Kitchen - tiles and paint

[wavingfuriously]

hi everyone, counting down the days until new kitchen is installed. Just wondering what opinions peeps have about tiling and or painting their kitchen walls ? installer told me it is currently fashionable to have two tiles deep layer all around the kitchen and then just paint above that. seeing as a splashback won't fit above my hob then am going to tile that part but not sure about where to paint ..

who like 'metro' (bevelled edged tiles) and why ? anyone hate them ? either their look or cleaning ..

what are your experiences regarding practicality of tiled or painted walls, maintenance etc,..
plus while we're on the subject can someone recommend a good quality grout and tile adhesive ? as have to provide them myself..not all grouts are created equal apparently ...

Thank you

We had our new kitchen installed last year. We have granite upstands and a glass splashback behind the cooker. I have decided to tole behind the sink with cream coloured metro tiles as I am fed up of having to touch up the paintwork!! Our room is open plan and the walls are all painted in matt emulsion (Dulux Timeless) and its not wipeable. I didn't want kitchen paint though as wanted it to be matt.

I am picking up tiles, grout and adhesive tomorrow from tile shop so can let you know more details then if you are interested?

oh thanks marmite - yes i thought someone would mention having to paint over dirty marks ! as i'm a slovenly cook/washer upper even getting stuff on the ceiling sometimes I did think about upstands ...
yes pls let me know about adhesives that wud be kind...the guy in Topps tiles was trying to flog me really expensive coloured grout like 2.5kg for £17.50 !! think tt staff are trained to flog it

We have just had our kitchen done, we had granite up stands (inc all around the sink) and tiles behind the cooker so is easy to clean. Then used emulsion paint for the rest of the kitchen. The grout we got in Travis Perkins was Mapei coloured grout was about £17 iirc then we got our adhesive from fired earth where we got the tiles from. We got told the same that not all grouts and adhesives are the same & you get what you pay for, maybe that's just a sales pitch but since we got nice tiles we thought we may as well.

thanks apple, yep same here having tiles behind the cooker, the thing that put me off with upstands is that they look good but aren't that tall & surely if you aren't careful the paintwork would gets stains on ? wud be interested in ur experiences please ? presumably u bought tiles from fired earth, are they dear ?
cheers

Yes that's our problem. Upstand behind sink bit deep enough to prevent splashes, hence tiling.

plus any1 got any strong feelings either way re metro tiles ? they look a bit weird to me ..break easy dunno..

I quite like them but guess they might already be a bit dated. Basically I don't want tiles but need something so am hoping they will be discreet enough to not be that noticeable - I have chosen cream tiles and similar colour grout. If I wanted them to stand out a bit more then I would have chosen grey grout I think.

Waving our upstand behind sink is tall up to bottom of window so no worries re splashing. The tiles from fired earth aren't cheap they are doing between 15-50% off their tiles in their sale but prob ends Saturday so would need to get in quick. Agree metro tiles seem very 'now' which means they will prob date our tiles are prob not high fashion as have design/ pattern on them but we like them...

Just done ours. Have upstands and have continued this into the window ledge behind the sink. Have a stainless steel splashback above the hob(no upstand) and Little Green Intelligent Matt Emulsion everywhere else. My LG stockist assured me it's really durable and totally washable - she better be right. Didn't want tiles as wanted to be able to change the look of the kitchen with minimum hassle.

ta fussy, interesting to see people's different interpretations kitchen-wise. i can't get a splashback because the width is only 59 and splashbacks are 60 or 90 so that isn't an option. don't really like metro tiles so have to go with boring old 10 x 10 !