A subway tile backsplash is the safest choice in a kitchen and, for the same reason, the easiest one to make look like everyone else’s. The fix does not have to be a different field tile. One course of hand-painted border tile, set into the white, gives the wall a line of color and a hand in it, for a fraction of what a fully painted backsplash costs. Below are ten ways we have seen our customers do it, in kitchens and bathrooms, mostly in the United States.

A note on sizes first, because it decides the layout. A standard subway tile is 3×6 in. Our hand-painted border tiles come in 6×3 in, 8×4 in and 6×2 in. The 6×3 is exactly one subway tile long, so a course of borders lines up with a running-bond field without a single cut. It is also the same thickness, about 8 mm, so it sets flush with the same thin-set.

1. One course under the upper cabinets

The most common layout, and the one that costs least. The field runs from the counter up, and the last course before the cabinets is the border. The eye reads the whole backsplash as finished, because the pattern closes it. A 10 ft run takes twenty 6×3 borders.

2. A line at countertop height

Turn it upside down: set the border as the first course, sitting on the counter, with plain subway tile above. It works when the cabinets are dark and you want the color low, next to the stone, rather than up under the wall units. Use the slim 6×2 size here if the counter-to-cabinet height is tight.

3. Frame the range wall

Run the border up both sides of the range and across the top, so the cooking wall reads as a framed panel and the rest of the backsplash stays plain. This is the layout that photographs best, and it uses fewer tiles than you would think: two verticals of about 30 in each and a top run of 30 to 36 in is around 16 borders.

4. Border plus a painted panel behind the stove

If you want a picture behind the range, a tile mural or a block of 6×6 decorative tiles, the border is what stops it floating. Frame the panel with the same border you run along the top and the two read as one design. Our kitchen backsplash tiles are painted to order to match any border pattern.

5. Around the kitchen window

A window in the backsplash breaks the field tile awkwardly. A border run around the reveal turns the interruption into the feature, and it is a place where a pattern with a direction, like Water Wave, looks especially good because it follows the frame.

6. As the edge trim where subway tile ends

Where a backsplash stops mid-wall, most installers finish it with a bullnose or a metal pencil trim. A single vertical of 6×2 borders does the same job and looks intended rather than mechanical. The glazed edge of the border is finished, so nothing else is needed.

7. Around a shower

The same course-of-color idea works in a subway-tiled shower, at eye level, or as the top course under the ceiling. Fired glaze does not care about steam.

8. Trim the niche

A shower niche is a small rectangle in a large wall, which makes it the natural place for a border. Frame it with 6×2 borders and put a single decorative tile at the back of the niche if you want more.

9. Frame the mirror

Set border tiles straight onto the wall around a frameless mirror above the vanity. It costs the price of a dozen tiles and replaces a frame you would otherwise have to buy. A powder room is the place to be bold with the pattern.

10. Above the tub, with a mural

The bathtub wall is the one wall in a bathroom you look at while doing nothing. A dark blue Water Wave border along the top of the subway tile and a small mural in the middle of the wall is a classic Jerusalem bathroom, and it travels well.

Grout, quantities and ordering

Grout the border with the same grout as the field. A matching grout lets the pattern read as one continuous band; a darker grout frames each tile and shows the running-bond rhythm. Both work; matching is the safer choice with a busy pattern.

To count tiles, measure each run in feet and multiply by two for 6×3 or 6×2 borders, by one and a half for 8×4, then add two spares for corner cuts. Prices are $10 per 6×3 tile, $14 per 8×4 and $8 per 6×2, with a $100 minimum, and every tile is painted to order in our Jerusalem workshop, so the colors can be matched to your field tile or cabinets. Shipping is quoted door to door for the United States by FedEx, DHL or EMS.

All seventeen patterns, with prices, are on our subway tile borders page. For bathrooms, the 6×6 in tiles that go with them are on the decorative bathroom tiles page. Send us a photo of your kitchen or bathroom and the length of the run, and we will reply with a quote and a sample.