Kitchen Backsplash Ideas

By BH&G Editors
Updated June 26, 2019
Transform your kitchen with one of these stylish kitchen backsplash ideas. With backsplash ideas for tile, stone, glass, ceramic, and more, you're sure to find a kitchen backsplash design that fits your style and budget.
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Think Green

Free Backsplash Idea Guide

Kitchen tile backsplashes are best when they seamlessly blend with the cabinets and countertops. Exercise your earth-friendly mindset while expressing great style with recycled glass tile backsplash. In this kitchen, the matte recycled glass tiles inspired the color scheme of warm grays, creams, and brown, which also repeat in the recycled glass countertop.

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Penny Tile

Scott Little

Round penny tile creates a vintage look when installed as a kitchen backsplash. We love this look in a country kitchen with creamy white cabinets. Pair white penny tiles with a contrasting grout color to make the backsplash tiles pop.

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Chevron Design

If you can't get enough chevron, bring your love for the pattern into your kitchen. Chevron tiles make it easy to recreate the iconic design. Keep it subtle with zig-zags in similar hues. In this case, white and gray marble stripes make the kitchen backsplash design just noticeable enough without overpowering the neutral color scheme.

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Marble Block

If a kitchen outfitted with marble countertops isn't in your price range, opt for a small-scale use of the material. Install a marble slab as your stove backsplash. It looks stunning in a neutral kitchen, and without grout, marble is smooth and easy to wipe clean. Or opt for engineered stone, which looks similar to marble but is more durable and affordable.

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Unique Kitchen Backsplashes

Looking for a kitchen backsplash that's a little different? This video has unique configurations and colors. Watch and get inspired by these unique kitchen backsplash ideas.

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Hardworking Wall

When you want a clean, contemporary look, keep the kitchen backsplash treatment simple. A single sheet of glass, painted on the back, lends color and easy-clean protection behind this range. The modern kitchen backsplash extends from the countertop to the ceiling as a simple, shining backdrop for the sculptural hood.

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Contemporary Combination

Flat-front cabinets set the stage for modern touches throughout the kitchen. Combine the sleek look with a contemporary peel-and-stick kitchen backsplash. Black and gray glass tiles run horizontally along the back wall and the thinness of the backsplash tiles makes this kitchen feel energetic and fresh.

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Translucent Tile

The right kitchen backsplash tile ideas can introduce another design dimension to your space. Slender glass tiles in creamy hues and stone tiles in coppery shades make this kitchen glow with their translucent beauty. A neutral color palette such as the one in this kitchen backsplash can warm up a sleek, contemporary space. The trendy, narrow backsplash tiles maintain a modern vibe.

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Past Perfected

Layering a shapely piece of marble over tongue-and-groove siding creates a layered look for this white kitchen backsplash that honors the 1897 Victorian home that once stood on this lot. The owner wanted to restore a feeling of the historic home, but in a simpler form. The distinctive kitchen backsplash design, combined with the wood paneled backdrop, adds dimension to the wall.

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Rustic Appeal

Clad from counter to ceiling with durable chocolate-brown porcelain tiles, this kitchen backsplash harmonizes with the creamy-hue onyx and oak-veneer cabinetry. To impart the look of natural stone, the backsplash was edged with dark-gray grout. A unique kitchen backsplash idea like this deserves a cool, sleek vent hood, too.

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Classic Cottage

Looking for a kitchen backsplash on a budget? Try a beaded board backsplash. White beaded board covers this kitchen backsplash, but stops short of the ceiling, allowing a rich shade of taupe paint to warm up the mostly-white room. The classic backsplash idea is the perfect addition to a cozy cottage kitchen.

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Separate and Synchronized

Distinctive zones for food prep, cooking, and cleanup keep kitchen efficiency humming, but the look should be cohesive from zone-to-zone. Selecting one kitchen backsplash treatment promotes continuity while some tile colors echo elements throughout the room to visually link materials and components. Mosaic peel-and-stick kitchen backsplash tiles are a great way to get a backsplash with multiple colors.

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Enhance Spaciousness

Choosing one color (no pattern or texture) and clean-lined tile for the backsplash in a small kitchen keeps the look uncluttered and roomy. On this kitchen backsplash, long rectangular tiles feature rich brown (almost black) color that provides warm balance with white cabinetry, while giving the walls a sense of depth. The reflective surface of the tile also lends added dimension to the kitchen backsplash idea.

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Classic Subway Tile Backsplash

Classic good looks and a casual vibe are central to this subway tile kitchen backsplash. In a sea of carefree white, subway tiles with dark grout lines bear a subtle "look-at-me" texture for a fresh backsplash idea. The dark grout lines also serve a practical purpose: Grout can often stain, but dark grout is more forgiving.

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Rich Addition

The veining in granite inspired the rich brown accents in this creamy-white kitchen. Shimmering shades of cocoa, chocolate, and coffee-color tiles cover the kitchen backsplash and coordinate with the oil-rubbed bronze cabinet hardware to create a luxurious traditional kitchen. Glass tile kitchen backsplashes really stand out next to matte cabinets and walls.

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Solution to Steel

A seamless look is key when a kitchen opens to the living room. For this contemporary loft kitchen, the contrast of dark and light surfaces enhances the unfussy, contemporary vibe of the space. Sleek flat-front cabinets combine with chunky marble countertops and a simple stainless-steel kitchen backsplash to play up the linear symmetry of the room. A DIY kitchen backsplash like this is much less work than installing individual tiles.

