Netted Carrara Marble Kitchen Backsplash

This Turkish Carrara marble tile was purchased by the homeowner from a big box store.  Keep in mind that when you purchase tile from a big box store, expect many imperfections and purchase extra, especially when the tiles are mounted on a net.  The other reason to purchase more tile is because of the wide variation in natural stone shading.  Also, due to the liberal return policy of the big box stores you could be getting back someone else’s returned product.  Fortunately before I bid this job I read reviews on the tile from the retailer’s website.  The tile pieces had chips on the corners and edges, they were different thicknesses, there were superficial scratches and many shade variations.  Some of the sheets actually had different spacing for the grout joints.

We decided to lay all the sheets of tile out in order to spot any massive shade variations.  In this situation I did find four very dark sheets.  Because the homeowner had not purchased enough extra tile, we used these dark sheets in the area to the left of the refridgerator, where it was separated from the rest of the kitchen so it would be less noticeable.

We topped the open edges with a marble trim piece called a “stop”.  One of the nice features of this finished installation is how the light reflects off the tile when you walk past it: it actually sparkles!

Click on this picture to enlarge it and see the interesting variations in this marble.