10 Kitchen Backsplash Ideas for Interior Designers: Stunning Products & Smart Solutions

Apr 28, 2025 | Kitchen, Magazine

Find standout kitchen backsplash ideas like crafted stone, tile, and reclaimed materials, plus trending design ideas to help you craft your next project.

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Backsplashes may be one of the most underestimated surfaces in a kitchen—yet they have the power to influence everything from mood to material palette to resale value. For interior designers, they’re not just a protective feature; they’re an opportunity to bring cohesion, personality, and craftsmanship into the heart of the home.

And yet, trends in backsplash design shift quickly. From heritage patterns to seamless stone slabs, today’s homeowners are looking for materials that feel both timeless and on-trend—beautiful, but also practical. That’s why we reviewed top sources, searched product guides, and studied what’s gaining traction in real homes to bring you this curated list of kitchen backsplash ideas.

Each one includes a product and manufacturer recommendation, so you can confidently present new options to your clients and execute your vision with ease.

“Design appeal remains the top priority for kitchen remodelers, with 94% updating major surfaces like countertops and backsplashes.”

— 2025 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study

Reclaimed and Antique Backsplash Materials

Many homeowners place an much higher emphasis on sourcing sustainable materials for their homes. As a result, reclaimed and antique materials have spiked in popularity. Aged materials are also beautiful, pairing perfectly with rustic, countryside, and old world designs. To pair older materials with more modern aesthetics, some designers are choosing pale bricks to create a traditional touch without overbearing a space.

Exquisite Surfaces sources salvaged materials from around the world including firebricks, natural stone, colored cement, and wood planks. Their team restores each material and then recuts or compiles them into patterns like herringbone, chevron, Versailles, and more. The company cites the original locations and sources of each material so designers can choose the right pairings.

Zellige Tiles

Global-inspired designs continue to grow in popularity, in part due to vacation hotspots and celebrity influencers. People want to bring a bit of luxury and relaxation home with them. Zellige tiles provide an organic, textured appearance and stand out for their artisanal quality. Originally crafted in Morocco, Zellige tiles are handcrafted from terracotta. The way they’re chiseled and fired leaves unique irregularities in each surface, creating an organic look when they’re combined on a surface.

Country Floors works directly with artisans who hand make tiles with traditional methods and patterns. You can find beautiful heritage prints, neutral colors, or jewel-toned greens and blues, popular in coastal and Moroccan inspired interiors. Right now, matte, square beige tiles are sought after due to their versatility and natural texture. White and grey are also timeless choices. Designers are featuring zellige tiles in simple checkerboard pattern to let the natural material shine and to preserve resale value.

Featured Brand

Exquisite Surfaces

Los Angeles, California
Featured Brand

Country Floors

New York, New York

Matching Counters and Backsplash

Matching countertops and backsplashes continue to be highly desirable in homes, taking cues from luxury homes and hotels around the world. Marble has been a sign of opulence for millennia and designers continue to pair quality natural stone across full-height backsplashes, counters, and waterfall kitchen islands to create a feeling of understated grandiosity.

Marble Granite World fabricates natural and engineered stones such as granite, marble, quartz, porcelain, Dekton, travertine, and quartzite. They frequently cut counters and backsplashes from the same stone, offering either 3″-8″ backsplashes or full height ones, which are most sought after. White marbles like Calacatta continue to trend due to their light, neutral color and subtle inclusions, unique to each piece of stone.

Looking for a local stone fabricator?

Check the Built for Home Product Guide.
Featured Brand

Marble Granite World

Kernersville, North Carolina

Subway Tile for Patterned Backsplashes

Subway tile’s popularity endures for several reasons. The simple, clean lines add visual interest, while pairing with almost any interior. It’s also possible to create numerous patterns such as herringbone, offset, vertical, stacked, or more. Many designers continue to choose long, narrow subway tiles for vertical, full-height backsplashes to create the illusion of a taller, airier kitchen.

White subway tiles are the classic choice, but Oceanside Glass and Tile creates them in many colors, including metallics and iridescent tones. Some homeowners have grown bold, gravitating toward more than one type of tile – different colors, textures, and shapes – in the same backsplash! It’s a chance for them to let their unique preferences and personalities come through in one of their highest use spaces.

Patterns like Herringbone and Checkerboard

Herringbone and checkerboard patterns are dominating kitchens in 2025. They’re simple and timeless. Designers looking to make more of a statement are choosing hexagons, diamonds, and even Moroccan fish scale can form a beautiful, long-lasting mosaic, customized to each clients’ tastes.

