Glass Splashbacks Or Tiles For Your Kitchen?

Glass Splashbacks or Tiles for your Kitchen?

Planning a new kitchen and having it fitted is really exciting but you should give it a lot of thought – it is an expensive undertaking and you will have to live with what you choose for a good few years so you need to get it right. Most people who have had a new kitchen from scratch will say that they would like to change a few things about the finished product a few months or years down the line and this isn’t always a major thing such as having more cupboards or a different kind of cooker. It can be as simple as what draining board to have or even something as simple as tiles as opposed to glass splashbacks.

Easy to clean

Everyone likes to think they keep their kitchen squeaky clean but not everyone has the time to clean absolutely every surface every time they cook – although that obviously is the very best way to keep your kitchen germ free. A quick wipe if there is an unsightly spillage is the most that the majority of people manage and if you are one of the majority then a glass splashback is certainly the best choice for you. Although it can look a bit smeary if it isn’t cleaned thoroughly, as far as actual cleanliness goes, a glass splashback will always be less germ ridden because it has no cracks, nooks or crannies in which dirt and germs can hide.

Easy to match

Tiles can be really hard to match up if you want to redo any part of your kitchen in the future whereas a glass splashback may be easier to source. That said, you can't use a splashback in a really oddly shaped area so if your kitchen is in an old house, with windows, alcoves and odds and ends of wall or architectural feature all over the place, tiles would be much easier to fit. This also applies to a DIY kitchen. Although tiles can be fiddly, most people with a reasonably deft hand and a lot of patience can do a halfway decent job at attaching them to the wall, especially if they use the sheets of small tiles which can be more or less cut to size with scissors. The downside with this type of tile is that it does by definition have far more germ traps than the highly glazed larger tiles, but for some locations they are the obvious choice. Glass splashbacks can be fitted by a DIYer but you might have to reach a compromise as to size and fit as they are almost impossible to resize if you have an odd shaped corner.

Allow for change

If you have had a particular type of cooker fitted in your kitchen and you don’t really get on with it or you fancy a change a little while later, you may find you have painted yourself into a bit of a corner if you have had a glass splashback fitted. It may be in the way of another larger appliance or it may leave a strange looking gap if the new item is smaller. Either way, if you are the kind of person who likes to chop and change, tiles might be better for you because you can often make good around the edges. A top tip here would be always buy an extra box above the estimated number; a few spare ones can always come in handy and if you don’t need them they make excellent counter-savers if you stick them onto a bit of spare wood.

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John Hinds writes for Lojix. His interests include blogging, reading, playing tennis, listening to music and traveling.