A backsplash is small enough to finish
The standard gap between a kitchen counter and the underside of the wall cabinets is 18 inches, and a typical kitchen has somewhere between twenty and forty square feet of it once the runs are added up. A tiled floor in the same house runs into the hundreds.
That difference decides everything about how a clearance lot behaves. On a floor, a lot that falls short leaves a project stranded; on a backsplash the quantities are small enough that the lot covers the whole surface with the offcuts still in hand. Everything else on clearance, wall and floor together, sits in clearance tile.
What interrupts a backsplash wall
The square footage of a backsplash is always less than the rectangle suggests. Outlets and switch plates come out of it, a window over the sink takes a large bite, and the wall behind a range is frequently interrupted by a hood or a pot filler.
Those interruptions are worth measuring before the quantity is settled, because they cut both ways: they reduce the field, and they add cut pieces at every edge. A small tile absorbs an awkward edge where a large one has to be cut to it.
Glossy ceramic carries this clearance list
Glossy is the finish on well over half of this range, and ceramic is the body under almost all of it. That combination is what a kitchen backsplash has been made of for a century.
It is also the combination that gets over-ordered, which is part of why so much of it reaches a clearance list. A glazed ceramic wall tile is quick to press, quick to fire and ordered in volume, and volume is what leaves a remainder behind.
Small backsplash formats repeat here
3x9 and 6x6 lead the size list, then 2x6, 3x6 and 4x12, with 5 inch squares, 3 5/8x8, 4x8 and 4x4 behind them.
Every one of those is a small format, and that is not a coincidence in a clearance list. A small tile suits a short run, turns an inside corner without a wide cut and fits the awkward strip under a cabinet, so a lot that would be useless on a floor is still a complete backsplash.
Faces made in short runs
Alongside the glossy and matte majority, this range carries satin, leather, crackled and metallic faces, with a small zellige look group and a marble look group.
Those are the interesting part of a clearance list. A crackled glaze and a zellige face are made in short runs by nature, so they turn up in finite quantities even when they are current, and a backsplash is the surface where one of them can be used whole.
The color list is a fashion record
Green is the largest color group here, then white, and then blue, gray and black in close company, with brown, yellow and beige behind them.
A clearance color list is a record of what was ordered heavily two or three seasons ago. That is worth reading in both directions: a color at the top of it was popular enough to be over-ordered, and it is also the one most likely to be recognized as of its moment.
3/8 inch and the backsplash edge
Almost all of this range is 3/8 inch thick, with a handful of thinner glass and ceramic pieces. That figure matters in one place, which is where the tiling stops.
A backsplash ends in mid wall, so the top edge and the outside corners are visible. A retired line seldom still has its matching trim, so the usual answers are a bullnose from a current series in the same thickness, a metal profile, or a mitered edge cut on site.
Where the rest of the range is
For the same wall in current lines, backsplash tile is the full range and kitchen backsplash tile is the kitchen cut of it.
Mosaic backsplash tile has the sheets, and ceramic tile is the body most of this list is made from.
