Try these kitchen splashback ideas to protect your walls in style, keeping your space looking its best
(Image credit: Lime Lace)
Our collection of inspirational kitchen splashback ideas has been put together to ensure your kitchen design looks great and stays looking that way.
Kitchens are hardworking spaces that need to be able to withstand whatever your everyday life throws at them. Cooking and food preparation areas need to be resilient in the face of heat, steam, splashes and spitting oils and liquids.
Splashbacks are most commonly used behind the hob or sink, but can be used more extensively around any areas of work surface likely to be used for food preparation.
Our kitchen splashback ideas have been put together with this in mind. From ideas for those on a budget, to those designed to create a visual statement, we have it covered.
1. Fit a Shelf to Your Kitchen Splashback
This kitchen from the deVOL range of Classic English Kitchens has a fantastically eclectic look thanks to its mix of materials and quirky touches — the shelf that sits atop the marble splashback provides the ideal spot for the striking artwork and pottery. (Image credit: deVOL)
Not only does finishing off your kitchen splashback with a shelf add a pleasingly crisp look, but it also adds an extra kitchen storage idea, giving you somewhere for jars and pots of dried goods, cooking utensils, crockery and decorative objects.
2. Metallic Kitchen Splashback
This Brushed Copper Cut To Fit Metallic Splashback from Splashback is made from metal sheet backed with MDF. It is easy to install and is suitable behind all hobs, cookers, ranges and sinks.(Image credit: Splashback)
Metallics such as copper and brass are very much on trend right now and make the perfect pairing with the forest greens, burgundy shades and deep blues enjoying popularity for kitchen units at present.
Some metallic splashbacks are available as metal sheets that can be fixed using adhesive to the walls, while others come with a backing layer, such as MDF.
3. Timber Cladding Kitchen Splashback Idea
This deVOL Shaker Kitchen features a timber clad splashback painted in the same shade of blue as the units. A shallow shelf, fitted with pegs beneath, creates a useful storage spot. (Image credit: deVOL)
Using timber cladding is a great kitchen splashback idea, creating warmth and character, along with the chance to add a pop of colour with paint. If you choose this route, be sure to use a durable paint finish such as eggshell or one specifically for painting kitchen cabinets to ensure you can easily wipe it down.
4. Farmhouse Style Splashback
These sweet handpainted tiles by The Winchester Tile Company, available from Original Style, feature bees, butterflies, caterpillars and wasps. (Image credit: Original Style)
Mixing handpainted tiles with plain tiles adds a lovely characterful, traditional appeal to a splashback.
This kitchen splashback idea particularly suits farmhouse style kitchens and looks great behind a range cooker.
5. Exposed Brick as a Splashback
The Tribeca kitchen from Magnet, shown here in Dove Grey and Graphite, looks great paired with exposed brick walls, helping achieve a thoroughly industrial style. (Image credit: Magnet)
After an industrial style kitchen? Exposed brick is an easy route to this look and need not look sterile or cold when combined with units in characterful shades of stormy blue or green. Metallic finishes also make good partners to brickwork.
If stripping back plaster isn't an option due to the type of brick your home is made form, brick slips offer a great way to achieve the look, applied in the same way as tiles.
If you are considering exposed brick as a kitchen splashback idea, bear in mind that you should give the bricks a coat of sealant to stop them shedding dust and to protect them from stains. You could even consider painting them to add an interesting splash of colour.
6. Tiled Splashback Without The Grout
Alloy splashbacks from Bushboard are digitally printed aluminium panels that can be cut to fit your space. They are designed specifically to be fire resistant and anti-scratch, so they’re completely safe for use behind any hob and sink. They come in a range of patterns and colours, such as this tile effect version. (Image credit: Bushboard)
While tiled splashbacks can look great and often perform very well, keeping the grout clean can be a chore.
How about opting for a tile-effect alternative instead? Both laminates and aluminium panels are now available in a range of interesting patterns and effects that tend to be easier to keep clean.
7. Kitchen Wallpaper Splashback
This Kitchen Splashback Wallpaper in Flower & Marble by Dutch designer Puck B, available from Lime Lace, is a new and revolutionary wallpaper which is very easy to apply and is completely water and fireproof so is even usable behind your stove. (Image credit: Lime Lace)
There was a time when wallpaper was most certainly not likely to appear in a list of great kitchen splashback ideas. However, things have changed and there are now a new wave of wallpapers designed exactly for this very purpose.