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Beach Cottage Colors

The white cottage-style cabinetry in this beach house benefits from sea glass colors of turquoise and green in the kitchen backsplash and accents. Taupe-color walls serve as a serene backdrop for the dramatic blue island. White cabinetry on the back wall of the galley kitchen offers a bit of calm for the eyes, while the turquoise-painted island adds energy.

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Distraction-Free Zone

Fewer details keep a kitchen feeling calm and clutter-free, but the modern look doesn't have to be cold. This kitchen combines cloudy gray granite counters, a glass kitchen backsplash, and hardware so slim it barely registers. Mingle the backsplash idea with large expanses of riftsawn oak cabinetry for a warm result.

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How to Seal Grout

A DIY kitchen backsplash involves careful labor. The last thing you want is for the grout to get dirty and full of stains. Protect your hard work by learning how to seal grout and keep your kitchen backsplash looking new.

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Country-Style Kitchen Backsplash

Classic materials, aged finishes, and casual luxury make for an inviting place to cook and gather. Combining the elegance of Carrara marble countertops with a charming tongue-and-groove board white kitchen backsplash re-creates the friendly feel of a turn-of-the-century farmhouse. Using an elegant material like marble in an informal way dresses down the space without losing any of its quality and beauty.

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Family Friendly

Looking for practical kitchen backsplash ideas? Try one that's pretty too. It's difficult to discern that this kitchen was designed with five children in mind. Elegant cherry cabinets and sleek surfaces lend a stylish, contemporary appearance. Yet it all wipes clean easily, including the countertop-to-ceiling backsplash of recycled glass tiles, chosen to evoke of a sense of shimmering water to complement the playful porthole window. The reflective kitchen backsplash tile changes color throughout the day, giving the room further dimension.

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Warm Accents

This stove boasts off-white quilted travertine kitchen backsplash tile that enhances the limestone countertops and warm white cabinetry. If you have your eye on a tile that's out of your budget, consider using it as an accent. Detail insets introduce a visual spark to a simple kitchen backsplash, without busting the bank.

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Industrial Chic

Re-create a coveted commercial look with concrete countertops paired with a brick backsplash kitchen, dressed in extra mortar for old-house patina. If there aren't any Old Chicago bricks waiting to be revealed in your kitchen, you can use brick veneer to create a kitchen backsplash that looks like the real thing.

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Modern Musings

Classic stone kitchen backsplashes, such as marble, easily translate to a contemporary space. In this modern kitchen, sleek Italian cabinets made of wenge wood offer a natural pairing with Carrara marble backsplashes. If you're considering marble backsplashes and countertops, have the stone sealed, but keep in mind that the sealant makes the stone more stain-resistant, but not stain-proof. Wipe up splatters as soon as they happen and regularly clean the marble with a neutral cleaner, stone soap, or a mild liquid dishwashing detergent and warm water. Never use products containing lemon, vinegar, or other acids or it may dull or etch the marble kitchen backsplash.

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Splashy Backsplash

This kitchen backsplash idea steps outside the tile box. Eye-catching stacked pebbles fit with the natural lakeside style of this kitchen and also protect the wall at the beverage center from errant splashes. The homeowners opted not to grout the stones in this kitchen backsplash so they would appear more natural.

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Cabinet Complement

Pair colorful cabinets with a statement kitchen backsplash to create a focal point. In this kitchen, most of the cabinetry is cream color, but pale blue cabinets set the cooktop area apart. Tile above the cooktop provides another visual drawing card, with its textural beauty and an intricate inset design.

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How to Tile a Backsplash

Learn everything you need to know about tiling your kitchen backsplash. It involves a lot of measuring and cutting, but any budding DIYer can handle it. Our easy tips are all you need to achieve your favorite kitchen backsplash idea.

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Steal the Show

In the company of lusciously layered woodwork, plaster surfaces, and ceramic and glass tile in copper and bronze hues, this thoroughly modern stainless-steel cooktop almost goes unnoticed. The focal point of the kitchen—a convenient niche in the kitchen backsplash—glistens with a combination of limestone and glass. The same mosaic glass tiles seen in the kitchen backsplash dress up the substantial ventilation hood presiding over the range.

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Sea of Green

In an otherwise neutral kitchen, a wall of gray-green subway tiles adds a touch of color and shimmer. Subway tiles come in dozens of colors and are often easy on the budget, so creating a show-stopping kitchen backsplash gives you plenty of bang for your buck. This subway tile kitchen backsplash is framed in a trim of marble.

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Cottage Kitchen Backsplash

Opt for a beaded-board backsplash as a low-cost option to break up banks of cabinets and enhance a room's cottage feel. Here, the cool blue kitchen backsplash complements the warm terra-cotta tiles underfoot. Hanging copper pots really pop against the teal color.

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Work Order

The best kinds of kitchens have a layout that works hard so you don't have to. Kitchen backsplash ideas can be hardworking, too. These stainless-steel backsplashes support a rail system that keeps cooking utensils in view and easily accessible right on the walls a la Julia Child's, My Life in France.

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Stylish Merger

Unify diverse style elements in a kitchen with a creative backsplash treatment. In this case, one homeowner loves modern style and the other, a cottage look. To create their own take on modern farmhouse style, they updated the classic subway tile backsplash by combining rows of tiles in three thicknesses. The effect is part vintage, part hip, and a little bit cottage. A pine hood adds a surprise along this range wall.

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