PAINTED TILE BACKSPLASHES
20 June 2008
"Better Than Sliced Bread"
One of the questions you have to ask yourself is, how elaborate, and expensive do I want my kitchen to be? And the answer is, well, it’s up to you, clearly. One of the purely utilitarian items that can become an incredible design statement, as we indicated last week, is the backsplash. It is, as I indicated at the time, a subject I could explore at great length for many weeks to come, simply because there are so many concepts floating around.
Ceramic title is not exactly a cutting edge material, nor is the idea of painting on tile. But this material and this concept can, in the right hands, be nothing short of a revolution. Julia Sweda is an artist who lives and works in Tucson (one of our favorite cities, actually). She started her training with an art school and, as have so many other artists, turned her considerable talents to commercial art for the home, in this case backsplashes.
A backsplash can become a real focal point for a kitchen. Sometimes it can even save a kitchen from certain boredom, depending on how it is laid out. Our kitchen once had an outside window, but that was lost in the remodel that added the adjacent family room, and the upshot is that people washing dishes get to look at a bare wall. And if that’s not an argument for a colorful backsplash of just about any description, I don’t know what is! But backsplashes can also help to simply enhance a kitchen that probably doesn’t need that kind of help, but can, if it is done correctly, receive a decided benefit from it.
The Julia Sweda creation over the stove entitled "Valenciana Style" in the picture at the top of this blog makes my point exactly. Something like the backsplash Julia created for this space is a little slice of forever. I think a kitchen like this has a hominess and a feel that would be there no matter what you did with it. But adding that backsplash behind the stove gives this kitchen a timelessness that I don’t think it would otherwise have. It’s a much larger kitchen than I’m ever going to have, and I totally hate the people who own it (just kidding, of course!), but for those who have the room and the budget for a kitchen such as this, a painted tile backsplash might be just the finishing touch the doctor ordered.
In fact, those willing to spend just a little more on what is already an outrageously expensive kitchen remodeling may well find that one of their favorite features is the commissioned backsplash. It does more than add a splash of color. It adds a slice of yourself.
Joseph
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