Mercury Mosaics creates a stunning array of handcrafted tiles in various sizes and shapes. Rich jewel tones such as emerald and cobalt are still desirable, as they bring the colors of nature, like forests and oceans, into the home. But you may see a higher demand for neutrals such as beige, white, and greys, as homeowners choose to create cohesive, minimalist interiors. Natural materials will feature slight variations in tone, which will create more visual interest than a wall of exactly matching colored tiles.

Featured Brand

Oceanside Glass & Tile

Vista, California
Featured Brand

Mercury Mosaics

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Textured and Historic Backsplash Materials

For clients wanting to make a statement, some designers are using bolder tile styles to accent focal areas like the range, while keeping the rest of the backsplash more subtle. Textured surfaces and vintage-inspired motifs are gaining popularity in mosaic patterns, offering a chance to introduce unique character and layered visual interest into a kitchen design.

Clay Squared, an art studio that specializes in handcrafted designs, creates modern and vintage styled tile murals in rich jewel or moody earthy tones. They cut their tiles into persian, hex, peacock, and star shapes, in addition to the more traditional dimensions. They offer full customization options, so this is a great company to work with if your client want to go the extra mile and create a full on art-piece in their kitchen.

Featured Brand

Clay Squared

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Natural Stone Backsplash Materials

Stacked stone walls in soft neutrals are showing up in rustic, traditional, and even mid-century-inspired interiors. Designers are using mixed textures, tones, and depths to create organic, layered surfaces that feel both natural and elevated—an approach that opens the door for creativity with pattern and contrast.

Colonial Marble and Granite produces stone tiles from quartzite, slate, and other natural stones. You can choose from a warm, honeyed color palette, a light blue-grey one, or deep black. Their aesthetic pair better with modern tastes than rough-hewn rustic stone walls, while still prioritizing natural variety. They also cut beautiful marble and granite tiles in a variety of patterns, if your client prefers glossy stones to matte.

Featured Brand

Colonial Marble and Granite

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Glass Backsplash Materials

Glass tile continues to spark interest in modern and high-end kitchens—especially when used strategically to reflect light and introduce visual depth. With advancements in engineering, today’s tempered glass options are more durable than ever, offering designers a way to introduce luminosity and sleek texture without compromising on practicality. Whether used to create contrast or continuity, glass backsplashes can add a touch of elegance that catches the eye without overwhelming the space. Ciot’s Vetrite collection offers a distinctive take on glass tile by fusing fiber textiles and metal foils between solid glass slabs. The result is a surface with rich depth, subtle shimmer, and a modern feel that works well in both bold and understated kitchen designs. With over seventy colors and patterns, Vetrite gives designers a wide palette to work from—ideal for creating backsplashes that feel tailored, polished, and just a little unexpected.
Featured Brand

Ciot

Montreal, Canada

Cement, Porcelain, and Ceramic Backsplashes

Porcelain and ceramic remain go-to materials for backsplashes—for good reason. They offer durability, easy maintenance, and a nearly endless range of colors, finishes, and patterns. Cement tile, on the other hand, brings a grounded, artisanal feel that’s especially appealing in modern and minimalist spaces. Together, these materials strike a balance between practical and personal—ideal for projects where style and substance need to go hand-in-hand.

Casa Vita Bella specializes in cement and porcelain tiles, with collections featuring solid colors, geometric patterns, and Mediterranean-inspired motifs. Their cement tiles are hydraulically pressed and eco-friendly, and can be customized to suit your client’s design style. This level of customization could allow you to match tile and cabinet colors, a request more and more designers are receiving.

Featured Brand

Casa Vita Bella

Salt Lake, Utah

LED Backlight Backsplashes

Lighting isn’t just functional—it’s a design element. In kitchen backsplashes, integrated LED lighting can highlight materials, add visual warmth, and create a soft glow that enhances both usability and ambiance.

Because LEDs are low-profile and easy to install, they offer flexibility in placement—whether beneath cabinets, within recessed niches, or layered behind full-panel surfaces. For designers, this opens new opportunities to shape how light interacts with the kitchen’s textures, finishes, and focal points.

Acrylite takes this concept further with full-panel acrylic backsplashes designed to be backlit. Their options include solid color panels or custom-printed designs that transform the backsplash into a luminous mural. With a focus on energy efficiency and sustainable manufacturing, Acrylite combines aesthetic impact with environmental responsibility—ideal for designers looking to deliver clean lines and high-functioning beauty in one cohesive solution.

Featured Brand

Acrylite

Sanford, Maine

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