Best tiles for a kitchen splashback? 9 formats compared, with the subway splashback in detail

Short answer: the best tiles for a kitchen splashback are the ones that give you the wall you want, and choosing them comes down to three recorded facts, not a style label. Face size sets how many joints you will see, finish sets how the wall handles light, and material is whatever the product page records. The table compares nine formats on this site by those three facts; the sections below say what each one does to a 1.8 m² splashback (a 3 m run at 600 mm high). Rows 1 to 3 are subway, and all eleven subway tiles on this site are listed in the kitchen splashback collection; the section after row 9 sorts them by face, size, colour and finish and counts the boxes for this splashback.

1. Subway tile, flat face, 75 × 300 mm

The reference format. A 1.8 m² splashback takes about 80 tiles before cuts and shows 30.0 m of joint. On this site: Studio Flat Subway Tile, Studio Greige Subway Tile, Studio Charcoal Subway Tile and Studio Ink Subway Tile. The layout question is separate; see Subway tile layouts: 8 patterns.

2. Subway tile, wave face, 75 × 300 mm

Same count, same joint length, different surface: the face undulates, so a gloss glaze breaks into highlights instead of one flat reflection. Studio Wave Subway Tile, Studio Crest Wave Subway Tile, Studio Cloud Wave Subway Tile, Studio Sage Wave Subway Tile and Studio Ink Wave Subway Tile are the five wave faces recorded here. None of them is zellige, the hand-cut glazed tilework a wave face is sometimes compared with; Zellige tiles: what zellige is, and why the five wave tiles here are not sets out the difference.

3. Wide subway, 100 × 300 mm

Going from 75 to 100 mm high drops the count to about 60 tiles for the same splashback and cuts joint length by a fifth, from 16.7 to 13.3 m per m². This is the format to pick when the aim is a calmer wall with fewer lines. Two finishes are recorded: Studio Chalk Subway Tile in gloss and Studio Linen Subway Tile in matt.

4. Rectified wall tile, 300 × 600 mm

A single 300 × 600 mm tile is 600 mm high, so a 600 mm splashback is one course with no horizontal joint at all. About 5.6 tiles per m², 5.0 m of joint. Rectified means the edges are cut square after firing, which is what allows a narrow joint. Studio Pure White Wall Tile is the product recorded in this format.

5. Strip mosaic, 20 × 145 mm chips

The other end of the scale. A 20 × 145 mm chip carries about 57 m of joint per square metre, three and a half times a 75 × 300 subway tile, so the grout colour decides the look more than the chip does. Two porcelain sheets are recorded: Carrara White Strip Mosaic Tile and Studio Graphite Strip Mosaic Tile, both gloss.

6. Herringbone mosaic sheet

The herringbone pattern arrives pre-set on a 316 × 277 mm mesh, so the tiler lays sheets, not individual pieces. Studio White Herringbone Mosaic Tile is glazed gloss; Carrara Herringbone Mosaic Tile is a Carrara-inspired ceramic in matt. Both record a 21.5 × 71.5 mm piece, which works out at about 60.5 m of joint per square metre.

7. Hexagon mosaic sheet

Two sheets: Carrara Hexagon Mosaic Tile, a Carrara-inspired ceramic in matt, and Carrara Large Hexagon Mosaic Tile, natural marble at a 70 mm face and polished. The seven layout options are in Kitchen hexagon tiles: 7 layout ideas. Both sheets are on one page: hexagon tiles for kitchen splashbacks.

8. Stacked-bar mosaic

Carrara Stack Mosaic Tile sets 36 × 150 mm natural marble bars in straight courses on a 305 × 305 mm sheet, about 10.8 sheets per m². The look is a linear wall without the cutting that a bar-by-bar layout would need.

9. Large format, 600 × 600 mm and 600 × 1200 mm

Large format on a splashback is the fewest-joints option: 3.3 m per m² at 600 × 600 and 2.5 m at 600 × 1200, against 16.7 m for subway. A 600 × 1200 tile laid horizontally covers a 600 mm splashback in one course, so the joints are vertical only, one every 1.2 m. The looks recorded in these formats are listed under Large format tiles; sizes and finish options are on each product page.

A subway splashback: the eleven subway tiles in the splashback collection

All eleven subway tiles on this site are listed in Kitchen splashback tiles, eleven of the collection's 24. The collection is a way of grouping the range for browsing; it is not a statement that a tile suits a particular wall, which is for the tiler and the supplier's documentation. Every one of the eleven records Ceramic and 8 mm, and each has a sample piece. Here they are grouped the way the rows above split them, by size and face.

Colour. By the colour each page records, the eleven are five white, two grey, two black, one charcoal and one green. Every colour other than white comes in 75 × 300 mm gloss only, so a 100 × 300 mm or a matt subway splashback here is a white one. The flat and wave faces share white, grey and black; charcoal comes only flat, as Studio Charcoal, and green only wave, as Studio Sage Wave.

Finish. Nine are gloss and Studio Linen is matt. Since 5 October 2026 the Studio Flat page lets you choose Gloss or Matt, and the order is placed for the one you choose; both come in the same box, 44 pieces, 1 m², 16 kg. Rows 1 and 2 are the same size, so a wave face changes what the wall does with light, not the count: 80 tiles and 30.0 m of joint either way.

Two installed kitchens. The installed series has two kitchens with a subway splashback. Studio Linen in a sage kitchen describes the offset rows behind the sink: “Each row steps along from the one below, so the vertical joints never line up and the eye travels sideways.” Of the joints it says: “Joints are thin and close to the tile colour, so the wall reads as one field.” In Studio Flat and Studio Linen in an olive kitchen, “Studio Flat is laid in a running bond here, each course offset from the one below,” and of the Linen courses at close range: “Studio Linen reads warmer and creamier, with a softly varied face that only shows at this distance.” Each photograph records one kitchen; it does not say where a tile may be used.

