(Kitchen courtesy of MCKB)Janet Ramin - When designing kitchens, plenty of planning and energy go towards choosing the most efficient appliances or the best looking countertops or the most organized cabinets - but what’s often neglected is that wall separating your cabinets and appliances. I started looking into this much more closely since my friend mentioned how bored she was with her kitchen backsplash. 

Now, mind you, her kitchen is relatively new – it's only a few years old, but since she bought a condo, she really didn’t have much choice in the design plan of her kitchen. She had a choice of two wood finishes for the cabinets and a few more with her granite countertop. But that’s it. Some condo owners don’t even get that much.

I viewed her kitchen again – see photo below – and found that the walls really didn’t have much going there. They extended the granite countertop to create a short backsplash and the rest was just painted plaster walls. Time for a makeover!

(Kitchen, courtesy of Maxwell Place)

I headed over to some of my favorite kitchen showrooms in the city to check out what they had to offer for those kitchen walls. At Manhattan Center for Kitchen and Bath (MCKB), I found some very colorful unique kitchen wall treatments. To emphasize their circular theme, MCKB designers used round ceramic tiles of varying sizes as the backsplash for their very mod peephole cabinets (see top photo). In another installation, MCKB uses glass tiles that are designed to look like bamboo. Glass is highly functional as it’s easy to wipe off any liquids or food stains - and additionally, it’s recyclable.

For a very elegant and contemporary style, take a look at this kitchen designed by Regina Bilotta of Bilotta Kitchens. She created her backsplash using copper-backed glass tiles, called Treble, in a very sexy, ogee-shaped tile pattern. The varying hues of copper, ochre, and reds project a warm, inviting glow. She also applied a cream color glass tile for those who want a more neutral color scheme – see both photos below. Both tiles are available from Artistic Tile.