Big size tiles splashback 300X600 for kitchen: ugly?

Ancient Mariner · Jul 21, 2008 6:53 pm

Yeah, we've looked at glass mosaics. The concern is getting a colour that lives comfortably with the granite and everything else. Although the granite is basically black there are a lot of colours in it too and it's proving difficult to find something that doesn't look wrong, hence the stainless steel idea. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

fitnhealthy · Jan 12, 2009 4:38 pm

I have just found this thread and I was wondering with my kitchen if I decided to use these large tiles would it look funny having two rows of 300 x 600 on top of each other. E.g the total height would be 600. I noticed that the builder allows 450 height for the tiles included, but I really like these large ones and just one tile won't be high enough.

Michelle do you still have the photo that you posted with the one row, that you could email me in a bigger size?

Oznow have you taken pictures of your kitchen with the large tiles that I could have a look at?

Has anyone else used large tiles in their kitchen and have photos to share?

I am looking at white tiles as I am using Formica Chocolate Pear for my cupboards in the kitchn and the benchtop is Laminex Quicksand.

Thanks again for your help

Michelle · Jan 12, 2009 5:00 pm

Fitnhealthy…Pm me your email address and I’ll send it to you.

Paddy05 · Jan 12, 2009 11:32 pm

We thought about big tiles but ended up with 300 x200 I think. (will check in the morning) Now they are in, they look great but I would go the bigger the better. Our tiler said that by paying more for the tiles, they are more carefully made and therefore he could put a narrower strip of grout. Our gaps are around 2mm I think, maybe less. If you buy cheap tiles, they may not be quite as 'square' and can cause difficulties for the tiler.

Renosmakemeweary · Jan 15, 2009 1:54 am

Long time lurker... first time poster.

I have replaced the kitchen in my home recently and used white rectified edge tiles as a splashback. They are great and I went for the same colour as my cupboard doors as I have polished timber floors. I used 600x200 as I felt the 600x300were a bit to bulky for the small amount of wallspace to be tiled.

Hopefully you can see the tiles and grout lines in this pic.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

This is what it was before... ugh, makes me cringe thinking back to living with that!

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ [/img]

fitnhealthy · Jan 15, 2009 8:40 am

Welcome Renosmakemeweary and thank you for the photos. Your new kitchen looks fantastic and I love the look of the tiles.

I phoned my tiling place yesterday and found out that these tiles are included in the builders range, so I am going to get some. I love the idea of not much grout to clean. But now I don't know whether to go 600 x 300 or 600 x 200. I am still leaning towards the 600 x 300 with two rows. I'll have a chat to the tile place and see what they say.

I would still love to see pictures of other peoples kitchens using these big tiles...

Paddy05 · Jan 15, 2009 10:04 am

I bought some Grout Sealer from Bunnings yesterday just to help with the whole cleaning process. Spills on the grout should bead instead of soak in now.

fitnhealthy · Jan 15, 2009 10:30 am

Paddy05 is the grout sealer expensive? I think I will get some of that. Also are you using it for the kitchen and bathroom? Do you know how it gets applied?

Thanks for your help

Paddy05 · Jan 15, 2009 10:56 am

The one I wrote about is "Dunlop" brand and was around $10 I think. It comes in a 250 ml bottle and has a little nail-polish-type brush inside to apply the sealer. It is very easy to apply. I did it myself. I am sure you could use it anywhere.

The tile shop I went to recommended it and so did the tiler so I figured it was the way to go.

I think you can also get an aerosol version but I opted for the brush as our tiles are big and I thought the spray would be wasted.

fitnhealthy · Jan 15, 2009 11:31 am

Thanks Paddy05, I will go get some once my house is actually built, :lol:

it sounds like it might help the grout from getting so yuck.

katie81 · Feb 09, 2010 3:05 am

Glad I found this thread! I am looking at doing the same - 600x300 white gloss tiles with square edge for my kitchen splashback, and I want minimal grout lines! Was told 1.5mm was the smallest it could legally go, but as this isn't for the floor, I should be able to find a tiler who will do less than that, right? :th:

Michelle, would love to see the photo you are emailing too, if you don't mind?

