Why a kitchen wants a long tile
A kitchen backsplash is a band about 18 inches high running along a counter, which is a wide shallow strip rather than a wall.
A long tile runs with that strip, gives it fewer vertical joints and makes a galley read wider. A square tile fills the same band with a grid, which is a busier surface in a room that already has cabinets, appliances and a counter competing for attention.
Mosaics outnumber field tile
Mosaic sheets are the largest product type here, ahead of the field tile, which is not true of the ceramic wall range generally.
A backsplash is a small area with a lot of edges: outlets, a window, the end of a run, the wall behind a range. A sheet absorbs those far better than a field tile does, and the small area means the joint content that would be too much on a large wall is fine here. Ceramic mosaic tile covers the sheets.
Glossy, by a long way
The bulk of what is here is glossy, with matte, crackled, glazed and satin groups behind it.
A kitchen backsplash gets splashed, and a glazed face is the reason the material has been used behind counters for a century. Gloss also throws light back into a room usually lit by downlights and a window over the sink, which is a narrow lighting situation that benefits from help.
Blue is third
The color order is white, then gray, then blue, ahead of beige and well ahead of everything else.
That is a bolder ranking than a floor range produces, and it is the backsplash doing it. A wall is a small area, it is replaceable, and it is the one surface in a kitchen where a color carries no consequence for anything else. Blue backsplash tile covers the color.
The band and the tile height
4x12 leads, then 3x6, 6x6, 12x24, 4x8, 3x12, 2x6 and a 2x2 mosaic.
The standard counter to cabinet gap is about 18 inches. A three inch tile height divides it into six courses with nothing cut; a four inch one leaves half a course to place. That is the practical difference between the 3x6 and the 3x12 on one hand and the 4x12 and 4x8 on the other.
The crackled and handmade end
Behind the plain glazes sit crackled faces, a rustic group and a handful of zellige look pieces.
A backsplash is looked at from two feet by somebody standing still at a counter, which is the distance at which a flat glaze starts to read as paint. A crackle catches the color at several depths and a zellige look adds an uneven face, and both are answering the same problem: a wall this close needs something happening on it.
The wall behind the range
Almost every kitchen has one section that is treated differently from the rest, and it is the wall behind the cooktop.
It takes more heat and more splash than anywhere else, it is frequently taken higher than the cabinets, and it is what appears in every photograph of the room. A glazed ceramic face handles the first two without argument, which is much of why the material still owns this wall.
A ceramic body behind a counter
Ceramic is porous with the color in a glaze on top, which is exactly what a backsplash wants and not what a floor does.
Behind a counter there is no traffic and no load, so the vitrified body a porcelain offers buys a property the wall will never use. Ceramic tile sets out the material and kitchen backsplash tile the wall in every material.
Where the tiling stops
Three lines are common: under the wall cabinets, up to the ceiling behind the range, or full height on a wall with no cabinets.
Each changes the quantity and each changes where a finished edge is needed, which on a glazed ceramic means a bullnose from the same series, a metal profile or a mitered corner. The edge matters more here than on most walls because a backsplash ends at eye level, directly in front of somebody working. Ceramic wall tile covers the material on walls beyond the kitchen.
