Starting With Countertop or Floor Tile?
A countertop that shines in an empty house like a bright star in the night sky is undoubtedly an important element when designing your dream kitchen. However, once you start living in your house, that little bright star will fade away as you’ll cover that surface with kitchen tools. Your island? Well, your stools will grab more attention than your island.
The most visible elements in your kitchen are your floors and cabinets.
Firstly, your floors are the only way to get to your kitchen. Depending on the size of your home, your floors are 30 to 100 times, or even more, bigger than your countertop surface. Tiles are the second biggest visual in interiors after the walls, and they get the most attention as we perceive floors before the walls.
Therefore, kitchen tiles should be picked before the countertop.
Therefore, kitchen tiles should be picked before the countertop.
Imagine you’re buying a nice and expensive suit. Would you pick your suit based on your belt that’ll stay hidden under your jacket, or would you choose your belt according to your suit?
Another reason is the possible conflict between the countertop and floors.
Nobody wants design elements to fight with each other. We want them to flow or create eye-pleasing contrasts. Starting with the countertop will only narrow your kitchen tile preferences.
Let’s say you want your countertop to become the accent piece of your kitchen, and you are considering a white marble countertop with subtle or heavy veining. In most cases, the tile style that complements your countertop will be a wood-look tile. If you choose a wood-look tile in earth tones, it will add a rustic flavor to your kitchen. If your design taste leans more urban, you can either opt for a wood tile in gray tones or take a completely different route and choose a concrete-style tile.
However, in both cases, you’ll be narrowing your choices or compromising your design just to go around your 30 sq ft countertop — which you’ll soon realize is very hard to keep “uncovered” all the time.
It’s not because we are selling tiles; we believe you should start with your tile, then your cabinets, and then your countertop. Once everything comes together, that’s the right time to choose your backsplash tile.
Let’s say you want your countertop to become the accent piece of your kitchen, and you are considering a white marble countertop with subtle or heavy veining. In most cases, the tile style that complements your countertop will be a wood-look tile. If you choose a wood-look tile in earth tones, it will add a rustic flavor to your kitchen. If your design taste leans more urban, you can either opt for a wood tile in gray tones or take a completely different route and choose a concrete-style tile.
However, in both cases, you’ll be narrowing your choices or compromising your design just to go around your 30 sq ft countertop — which you’ll soon realize is very hard to keep “uncovered” all the time.
It’s not because we are selling tiles; we believe you should start with your tile, then your cabinets, and then your countertop. Once everything comes together, that’s the right time to choose your backsplash tile.