Kitchen wallpapers, such as those from Puck B, come in a range of beautiful and eye-catching designs, are easy to put up on a DIY basis and are designed to withstand heat, stains and splashes.
8. Patterned Tiled Splashback
Original Style's Odyssey Mezzo Nocturne 8206 tiles have a slightly aged, worn looking surface and have an air of chic European city style about them.(Image credit: Original Style)
Turn your kitchen splashback into an eye-catching decorative feature that can really draw out colours and forms elsewhere in the space.
You can afford to be bold with your pattern choices when it comes to tiles for your splashback as they will be confined to a smaller space as opposed to covering an entire wall. Geometric and botanical patterns remain firm favourites.
9. Create Colour Contrast
Flat Covent Garden Pink Gloss Tiles from Walls and Floors set off the striking black and white wallpaper in this kitchen brilliantly. (Image credit: Walls and Floors)
A kitchen splashback idea we love is to create a striking colour contrast between splashback and the upper section of the wall. Whether you are using tiles, metal panels or coloured glass, this is a trick that can add visual interest to a new kitchen as well as bags of individuality.
In small kitchens, a bold splashback paired with a contrasting wall colour will draw the eye away from the compact proportions of the room.
10. Make Ceilings Seem Higher With Splashback Tiles
These Rhian Marino Blue Gloss Tiles from Walls and Floors have a reflective gloss surface and this, combined with their larger length, gives the illusion of space. (Image credit: Walls and Floors)
This kitchen splashback idea is designed to make small kitchens feel bigger and low ceilings appear higher.
Use tiles in different shades to visually 'build up' the wall, interspersing deeper bolder shades with neutral ones to create the illusion of a taller wall. Using glossy tiles can also help to reflect light around the space, while long, horizontal tiles can increase the sense of width.
11. Zig Zag Kitchen Splashback
The Tileworks Montblanc Taupe tiles from Original Style are soft taupe brick tiles with a reflective glaze.(Image credit: Original Style)
Play around with the shape and form of your splashback for some really stunning results — after all, there is no rule to say that a splashback has to feature straight lines.
In this example, a fun 'mountain peak' effect has been created using long brick-shaped tiles laid in a herringbone pattern — note the colour contrast between the tiles and the moody grey wall too.
12. DIY Splashback Idea
These tiles have been painted using Annie Sloan Kitchen Chalk Paint In Greek Blue, Burgundy, Athenian Black, Scandinavian Pink And Napoleonic Blue.(Image credit: Annie Sloan)
Fancy trying your hand at creating your very own kitchen splashback? For a totally bespoke kitchen splashback that can be created without breaking the bank, use chalk paints or specialist tile paints for painting tiles.
Another great budget kitchen splashback idea is to use a wallpaper off-cut on the area behind your hob or sink before fixing a panel of transparent Perspex over the top.
13. Glass Splashback
The Laura Ashley Lisette White Self-Adhesive Glass Splashback makes the perfect wall protector behind this chunky butler sink and is available through Splashback. (Image credit: Laura Ashley)
Glass is a great material for kitchen splashbacks — easy to clean, durable, able to withstand hot splashes and offering a clean, subtle appearance that will suit kitchens of any style.
Glass looks great used simply on a white painted wall, but other ideas include painting the area behind it a bold shade or using a patterned wallpaper.
Patterned and coloured glass is also available, often with a handy, easy-to-apply self-adhesive backing.
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Natasha was Homebuilding & Renovating’s Associate Content Editor and was a member of the Homebuilding team for over two decades. In her role on Homebuilding & Renovating she imparted her knowledge on a wide range of renovation topics, from window condensation to renovating bathrooms, to removing walls and adding an extension. She continues to write for Homebuilding on these topics, and more. An experienced journalist and renovation expert, she also writes for a number of other homes titles, including Homes & Gardens and Ideal Homes. Over the years Natasha has renovated and carried out a side extension to a Victorian terrace. She is currently living in the rural Edwardian cottage she renovated and extended on a largely DIY basis, living on site for the duration of the project.