Grout. On the 1.8 m² splashback a 75 × 300 mm tile gives 30.0 m of joint and a 100 × 300 mm tile 24.0 m; at an assumed 2 mm joint that is about 3.3% and 2.7% of the wall. That is enough line for the grout colour to decide whether the wall reads as a grid or as one field, and on the three dark faces the choice runs the other way from a white: “a pale grout draws the grid, a dark one hides it”, as Charcoal and black tiles compared puts it. Grout colour: why a dried sample joint beats the chart sets out how to choose it.

Courses, layouts and the faces side by side. How the courses land under a 600 mm cupboard line, and how many boxes a longer 3.6 m wall or a full-height wall takes, are worked through in Kitchen wall tiles: how high to tile and how many boxes. The eight ways to lay the tiles are in Subway tile layouts: 8 patterns, and the eleven faces side by side, with what each page records, in Subway tiles: 11 faces compared.

Questions people ask

Which size tile is best for a kitchen splashback?

No one size wins; what you are choosing is a joint count. Per square metre: 56.9 m of joint for 20 × 145 mm chips, 16.7 m for 75 × 300, 13.3 m for 100 × 300, 5.0 m for 300 × 600, 2.5 m for 600 × 1200. Pick the line density you want to look at.

Gloss or matt behind the cooktop?

The site records the finish word, gloss or matt; in general, gloss returns light as reflections and matt diffuses it. Cleaning and heat behaviour are not recorded on the product pages and are questions for the installer and the manufacturer's documentation.

How many tiles for a 3 m splashback?

At 600 mm high, 1.8 m² net. About 80 tiles at 75 × 300 mm, 60 at 100 × 300 mm, 10 at 300 × 600 mm, or 20 strip-mosaic sheets, all before the cutting allowance your tiler confirms. Subtract windows and power points from the net area first.

How many boxes of subway tile for a 3 m splashback?

On this guide's wall, 3 m at 600 mm high, the net area is 1.8 m², or 1.98 m² with an assumed 10 per cent allowance. That is two boxes of a 75 × 300 mm subway tile at 1 m² a box (1.98 rounded up) or two boxes of a 100 × 300 mm one at 1.2 m² (1.65 rounded up). Two boxes of 75 × 300 mm are 88 pieces, which is 1.98 m² at the nominal face size, so they hold the allowance and nothing over; at a 15 per cent allowance, 2.07 m², the count becomes three boxes, while 100 × 300 mm stays at two. Kitchen wall tiles uses a longer 3.6 m wall, 2.16 m², which at the same 10 per cent is three 1 m² boxes. Measure your own wall with How to measure a tiling project, and use the allowance your tiler gives you.

Which subway tiles are in the kitchen splashback collection?

All eleven on this site: Studio Flat, Studio Greige, Studio Charcoal, Studio Ink, Studio Wave, Studio Crest Wave, Studio Cloud Wave, Studio Sage Wave, Studio Ink Wave, Studio Chalk and Studio Linen. Being listed in the collection groups them for browsing; it is not a statement about where a tile may be laid.

Is there a black subway tile here?

Two, both tagged Colour: Black, both 75 × 300 mm gloss and both in the splashback collection. Studio Ink has a flat face, and its page calls it “a true black subway tile with a full gloss glaze”; Studio Ink Wave is “a black subway tile with a rippled face”. Studio Charcoal is filed as charcoal, not black. There is no matt black subway tile here; Charcoal and black tiles compared sets the darks side by side.

Where should the splashback stop?

At one of four lines: the underside of the overhead cupboard, the window head, the full wall height, or a trim line at the return. Formats that are 600 mm in one dimension, 300 × 600 mm on end or 600 × 1200 mm laid flat, meet a 600 mm cupboard line in one course with no cut; a stepped mosaic edge, hexagon or fish scale, needs a straight cut or a trim to stop cleanly. Kitchen wall tiles: how high to tile and how many boxes works the cupboard, window and full-height lines through on one wall, adds the rangehood wall, and turns each into square metres and boxes. Where the splashback is the feature wall, feature tiles on eleven installed walls shows where the three installed splashbacks stopped: at a window sill, at a timber niche frame and the ceiling, and around a corner. Decide the stop before set-out, because it fixes where the cuts land, and put it in the quote: Supplying your own tiles: what a tiling quote should list.

Where these numbers come from

Face and sheet sizes, finishes and materials were read from the product pages on 2 September 2026; the finish cells in rows 1 and 9 were corrected on 30 September 2026, and those in rows 7, 8 and 9 updated on 4 October 2026 from the supplier's current documentation. The subway section and its three questions were added on 5 October 2026, when the collection and the eleven product pages were read: the box contents date from 2 October 2026, from the supplier's current documentation, and Studio Flat's choice of Gloss or Matt from 5 October 2026. The 3 m wall, the 2 mm joint and the 10 and 15 per cent allowances are assumptions, stated where they are used, and the quotations are copied from the installed posts as written. Pieces per square metre are nominal counts with no joint; joint length is the total edge length in one square metre. Every product above sits in Kitchen tiles. Related: Tile sizes in Australia and The twelve ways this range writes a finish.

What to do next

Rows 1 to 8 are drawn from the 24 tiles grouped as kitchen splashback tiles, so the whole shortlist can be checked against the product records in one place; row 9 sits in the wider kitchen collection linked above. From there the path is the same whichever format wins: build a sample shortlist to see two or three faces in your own light, estimate tile quantities from your wall dimensions, and prepare a project brief to send with your questions.

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