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How Much Does a Hand-Painted Tile Backsplash Cost?
Every quote for a hand-painted backsplash begins in the same place: the tile count. Balian tiles are priced per tile rather than per square foot, which is unusual if you have been shopping in tile showrooms, but it makes a project far easier to budget. Once you know how many tiles your wall needs, you know almost exactly what the tile will cost. Because every backsplash is made to order, the same pricing logic applies across all our custom ceramic tiles.
The short answer
These are our standard prices, in US dollars, for tile hand-painted to order in our Jerusalem studio:
| What you are buying | Size | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Hand-painted decorative or accent tile | 6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) | $20 per tile |
| Hand-painted subway border tile | 8″ x 4″ (20 x 10 cm) | $10 per tile |
| Tile within a mural or picture panel | per tile | $30 per tile |
| Larger format decorative tile | 8″ x 8″ (20 x 20 cm) | quoted on request |
In practice that puts a modest accent job at around $150 to $250, a framed focal panel above the range at roughly $270 to $600, and a backsplash where every single tile is hand-painted at $1,200 and upwards. Those are tile-only figures, before shipping and before your installer’s labour.
How to work out your own tile count
A 6″ x 6″ tile covers a quarter of a square foot, so allow four tiles for every square foot of wall. Measure the run of wall in linear feet and decide how high you want to go. The usual height between countertop and upper cabinets is 18 inches, which is one and a half feet, so a ten-foot run at that height is fifteen square feet, or sixty tiles.
Border tiles work differently because they run in a line. Each one is eight inches long, so you need one and a half border tiles per linear foot: twelve feet of border comes to eighteen tiles.
Five worked budgets
Accent tiles dropped into plain field tile. The cheapest way to get hand-painted work into a kitchen is to scatter it. Twelve accent tiles set into an otherwise plain backsplash comes to $240, and reads as deliberate rather than sparse if you keep the spacing even.
A small mural above the range. A nine-tile panel, three tiles by three, is $270. A twelve-tile panel is $360. On 6″ x 6″ tiles those work out at roughly 18 inches square and 24 by 18 inches respectively, which suits most standard range hoods.
A border at counter height. Ten linear feet of hand-painted subway border needs fifteen tiles, so $150. This is the least expensive way to get pattern across the whole kitchen rather than in one spot.
A mural framed by a border. A twenty-tile mural at $600 plus twelve feet of border at $180 comes to $780, and gives you a focal point and a line that ties the rest of the room to it.
Every tile hand-painted. A ten-foot run, 18 inches high, entirely in hand-painted 6″ x 6″ tile is sixty tiles, or $1,200. A longer twelve-foot galley kitchen at the same height is seventy-two tiles, or $1,440.
What actually moves the price
Three things change a quote more than anything else. The first is simply how much wall you cover, since the price is linear with the tile count. The second is format: border tiles are the least expensive element we make and mural tiles the most, because a mural has to be painted as a single continuous image across a grid rather than as a repeating design. The third is whether you want one of our existing patterns or a faithful reproduction of a design you have found elsewhere, which our painters will do but which takes longer at the bench.
What the tile price does not include
Shipping is quoted separately, based on the size and weight of the order, and on larger orders it is often discounted or free. Because every tile is painted to order rather than pulled from a warehouse, allow two to three weeks in the studio before anything ships, then seven to fourteen business days in transit to the United States.
Installation is not included and we do not quote it, because tiling labour is priced locally and varies enormously between states. Your tiler will usually charge by the square foot for setting and grouting, and it is worth telling them in advance that the tile is hand-painted and irreplaceable at short notice, so they cut sparingly and dry-lay a mural before it goes on the wall.
Spending less without it looking cheap
The instinct is to reduce the tile count everywhere, but a thin band of hand-painted tile spread across a whole kitchen usually looks weaker than the same money concentrated in one place. If the budget is tight, put the pattern where people actually stand and look, which is nearly always the wall behind the range, and keep the rest of the run plain. Borders are the exception: at $10 a tile they are the one element that can travel the full width of a kitchen without changing the total very much.
Questions we are asked most
How do I get an exact figure rather than an estimate?
Send us the measurements of the wall you want to cover and tell us roughly what you have in mind. We will work out the tile count, quote the tile and the shipping together, and tell you the studio lead time for that particular design.
Do you ship to the United States?
Yes, to all fifty states, door to door. Delivery normally takes seven to fourteen business days once the order leaves the studio.
Are prices in US dollars?
They are, and we take all major credit cards as well as PayPal.
Is there trade or wholesale pricing?
For larger projects, yes. Contact us with your tile count and we will quote it.
Where to look next
If you would rather see the tiles in finished rooms before you start counting, we have photographed 45 completed installations in our kitchen backsplash tile ideas gallery. To browse by product, start with decorative kitchen backsplash tiles, accent tiles, subway and border tiles or ceramic tile murals. When you have your measurements ready, contact us and we will price it properly.
