Glass Splashbacks - any good?

[wickedfairy]

As above really - we are thinking about it for our new kitchen for the wall behind the hob - coloured glass. Was thinking there will be no grout to clean, as with tiles. Nice and modern.

Does anyone have any experience of them? TIA

Am being cheeky wickedfairy and jumping in here because I'm considering exactly the same for my kitchen. Will watch and learn . Keen too to know of any good suppliers to. I got so far as requesting a colour sample from an online supplier which never materialised so am a bit dubious about doing it over the net now.

I have one. It's dead easy to clean. Looks good.

well I'm still yet to order mine but am planning on glass as I loath grout with a passion.

I got a glass splashback from Argos a few years ago, which I never attached as it was a rented place. It's now sitting on a countertop in a new house, doing horizontal duty! Seems quite robust.

We just installed one and it looks fab and is a distinctive enough colour that I can go a fair while before giving it a really thorough clean if necessary! We got it from loveglass and they were VERY patient while I debated colours endlessly and got more samples.

One thing - the colour looks darker than the sample scaled up - worth remembering. Ours is a fresh, limey green and I'm surprised how dark it looks under artificial lighting.

We've got clear glass which looks great over the painted wall. We just did it ourselves and bought toughened glass and a fixing from Ikea that they use for their splashbacks. Really like it. Doesn't need as much cleaning as you might imagine because the way the light reflects on it, it sort of hides the splashes !

Thanks everyone!
I think we are definitely going to go for, as long as it is not too expensive!

Thanks also for saying where you bought them - will look some people up!

Ooh yes, mine is blimmin gorgeous, makes it look like a much more expensive kitchen than it is! I got these people Designer Glass Kent to do mine, and they were really excellent. Not sure where you are, but he said they travel quite long distances. I emailed him for a quote at about 9.30 one night and got an estimate 20 mins later!

We have just done this, and so has my friend. Tip from her builder: DO NOT SPEND A FORTUNE ON COLOURED GLASS.

Buy a sheet of reinforced glass in the size you require. Ask the glazier to drill holes in each corner if you are planning on screwing it into the wall. (the other alternative is to glue it with splashback and mirror adhesive)
Buy a small pot of GLOSS paint in the colour you require.

Paint the glass ON ONE SIDE ONLY. Give it two or three coats. You can splash the paint on in any old way, no need to be precise or neat. Just make sure you cover the whole area. The paint will self-level on the glass for a neat effect.

When dry, glue the painted side to the wall.

Much much cheaper than buying painted glass. Other advantage - larger colour selection.

My friend did hers in a nice deep red, I used white gloss on mine which, with the green tint of the glass, has come out a lovely sea spray colour.

Love it and total cost under £80!

I agree it is very easy to paint the back of glass and get a finish that looks perfect. Non-drip paint is useful for this. It will look a bit darker through the glass though.

just make sure there are no sockets or switches on the wall where you want to put it. It is possible, but very difficult and expensive, to have holes cut in the glass, but much better to avoid it.

Also, rather than gluing it to the wall, I would look at mirror corner fixings. Then you can easily take it off if you ever need to, and won't have the risk of it falling off if the glue fails with frequent heat.

You can seal round the edges with silicone to keep dirt or grease from getting behind it.

My glazier charged £5 for four screwholes in the glass. We ended up gluing it with industrial strenght mirror adhesive and siliconed around the edges. It has withstood nearly a year of heat without falling off.

But mirror fixings good too :-)

If you can, buy a small piece of glass and some testerpots, to make sure you get the exact colour you want.

I loved making our own coloured glass splashback.

I've ordered mine from here ( www.premierrange.co.uk/glass-splashbacks ) when I was looking at buying a cooker hood. I didn't consider one before but after I was shown them I went for one.

I've got glass splashbacks (not just behind the cooker but everyhere in the kitchen). They look good and as others say, it's easy to paint the back to your chosen colour.

However you MUST seal the edges properly. When I moved in, the previous owners hadn't done this, and a load of insects had crawled behind the glass and died there

We had one in our reconditioned kitchen, behind the hob. It was fab, set in flush with the surrounding tile, BUT it has to be said, not quite the right colour. Then it cracked! A small but obtrusive 'car-windscreen' type crack from up beneath the silicon along the bottom. Fortunately the fitters 'wore' the cost of replacement from the glass manufacturers, so an installer came to see if he could remove the old one and replace it but as he said, due to how it was fitted, down behind the silicon of the bench top at the bottom and up above and behind the silicon of the range hood thus 'flush', their usual method, effectively using a cheese wire to unstick the original, wouldn't work so he stuck the new, better coloured (blaaack) one up so it now stands a tiny bit proud but it still looks good. No drill holes, no mirror corners.

Cleaning it IS a pain being deep, shiney black. The best method is prevention. If you're frying, place a baking sheet in front of it. Otherwise, glass cleaner ++ and lots of wiping.

sorry to resurrect such an old thread - we are in the process of planning a new kitchen and I was wondering if anyone has had glass splashbacks recently. I am thinking about using them for the whole wall rather than just behind the hob and also whether it would be possible to get one which could be designed to match the granite worktop we go for?