Zen Kitchen Backsplash Ideas With White Cabinets

Light on Light

• Large squares of textured white synthetic tile back a counter of white over white lower cabinets. The monochromatic look inspires calmness and Zen. The backsplash goes all the way up to the ceiling, covering the entire wall behind the sink. A few white and unfinished wood bowls and identical jade plants occupy the shelves over the counter, but there is little along the wall to hide the backsplash.

  Adjoining walls are painted pewter gray for a note of drama that is still low-key. The backsplash wall becomes a design element in a kitchen that deliberately underplays design.

Invisible Tile

• An absence of color and long, uncluttered expanses lend a monastic air to a kitchen. When painted upper and lower cabinets are unadorned high-gloss white wood and counters are a clean slash of white, use white tile for texture that doesn’t interrupt the eye. Glazed white ceramic square tile is classic and unobtrusive.

  Cover every wall from the counter to the upper cabinets to minimize distractions. Keep the ceiling and floor white to match the tile or use polished natural concrete for the floor and create comfort zones with seagrass rugs for the cooking area and dishwasher.

Green Glass

• A kitchen with whitewashed bamboo cabinets, brushed-steel appliances, pale wood floors and plain, black granite counters picks up its only color from a green glass backsplash that climbs 4 feet up the wall. Small glass tiles are variegated watery greens with some coppery and verdigris tiles worked into the design. The design looks like moving water or the leaves of a bamboo grove, and you aren’t even tempted to clutter the counters with the remains of some cooking adventure.

Barely a Backsplash

• Pale wood floors, bleached white wood cabinets, white walls and ceiling and gray granite counters are a simple as it gets. The backsplash in this modern kitchen is low – about 6 inches – and made of the same granite as the countertops. It catches the odd splash of water but not the eye, and it’s easy to wipe down with the counter top. To be safe, the wall paint above the backsplash should be eggshell or medium gloss wipe-off finish.