honestly. I'm not sure what financial concessions you're going to be able to get from your GC but surely he can return the wall to its pre-tile condition at no cost to you. Then start again with an NCTA certified installer.

@eam44 actually my GC hired a tiler, as he has hired plumbers, electricians, carpenters, drywallers, HVAC technicans, painters, etc. over the course of this 7-month gut-reno contract. But i don't know that person's credentials, and I do know it's not his favourite go-to tiler, who did our bathrooms, as that person is currently away.

Then be a persistent PITA until you get what you need. He does it over at his expense, you pay for the tile. How many thousands of dollars have you spent with this guy? This should be a drop in the bucket for him.

You know, he could just re-do the side wall, where he cut the first full tile - who cuts the first full tile?

@eam44 "persistent PITA" is my middle name! :) And the answer to how many thousands is SO MANY.

I'm looking at this same tile for a standard size shower stall (the size and shape you could probably put a tub in if you wished). This makes me wonder if the hex shape is a bad choice when there will be two interior corners in the shower. Is a hex this size best used in asurface that only has one plane?

I have found some really nice photos online of the corners done well. Evidently takes good planning though, and a clear understanding from your tiler that you want the tile pattern to be applied continuously!

The window not being centered over the sink bothers more than the tile in the corner. But both need to be fixed, centering the window the priority.

@ci_lantro ha, that's definitely out of scope..This is a solid brick house built in 1910, and not designed around the assumptions of a modern kitchen; the windowsill had to be moved up 10 inches to even have a counter on that wall at all. Moving the window 8 inches to the left would put it 4 inches from the back door. That window's been where it is for 110 years and that's where it shall remain. Just some of the fun quirks and character of living in a beautiful vintage home!

Here's a fisheye lens view of the "before" state of our kitchen for some context on what we were working with here. The whole space is about 9'x13'.

My backsplash corner tile was done perfectly. Then I put my stand mixer there, so it could be a total mess for all you can see of it. Just put a nice appliance or a pretty vase in the corner and enjoy your kitchen. Minor imperfections will only be noticed by you in the end.

if you put a vase in the corner, it will attract your eye to the imperfection

Start in the corner, use a level. Some common sense.

I'd like to see a photo of the range wall tiled (maybe I missed it?). Here's the thing. The installer messed up. There are two ways to wrap a corner: continue the pattern or mirror cut. Agree with Shippack that continue the pattern is the best approach here. Did he/she install the long wall first? Some areas dictate your PLANNING for other areas. If you want perfect symmetry at the range, for example, then you PLAN your corners/transitions with that in mind. A professional PLANS the layout in advance. We already know exactly where every cut is before we install. Everything is pre-determined. If necessary, we present the options to the client and determine preferences. It's important to remember that if, as the client, you provide some design instructions, then you follow those up with "How would that work? Can that be done? Can I see how that layout would work?" That being said a Pro doesn't wrap the corner like was done on your project and they wouldn't need you to tell them that. It's amateur but perhaps he is just learning, unfortunately at your expense. Sorry you are dealing with this aggravation. Our industry is doing a lot to try to influence the training and certifications of tile setters. We are also working diligently to educate the public and the GC's so that sub-par work is no longer accepted. Unfortunately GC's will continue to use unqualified labor if it is less expensive and the consumer accepts it. As an advocate for the consumer, I can only say it starts with you (and I mean all of the people who complain about poor tile installations). If you believe that you "can't expect them to redo unacceptable work at their cost" then do expect them to pass it off as acceptable on their next installation for their next customer...and the beat goes on. Stand your ground. Again, sorry for this disappointment that could have been avoided so easily with a qualified tile professional.

Dragonfly is spot on. Wrapping corners so the tiles look folded/continuous is basic tile good practice, it's not something that needs to be specified.

I'd have your GC tear out the window wall tile, since there's not much of it, and redo on his dime (or his tiler's dime). The tiles are small enough that it's not going to look significantly different if they shift over an inch or so. You could always adjust the width of the window trim a smidge if needed to avoid tile slivers.

Agree with all others - this needs to be ripped out and redone by someone who knows what they're doing. When my bathroom guy did the tile around the shower, he actually drew the exact layout of the tiles on the wall before laying a single tile. That way I could see what it would look like and he could easily adjust as needed.

Well stated @Dragonfly Tile & Stone Works, Inc.! Good luck to the OP. It’s a challenging installation, but you should get it done right. Try to distance your emotional reaction now as you work it out with the GC. Perhaps prevail on your designer friend to handle it for you? Mistakes happen, and a good GC will want it to be resolved to your satisfaction. Home stretch!

It looks like our GC is coming around and is going to rip it out and redo. TBC later today.

I really appreciated all the responses here -- it was a super helpful sanity check, and gave me the confidence to push for the resolution i really wanted.

Tile on the right wall has been demoed. The (previously brand new) drywall is wrecked and needs replacing, but it looks like enough of the tile will be salvageable to avoid a re-order. Fingers crossed! And grateful that my contractor ultimately did take this seriously.

I don't like hex or herringbone on walls. Too busy and distracting. Yours looks it is from the 70s.

My pref would be remove and redo with subway or 2"x8" pencil style. Stay classy.

@strategery cool. But I do like it. :)

Glad you’ve had good response from the GC.

Thats great news! Post pics when you are all done!!

I just took a look through my old threads to see if there were things I should go back and update (because I love when posters come back to update), and found this one. The end to the saga was that an almost-adequate resolution was reached final results were not ideal.

-The general contractor agreed the tile installation was not ok and came back and pulled all the tile off the wall, hoping to re-use much of it

-The tile subcontractor (who was not my GC's usual tile contractor and was frankly not very good) grudgingly came back, and did a mediocre re-do job at their own expense. The seam in question was handled better the second time around but the tile was installed with slightly uneven spacing, and they didn't look closely enough at each tile as they re-installed it so a few with minor chips were re-installed. I think it looked better before the grouchy redo despite the stupid seam.

-The overall look is still pretty good, and we decided to live with it. We were due to move into our house after 8 months of renovations and were just out of patience at this point. It didn't seem like we were going to get a better fix.

-We've been living with it for two years. I rarely think about the backsplash, but it gets on my husband's nerves and he wants to rip it all out and have it redone at our own expense in the next couple of years

-Overall our home turned out beautifully. Our GC claims he didn't work with that tile subcontractor again. We're now doing another renovation to a different part of the house with the same GC and he has since found a GREAT tile guy who just did a gorgeous bathroom tile installation for us. I watched the poor guy like a hawk every step of the way, having learned my lesson.

Below is a (somewhat staged) pic my designer took of our kitchen just after it was finished. Ironically in this picture she has our sodastream positioned right in fact of the previously offending and now adequately-fixed seam, but at least you can see what the overall look is!