Welp. Your kitchen in the photo is GORGEOUS. I love the tiles. And the cabinets.

Thanks! I’m still nervous about it. I hope we don’t have to rip it all down and start over. I’m really loving this look so far too.

I always order a bit extra too just to have on hand for the future in case there is a repair needed in that area.

Good news, the remaining tiles were enough to finish. Whew.
Yes, I always buy the recommended 10% or so, but I should have gotten way more, especially considering this was returnable and that it was being shipped made it vulnerable to breakage in the first place. I should have known better. I lucked out.

How great you wanted to share this valuable advice with others!

I love what I see in your photo. Great advice on ordering more than you need. My backsplash tile was the big splurge in my kitchen, so I also splurged on hiring a fantastic installer to make sure it was done right. Even though I ordered 10% extra, my kitchen had so many places requiring special cuts (three windows, mitered corners with tile on the window jambs, etc.) that 10% extra was barely enough to cover all the weird cuts. The installer made it work, but I was sweating it at the end!

Always, alway, always. You can return a whole unopened box if you don’t need it.

Even if your tile is available, it might be a different lot and there could be variations.

I always recommend 15-20% overage for raw material orders, especially if the material has a long lead time. Pattern match tile sometimes demands over 20% overage. You may end up paying for more than you need, but it can prevent long delays or dealing with unavailable materials. If you cannot return the material, you can save it in case of a emergency where some tile will need to be removed.

So this is still not finished, but it came together pretty well. In anticipation of at least one person 😉 noticing that the corner didn’t get wrapped, it was an unfortunate choice because we needed to center tile both above window and above the stove and the inside corner was the lesser of the choices. I’ll disguise it with a canister or something.

What beautifully harmonious selections @Therese N!

Thank you!

I’m one of those people that needs to consider every conceivable possibility with every decision from placement and workflow to finishing touches, so I really understand others here who struggle with decisions. I knew I needed white gloss to help compensate for the light the soapstone would absorb, but I love beautiful and colorful tile. I really went down a few rabbit holes with style and budget before I snapped out of it and came back to reality. I really didn’t want plain white subway, and like the hand painted delft style, but nothing was clicking until I found this. It’s actually a cheap copy of beautiful hand painted tile that is no longer being made. This is from Home Depot and I was hoping it wouldn’t look as “cheap” as it really is. In the end, I have a modest house, so it doesn’t make sense to blow the budget anyway. In the end I realize that for all my agonizing, this seems to strike just the right balance of just the right amount of added detail without overdoing it with style or budget. I’m anxious to see how the grout finishes it off. I’m also getting the tile in the back utility area done and that was a similar process. It’s also not finished, but I’m so glad I found just the right tile and it ended up being on-budget too! (Chamonix, dark grey from Del Conca)

Ps, I’m still shopping for a “just right” light for over the sink, 😂

Inspired choices and fabulous looking! Happy for you. I have also been told 20% extra for materials. You so lucked out. :D Hope you'll share more pics! And also, let us know if we can help you scour the interwebs for a light fixture.

Haha, I’m the one that can show all of you some obscure sites. I search relentlessly. I found these island pendants.

https://www.tudoandco.com/collections/all/products/reims-smooth-garden-concrete-pendant-ceiling-light

These are some I’m thinking about. I like the idea of some kind of art glass or showy piece, but it needs to be separate, but compatible with those cement pendants. Most of my finishes so far are in black. I like the green glass, but I am hesitant to bring in more green. The black is ok, but brings more of the industrial look and not enough European cottage, the painted pot is ok, but gold? IDK.

I love, love, love, love, love your choices and your taste.

(Whenever I see a little bit of metal that doesn't go.... remember it can be painted or rub'n'buffed....)

Can you share some of your other unique lighting sources???

The painted ceramic comes from https://www.shadesoflight.com

we discovered two boxes of tiles are shattered and these tiles are no longer available

The other take away is to be sure to open all boxes & inspect the goods immediately/ very soon after delivery. I have read many tales of woe about taking delivery of items for a remodel & then discovering, some months later, that the item was damaged or the wrong item was delivered. Also take care to store things safely so they don't get damaged after getting possession.

The tile choice for the backsplash looks great! It's nice to see something besides Subway tile. I know you said it's discontinued, or I would ask what it was. We have a backsplash to figure out in our kitchen right now and don't really like all the trendy looks or how costly a lot of it can be.

Thanks! No, not discontinued exactly, but unavailable at the moment. Store has no other info. The tile is a copy of this much prettier stuff, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Turned out ok anyway.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/InDesign-Handspun-Slate-Line-Art-6-in-x-6-in-Ceramic-Wall-Tile-10-sq-ft-case-IG-HASU-LDSL-201-3001HD-1/302638919?MERCH=REC--rv_cart_rr--NA--302638919--N&

@Therese N, thanks for that tudoandco link!! New-to-me source. Affordable too. Love that! Very cool fixtures you've shared.

@Quentin Parker, do you have a thread for your kitchen backsplash? Maybe we can give you suggestions. Btw, I hear you on loving to see something other than subway tile but I don't think subway is as predominant as the design forums make it appear. As Maria Killam is fond of pointing out, bet if you checked local real estate listings, it wouldn't be in the majority of listings. Did my kitchen 15 yrs ago and avoided subway because I felt it was overdone. Went with a square mosaic that, like most tile, trended out 10 years later. :) Now, I don't really care but if I were to put my house on the market now, a subway backsplash would get less resentment than my do-something-different choice. Honestly, if I have the chance to redo my kitchen one day and can't do the same material for backsplash and counter, I won't break my head for the backsplash tile. I'll go with an affordable subway tile and perhaps consider an interesting pattern to make it look less "predictable". There are dozens of patterns out there! In next kitchen, all that backsplash hunting time and energy will go to lighting instead. ;-)

@Therese N Thanks! I love the tile in the lower pic especially.

@tartanmeup I don't have a thread specifically for the backsplash but I should. I'm not quite at the point of being ready to do that yet, maybe in another month or so, but considering how long it takes to make all these decisions it's probably just as well to get ideas and start looking more seriously. Subway tile seems a little boring, but you're right that it's actually not in most houses. Most houses I see up for sale around here don't have very recently renovated kitchens and there's a lot of Tuscan style. In newer remodels I also see the small mosaic tiles which we don't care for. We have an older house so I wasn't sure if ubway would look too stark and out of place. We're trying to walk a fine line between not trendy, something we like, but okay for resale. But now I'm hijacking this thread, so I probably should start my own. :)

Love the colors! Thank goodness you have enough tile. Very good advise to order extra. Hope everything else goes smoothly for you.:)

@ci_lantro, oh, I know! That’s the worst part, I know better and I still dropped the ball. I wanted to inspect, but they were boxed in a way that made it difficult to put back together, so I didn’t want to risk breaking them if they weren’t already. In retrospect that was dumb. Luckily we got that extra box shortly after our original purchase and that made the difference. It’s not even the first time we’ve gotten special tiles. I did cement tiles I. Two bathrooms and one was custom colored. The stock cement was the closest I’ve ever come - we used every single piece with none to spare! LOL! That wasn’t my fault in that event. The supplier accidentally shorted my order by one box. That worked out fine, though, and they reimbursed for that missing case. Construction is always an adventure, lol.

Same situation with our really really beautiful engineered acacia floor. Zero pieces left. ZERO. And they don't sell it anymore at the place where I bought it. We're SOL if (when) anything needs replaced. :/