Keep the photos coming people, I need to picture large white tiles as a splashback cos I'm still not entirely sure what to do!! :oops:

katie81 · Feb 09, 2010 3:11 am

Another thing - my overhead cupboards are 700 above my bench, so I will have a gap of 100 if using the 600x300 tiles (I want to lay them horizontally too). I am unsure whether to just get the top filled in with a 100 in the same white tile, or find a 100 feature tile and include that at the top or in between the two roles of tiles... what do you guys suggest? I'm not sure if I want/need to busy my kitchen up anymore with a feature tile :th:

Will try get pictures soon and hopefully someone can help me! ::wornout::

inamet09 · Feb 11, 2010 10:10 am

i think the 600x300 can look great! Ancient Mariner your tiles laid vertically look EXCELLENT! I think it looks really, really fancy.

jaelee · Feb 11, 2010 2:46 pm

heres another pic of a kitchen splashback using the larger tiles.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Homelessone · Feb 11, 2010 5:50 pm

A couple of questions

What is the standard height of overhead cupboards?

What is the standard height of a rangehood over a gas stove? is 650-700 correct?

600 high is pretty common for tiles. We are looking a 1400 x 600 tiles for the splashback, This would mean we need only 2, one centred and another cut in half at each end. This would give only 2 grout joins.

Not too keen on the gap if the overheads and rangehood have to be higher....

all the sand · Feb 11, 2010 10:08 pm

I also looked at using larger tiles as a splashback, was going to use 300x600 or 600X600 black glass looking, however at our colours appt we were told that the rangehood and overhead cupboards had to be at 650 so i would have this tiny gap that i have no idea what i would do with.

I have since got a couple of quotes from various glass places which were both around $450 for normal glass and $540 for starfire glass installed. Also got a quote for mirrored and this was around $700.

As i really dont want a gap and am trying to aviod grout lines by using the larger tiles, i think i may be better off just going for glass. In the end it will come down to dollars! The larger tiles really do look fantastic though (well in my opinion).

V

katie81 · Feb 12, 2010 1:37 am

jaelee, is that a 700 gap? I was thinking of filling in my spare 100 gap with a tile but wasn't sure whether to go for a feature tile or just get my white tile cut to fit, but I like that feature tile through the centre. Something for me to think about for mine, thanks

Renosmakemeweary, thanks for the pic you posted - I see yours is tiled behind the rangehood, which is something I was hoping could be done because my wall behind my rangehood is very patchy (this is a reno, not a new house) so if I can cover with tiles then excellent!!

Does anyone know how hard it is to get a rangehood down so tiling can go on the wall behind it?

kexkez · Feb 12, 2010 9:45 am

We were originally going to go with 300x 600 splashback tiles in our kitchen. I think they can look fabulous. finding pictures of that size can be tough. i do remember Michelle had a few though. ( beach house she'd been the decorator for?) We were going to lay them portrait style.

The only reason we didn't use them in the end was a last minute change of benchtop colour which also meant cupboard colour change and the tiles didn't go with the new colours.

jaelee · Feb 12, 2010 2:44 pm

Hi, the photo I posted was one I took at a display home, so sorry can't help you with exact measurements.

but the tiles were 600 x 300. So that should give you an approximation of the size of boarder tile used.

Personally, i think the boarder tiles looks fantastic running through the middle. There are so many boarder tiles now that can look fantastic used this way. Even small mossaics would work well, or the longer, horizontal finger stacked tiles would work too.

Good luck.

kyiee81 · Feb 13, 2010 4:09 pm

we used 300 by 600 tiles that are white with white grout and the cleaning is very easy and would not hesitate to get larger tiles again as i am not a huge fan of glass splashbacks. Probably not to everyone's tastes but i think they are different and they get a lot of nice comments from people...

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