Tiles in kitchen?

rosie383

Having finished installing our kitchen, we have one last job which we have been putting off for months as we can't decide.

We were intending to get glass splash backs behind the cooker and around under the cupboards, sink etc.
Frankly, after paying for everything else, we don't have spare money to pay out more than a grand for this. We have had three quotes.

So next we looked at acrylic. Even to do it ourselves, the cost would be around £600. I don't even want to pay that!

Last option would be a glass or acrylic panel behind the hob (induction so no problem with acrylic) and then tiles on the rest of the area.

My inclination is to do this, purely because of cost. DH is pretty handy with fitting tiles.

DH on the other hand, is reluctant to go with tiles purely because I had spent months saying I didn't want tiles because of trying to keep them clean. I do, however, clean all of my cupboard doors every week as they are high gloss, so it would be no problem to wipe the tiles over regularly too.

So for all you lovely people, opinions please as to whether I would regret going with tiles, if big ones are preferable to small, coloured grout (a no brainer I think), or should we just bite the bullet, find the money from nowhere, and shell out for glass or acrylic?

Tiddlywinks

To be honest I've never really had a problem with tiles in the kitchen - even those behind the cooker and sink. There's a reason they've been popular for years.... they're functional.

As long as you clean them regularly then they should be fine.

rosie383

Thanks Tiddlywinks. I just need to persuade dh.

POPPYOSCAR

I do not really understand your reasoning.

Tiles are easy to keep clean, much easier than a glass splash back I would of thought.

Slinky

Glossy kitchen units and shiny surfaces are my idea of kitchen hell, I'd rather have something that's a bit more forgiving with hiding a bit of dirt!

We have really hard water here so even when you wipe something over to clean it, you then have to polish it dry so you don't get water marks.

jk0

Most of my rentals get these ultra cheap 6" square white tiles from Wickes in kitchen and bathroom. http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-White-Gloss-Ceramic-Wall-Tile-150-x-150mm/p/206988

I think they look good.

fuddle

In the rental home I have at the moment there is a glass splash back. It never looks clean no matter how much I clean it but the main problem is that as it's screwed to the wall it isn't actually flush. Items from the atmosphere drop behind it even thought there's only a mm gap. I have to be careful when cleaning not to allow any liquid to drip behind the screen.

When I move I will be putting my own kitchen in. I will be going with tiles simply because they are flush to the wall! HTH

suki1964

I had the granite fitted above the hob and it gets mucky as hell but easy to clean

My old tiles were the unglazed style ( inherited kitchen, won't mention the slate floor tiles :eek: ) they were a pita as they just sucked in oil and spag Bol splashes. Go for a good porcelain high polished finish and they will be easy to clean. The bigger the tile, the less grout. It's not for nothing the long rectangle tiles are so popular

Hedgehog99

Glass or acrylic would be annoying to keep clean / looking good.

I'd say go with tiles and, if you're really fussy about keeping the grout perfect or a really messy cook, you could always tape a piece of aluminium foil there as a disposable splash-back, just while actually cooking!

cyantist

We had tiles in our last one and I hated it so this time I was adamant not to get them.

I wanted stainless steel instead, but priced it up and it was a bit too expensive (not that bad though - and a lot cheaper than the glass ones).

We ended up going for the ikea panels
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/kitchen-products/wall-panels/
and they were really cheap, easy to put in and easy to clean. Could that work? It's cheap enough that it's not then end of the world if you replace them for something you like more in a year or two.

There's no reason why these only need to go by the hob/sink area. It's all we have in ours and it looks great (I think)

rach_k

We have a new kitchen and I went for tiles as I find it easier to make glossy tiles look clean than I do glass. I think it's to do with the size - I find it a lot easier to clean a series of small areas divided by grout without leaving smears than one large area with no dividing lines. When you get new tiles, I think you start as you mean to go on, too, so you wipe up mess quickly rather than leaving older tiles grubby for a while, which makes them much harder to clean when you get round to it.

We have those brick sized tiles, like old underground stations, so we do have quite a lot of grout, but we went for grey (white tiles) which makes keeping it look clean much easier. I would also make sure any silicone is the same colour. I didn't specify what colour and ended up with white... which OH managed to dye yellow in places with turmeric, the very first time he used the new kitchen!

I find the small kitchen tiles easier to keep looking nice (smear free) than the bigger tiles we have in the bathroom, so I'd go small rather than large unless you dislike the look.