Needing backsplash inspiration, please!

[Linguaphile]

We're doing our kitchen and need some ideas for the backsplash. The kitchen we've gone for is a fairly minimal and modern and possibly a bit boring white matt handleless German affair with textured dark granite worktops. It's a 6m run of cupboards/worktop along one wall, plus a 3m island running parallel. I had originally been planning to install a single slab of ceramic going all the way from the worktop up to the cabinets, but it turns out that can get very pricey. Not something I want to blow the budget on.

I'm not wanting anything too overdone or trendy/fussy (subway tile and the sort of geometric/mediterranean-looking tiles that seem all the rage this year come to mind), but I do feel that the kitchen could do with something to give it a bit of cool factor oomph. The lower maintenance the better, and zero grout lines to keep clean would be ideal.

Any ideas? Beyond a slab of ceramic, what materials could I use that would be easy to clean but would also add interest and look really sleek?

Placemarking with interest

I had a thread yesterday about splashbacks. I was looking at patterned glass ones, one from Laura Ashley and another from Ted Baker.
But most people were recommending coloured glass. There are loads of different colour choices.
Or mirror glass or stainless steel.

Glass? You can get all sorts of plain funky colours and all manner of patterns too. A friend has a very cool white kitchen with teal green glass slightly frosted splash backs and it looks fab.

we have opaque glass, i'll post a pic in a minute.

Here it is.

Definitely recommend glass. It's pricy though especially if you have multiple cut outs for sockets etc. But you can get away with the glossiness especially since you have Matt doors. I would go for a muted colour as I do think the bright neon pinks/greens can look a bit naff and cheapen the overall look.

My sister has a beautiful teal glass splashback.

@LizzieMacQueen can you tell me about the tap and drain next to your hob?

I have a large green matt glass splash back behind my hob as well as glass up stands behind the worktops.

@picklemepopcorn, that's my Quooker, I wanted it close to the hob so I can keep my pans on the heat and top up with water etc. The little drain feeds in to the main drain (somewhere under the units).

So you have a sink with normal taps elsewhere? I did think it was a quooker, but couldn't quite work it out.

Yes, two other taps where the sink is, a filtered water tap and the normal H/C one. It was a wise decision.

I have a glass splash back and love it. It is was quite expensive but it does add a bit of pizzazz to a monochrome kitchen (even though it is still monochrome itself).

Why not use the same dark granite that you're using on the worktops? Most places do a thinner (and cheaper) version of the same for upstands. And it would all be really sleek then.

I've just done this in my kitchen and the price compared really favourably to other options.