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Design Dilemma Kitchens

Need help with how to terminate backsplash near cabinet ends

last year

last modified: last year

Ive seen a couple topics on this before, and I am not interested in moving my junction box for several reasons. can someone please provide advice on what would look best for terminating the backsplash to be symmetrical and not look janky?

attaching 2 pics - first is of the area to the right of the doorway which will have casing around it but no door and the second is a picture showing the back wall with the stove that i want to terminate similarly (there are no wall cabinets on the wall whwre the range hood is though). thanks in advance!

for the wall with the range, my thought is to end the backsplash at the countertop edge.

for the wall under the microwave, i was planning on ending the backsplash to the right of the light switch plate. would that look weird though?

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Comments (9)

btydrvn
last year
In order to get accurate guidance you should show the tile you will be using…
btydrvn
last year
It will be fairly easy ….and worth doing ….to move the multiple switch …to line up the splash better ….in the first picture
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It looks like the Imperial 42" is the favorite. It is funny that most of my "inspiration" pictures have a similarly shaped hood, since I saved those images in my "backsplash" folder to try to help my choose the BS height (i.e., I didn't intentionally choose those pictures for the hood). The voting for BS height is mixed, with the majority so far choosing the 8' height. The image above with the tall gray glass BS is from the Smallbones catalog -- I love that look -- makes me wish I could have gone "topless." I think I prefer the taller glass BS, but I'm not sure how to overcome the technical difficulties with the chinmey extending beyond the glass. The glass and wall above will be painted the same color so the line will not be a strong contrast like most of the images above, although the shine factor will obviously be very different.
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I love the framed pictures at the end of the wall, but this is just my own petty little opinion, I think it would call less attention to the backsplash dilemma if the pictures were centered on the wall space between the door and cabinet shelves end. That way you would never even think about the backsplash and just look at the pictures and not wonder why they weren't centered on the wall, which in turn would lead to explaining the dilemma about the splash. I know that was a run-on sentence...sorry!!!
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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
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Thanks so much for responding. Is this due to a technical reason or just aesthetics? Also, is this a personal preference or an industry standard? After I posted the question, I saw other posts where PRO responders (how do they get that designation, do you know?) mostly recommended the tile ending at the edge of the cabinet and not extending. Several were my exact configuration. Just curious. Thanks again.
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jackowskib
last year
This is one of those live and learn moments. Once the tile goes up the permanent fixtures are stuck there. Save money elsewhere and move your switch box out of the way so the backsplash can have a clean finish at the ends.
plf12652
last year
A question because I am not an electrician…….if you swapped out the light switch from the large toggle switch to a regular up/down switch, would it be smaller overall and allow you to tile right up to the end of the cabinet run?
Dee
last year
I had the same problem, you can get a switch has 3 smaller switches stacked on top of each other so that it only uses the space of a single switch. I can’t seem to add photos otherwise I would attach a pic.
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
You may be able to get a narrower switch plate.

With dimmers I don't think you could do a smaller j box. There is also a thing about how many dimmers can go in a single box, somehow they interfere with each other, I don't know, I am not an electrician.

If you absolutely do not want to move the box it looks like it would end like this:

This is a discrepancy that a lot of people would never notice on a non-focal point wall.

I think it would look okay IF:

the backsplash and the wall color are essentially similar

the switches and plate and wall color are similar

I think it will look odd in general if you have a contrasting wall color and a whiteish backsplash and switch because it could look like this:

I don't think you want to create a T-shape in white here:

Another option is to not have a backsplash over in this little bit of counter at all. You don't really need one there. And it's tucked away from the rest so it give it permission to be different.
Greg A
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Hi ! great comments so far. we will be using 4x4 montauk gin tile from tilebar (https://www.tilebar.com/montauk-gin-4x4-ceramic-wall-tile.html) and they also offer a bullnose 2x8 cap which we can potentially use but i do not have the imaginstion to know if that would look good. the wall color will be very similar (benjamin moore chantilly lace) to answer the other question.

@dee i cannot use a vertical switch because it only supports single pole not three way
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
If you have enough wire, you could see if the three gang box could be turned on its side, which would put it here. Then you could take the backsplash to the end of the upper and you would have a small margin of wall to avoid the weird shape at the color change.

I usually have my electricians put an extra loop or S in the wiring at the boxes so they can be moved around a little bit if necessary. But even doing that at just more "important" box positions adds to the total lengths of wiring used for the job.
Greg A
Original Author
last year
Great idea! i will ask my electrician about this

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