Kitchen splashback - are tiles a nightmare to clean?

[JessieMcJessie]

Our new kitchen is going to have a really cool patterned floor so I want to keep the walls as plain as possible and was thinking of white metro tiles with white grout. They’d go right up to the underside of the extractor hood. Units will be shaker style (dark blue) so am not so keen on glossy glass or Perspex splashbacks.

Would I be creating a nightmare for myself with grout that will be impossible to keep clean? Anyone have any clever ideas?

this is the sort of thing I have in mind.

It's not the tiles so much as the grout which can be difficult to keep clean. Grout is slightly rough so grease from cooking sticks to it and yellows. So you either have to clean it regularly with something that dissolves grease, live with it or maybe use a different coloured grout instead.

Yes it's the grout that will stain over time, I have dark purple metro bricks with a black grout. Never had a problem with it looking clean. I also have grey grout with the white tiles in the bathroom and the grout looks brand new 5 yrs on 👍🏻

Thanks. We can’t use darker grout as that will create a pattern and we can’t have any pattern on the wall because the floor is going to be very busy.

I had white metro tiles in the kitchen of my last house and they hardly ever got dirty. Would definitely recommend a light grey grout as it'll blend in nicely but be more forgiving than white.

We had cream metro and white grout in our last house. No problems at all. The odd bit of tomato sauce may have flown out of a pan, but it didnt stain.

We’ve got white metro tiles and white grout. So far so good - no problem whatsoever.

And besides, there are those grout reviver pens that are easy to use so you could spruce up the grout occasionally (wouldn’t even take 30mins). They come in white but not sure about other colours.

We've got large black granite tiles on the wall with dark grey grout. They're brilliant. Clean and they still look good 13 years on.

Extend the work surface behind the hob. Granite works well. One slab, no grout. Failing that, the largest tiles possible.

Is there a grout sealant you can apply when it's all new to seal out dirt and grease?

We have tiles too I tend to polish mine after a clean and they resist the coating from food better

Thanks everyone!

I intend to avoid tiles in both bathroom and kitchen in future. I wonder if there are non-glossy glass/perspex options that might suit you.

I'm think of white acrylic panels for a new shower, I have found a matt option from "Wetwall." (Probably wouldn't be suitable for a kitchen, as kitchen panels also need to handle high heat. Also couldn't say how relatively non-reflective it is.)

(I recently spent a couple of hours scrubbing oil of kitchen grout, and even that wasn't completely effective.)

off kitchen grout. Using a stiff brush and kitchen cleaners that are supposed to remove oil.

Sugar soap is great on kitchen grease.

Instead of tiles, you could consider laminate panels. Very easy to wipe clean and no grout lines.

www.worktop-express.co.uk/laminate-kitchen-splashbacks

We have white metro tiles but with grey grout. Our hob is on our island though.
Personally I'd buy a glass chopping board and if you know it's messy/stain cooking I'd pop it up the back of the hob.