Kitchen splashback tiles

Kitchen splashback tiles in three wall formats, delivered Australia-wide: eleven subway tiles, twelve mosaic sheets and one 300 × 600 mm white wall tile. Every tile has an A$3 sample piece, so you can hold two or three faces against your benchtop and cabinet colour before ordering boxes or sheets. (In the US these are called kitchen backsplash tiles.)

Comparing tiles for a kitchen splashback

There is no single best tile for a kitchen splashback. What changes from one tile to the next is face size, how many joints the wall ends up with, the finish and the material. Face size drives the joint count. A 75 × 300 mm subway tile leaves about 16.7 m of grout joint per square metre of wall, a 100 × 300 mm subway about 13.3 m, and the 300 × 600 mm wall tile about 5 m. Mosaic sheets have far more joints again. Kitchen splashback tiles: 9 formats compared sets these numbers side by side for nine formats, from subway to strip, herringbone, hexagon and stack mosaics.

How much tile for a kitchen splashback

A splashback 3 m long and 600 mm high is 1.8 m², or 1.98 m² once an assumed 10% allowance is added. In subway tiles that is two boxes of either size: a box holds 44 pieces (1 m²) at 75 × 300 mm or 40 pieces (1.2 m²) at 100 × 300 mm. In mosaic tiles for the kitchen it is 22 sheets of Carrara Hexagon or 28 of Carrara Large Hexagon. The allowance is a planning figure; agree yours with your tiler. Kitchen wall tiles: how high, and how many works through four common stopping heights.

Splashback tiles for a white kitchen

For white splashback tiles, seventeen of the 24 here are white. On a white-on-white splashback the choice is mostly about finish and texture: flat gloss subway (Studio Chalk, or Studio Flat in gloss), flat matt subway (Studio Linen, or Studio Flat in matt), a wave face (Studio Wave, Studio Crest Wave), the plain rectified 300 × 600 mm Studio Pure White, or one of the white mosaic sheets. For contrast against white cabinets, the subway range also comes in grey, charcoal, black and green, and Charcoal and black tiles: 5 compared covers the darker faces.

Subway tile splashbacks

Nine of the eleven subway tiles are 75 × 300 mm and two are 100 × 300 mm. Five carry a wave face and the rest are flat. Nine are gloss, Studio Linen is matt, and Studio Flat comes in gloss or matt, chosen on the product page. All eleven are ceramic. The full range is in subway tiles for the kitchen, and Subway tiles: 11 faces compared works through them one by one. For a more modern look, Subway tile layouts: 8 patterns shows the same tile in a horizontal or vertical stack as well as a brick bond or herringbone.

Mosaic, marble and porcelain splashbacks

The twelve mosaic sheets cover eight shapes: herringbone on three sheets, strip on two, hexagon on two (250 × 290 mm and 282 × 325 mm), and one sheet each of stack, fan, round, square and finger. Five are natural marble (polished or honed), three are porcelain and four are ceramic; the material row on each product page says which, and a Carrara name does not always mean marble (Is Carrara marble? explains). The two hexagon sheets, one marble and one ceramic, are also on a page of their own: hexagon tiles for a kitchen splashback. For porcelain in larger formats, the wider kitchen tiles collection adds fourteen Pietra marble-look porcelain tiles, from 300 × 600 to 600 × 1200 mm.

Common questions

How many tiles do I need for a splashback?

Measure the length and height to where the tiling stops, take out any window, and add the cutting allowance your tiler gives you. Kitchen wall tiles: how high, and how many works through four common stopping lines, and the tile calculator turns your measurements into a count of whole tiles or sheets.

Can I see the tile before buying?

Yes. Each tile has a sample piece, and you can build a sample shortlist of several faces in one order. To send questions about a whole kitchen, prepare a project brief.

Are these tiles rated for floors?

This collection is a grouping by wall format. No AS 4586 slip class is recorded for any tile in it, so it is not a selection for floors. It is not an application-suitability determination either: use the individual product record as the specification source and confirm project requirements with your installer or specifier.