Alternatives to ceramic wall tiles

I kinda doubt you'd get settlement cracks in the drywall where you'd be putting tiles sround the cabinets. _____________

Anything you can put on a floor you can put on the wall. Maybe a nice berber? :) Or paint...

There are some nice formica sheets out there that you can just laminate to the wall.

Kitchen paint works for me. Easy to clean, lots of colors, easy to change.

We had old metal tile on our kitchen wall behind the cooktop. When we redid the kitchen, we did not want to rip out the wall so we covered it. Got a sheet of laminate in desired color, applied with contact cement to cover the tile. Then we bought textured glass and put it up over the formica. It is held in place only with a bead of clear silicone caulk, all the way around so that moisture and gunk doesn't get behind it. It is put up with the smoothe side out and is a heck of a lot easier to clean than tile grout! I love it. The glass cost about $60 and I can take it out with ease if I get tired of it. Could probably put wallpaper behind the glass, or use a colored or sandblasted glass. I was a bit nervous about the possibility of it getting hot and breaking, but it doesn't get very hot. I am careful not to put skillets up against it. The glass shop had used glass on kitchen walls only once before, but they were happy to work with us. The glass had to go back to factory (or supplier?) after it was cut to be tempered, which was included in the price. I had shopped around for different tile, but the thought of getting spaghetti sauce out of tile grout inspired me to try something different. The texture of the glass is such that the one seam doesn't show.......the wall is wider than the glass, so it had to be in two pieces. The glass shop made sure the meeting edges were perfectly straight and ground a very slight bevel on them......the silicone makes the ground edge "disappear".

Look into sheet goods. There are Formica, WilsonArt, and other brands that have nice patterns, textures, etc. that look good and are very easy to clean.

While I prefer white 3" x 6" tiles in a staggered pattern, Corian would work. I like their Glacier White. White on the back splash and counter reflects the under cabinet lights very nicely. And white counters make it easy to see where the dirt is.

Don (e-mail link at home page bottom).