Kitchen backsplash tile in New Jersey — zellige, subway, marble mosaics, picket and slab

The backsplashes we install most

• Subway and picket. A 3×6 or 2×8 glossy white, a picket (elongated hexagon) in white or soft green, stacked or running bond — the Cranford Petit White kitchen's white picket backsplash.
• Zellige and handmade looks. Glazed clay with variation in every tile, in whites, creams, greens and blues, from Roca's and MSI's zellige-look lines and Eco Tile's European factories — the soft grey tile behind the arch in the rift oak kitchen.
• Marble and stone mosaics. Herringbone, hex and basketweave from Otto Tile's Carrara, Calacatta and Thassos — the marble mosaic under the carved hood in the Heritage kitchen.
• Geometric and patterned. Roca's 3D textures and SOHO Studio's designer collections — the geometric tile on the range wall of the fluted black island kitchen.
• Slab. Quartz, quartzite, marble or porcelain cut from the counter's stone, floor to hood, no grout — the Desert Oak kitchen and the Hale Navy kitchen.

Five partners, boards in the showroom

MSI (porcelain, ceramic, stone and mosaics from Edison, NJ — most backsplashes on site within days), Eco Tile Imports (European brand-name porcelain and stone from Kenilworth, next to the Union showroom), Roca Tile USA (Spanish marble, stone and zellige looks, 3D textures), Otto Tile (marble, travertine and water-jet mosaics from Little Ferry, NJ) and SOHO Studio (about 360 designer collections; the display towers in Union and Paramus are theirs).

How the backsplash is chosen

After the door and the slab. A busy stone wants a quiet tile; a plain quartz can carry a patterned or textured one. Grout colour is the second decision — matched for a slab look, contrasting for a grid — and the edge is the third: a ledge, a Schluter trim, a pencil liner or tile to the underside of the uppers. The tile goes in after the countertops are set, by the same crew, and is a separate line on the estimate so you can see what a zellige costs against a subway.