I have just had a new kitchen fitted - white gloss units and wooden (oak looking) worktops and I'm now wondering what colour tiles would look good between the worktops and the bottom of the wall cupboards and also coordinating floor tiles? Does anyone have anything similar who could share their colour ideas or do any kitchen fitters out there know what might look good?
Why not choose to leave out the tiles altogether and opt for tongue-and-groove boards which you can paint in a wipeable eggshell to co-ordinate with your kitchen blinds?
You can then change the colour inexpensively whenever you want. I've just done this in my own kitchen and it looks ace!
I would go for black and white with a slate floor, but only because I quite like that look.
I think you could pretty much get away with anything you fancy - if you go to Topps Tiles, you can buy single tiles and take them home to try them out, then get your money back later.
We have the same thing apart from cream gloss units.
We have dark gray slate floor mainly cream tiles and to give it a bit of colour, random pale green tiles to match the walls, and very few red to match the kitchen scales. Sounds horrible but i reckon it looks good.
I secretly love the manager of my topps tiles! He's seriously just lovely.
Anyway, I'm with donna for this. I did use upstands and wallpaper, but we're going to change it to tongue and groove this summer. I did toy with a print wallpaper with perspex over though. gemsno4 you're right it sounds bloody awful! But I bet it looks lovely! Why not look on homes mags/websites to see what they do? In fact I have a load, I'll have a look later.
Well, I don't want to be negative about Donnadonna's kitchen, but I was chatting to my decorator about what we should choose for splashbacks, and he said that he had tongue and groove in his kitchen and it was an absolute disaster in the longer term, although it had looked very smart when they picked it. He said that even with highest quality paint, and regular touching up, it was permanently peeling off around the sink. He said that his wife (who'd picked it after she saw it in a design magazine) was now really keen to change it, and had been for quite a while (they'd had it for 7 years) but that it was not easy to replace, because all the plug sockets had had to be brought forward in order to fit neatly into it, which meant that replacing it with tiles was going to involve messing with the electrics.
He said that he'd recommend tiles or glass - basically anything except tongue and groove!
If near the sink is the only problem then it's not too bad for us as the sink is in a corner with little travertine mosaic as the windowsill/splashback. I also have tons of farrow and ball (I won't link you to the website!) oil eggshell as it goes on forever and it's the best paint in the whole world. Plus Mr is basically an electrician so hooray all round. He says bringing the fascias of the plugs out is no prob.
I find an expanse of tiles in a kitchen a bit (HC ducks quickly) ordinary. Mosaics done in a pattern as in the Ikea catalogue perhaps okay but that'd be a lot of work. I find chequeboard black and white a bit too harsh for walls (I have a white with black inserts mosiac for my porch floor). Apparently tiles on the diagonal give you a 'designer' look. There is a quite nice browny stone colour/texture 10cm tile that I like done in the diagonal pattern. I like something a bit different. Tiles just done do it for me, unless they're not common or done as everyone else does. Hence my mosiac windowsill. I'm compromising with my plain tongue and groove but having a hooooge photo print canvas/picture (lily's possibly) on the kitchen chimney breast instead. Or making a massive display frame for little HC and miniHC's "artwork". But then I love cobbled floor with white wall tiles with delft (?) type insert tiles, like country kitchen. I need four of each room to keep me happy!
We had brick shaped tiles (done brick-course style) in our previous kitchen and are planning to have them again.
I wouldn't have anything 'unusual' because I know I would get bored with it quite soon - but I am talking about a kitchen I expect to live with for ten years. I had been thinking of a glass splashback but I suspect they will look dated fairly quickly.
I like the sound of t&g but I don't believe the paint exists that could rebuff splashes of my pasta tomato sauce which I haven't noticed till the following day.
Hahaha Velvet! I suppose you could always paint them red!
Seriously, it's a good point. I solved this problem in my own kitchen by tiling just behind the cooker. Tongue and groove everywhere else except behind the sink which is under the window anyway.
It won't be a problem for us either. The cooker is freestanding with matching big stainless steel splashback so the t+g would butt up to that.
I already have t+g round the exposed ends of the base cupboards - the bin stands next to one and it gets splashed and dirty but I can honestly say it's fine to clean - and it gets allsorts on it and is scrubbed to get it off. The other side is adjacent with the doorway and gets scuffed, marked etc. with the kids, their bikes etc. but it comes up fine. They'll get a lot more wear than the wall t+g we are planning will have and after a year they're still perfect. They were done with bog standard milk white gloss, which sounds awful cheap and shiny, but surprisingly doesn't look it. I'm going ahead!
I forgot to say that I think in this OP's case, brick shaped tiles is the way to go. I've no idea for the floor though, I just used the same laminate throughout - even made the plinths out of it! Perhaps if you had the brick shaped white tiles you could go something more eye-catching for floor?
Our new kitchen will be white cupboards, wood worksurface, white brickshaped wall tiles, and probably cream/taupe coloured ceramic tiles on the floor (the type that look like stone but aren't). It's a very small kitchen so anything dark is a no-no.
Donnadonna and HC you are obviously much less messy than me. Tomato sauce splatters aside, the blender can cause havoc. Tiles for me
Originally posted by Laura NB: I would go for black and white with a slate floor, but only because I quite like that look.
I too like the chequered black and white look on a floor. It's a traditional but still modern ('timeless' I suppose) look. I'm starting to see completely black / anthracite tiled floors more often which I don't dislike but it might be less timeless. And of course quite dark.
But I bet it looks lovely!
Tiles for me 
