A kitchen splashback is the best first tiling job you can pick: small, at eye level, and forgiving. There's no standing water like a shower and no foot traffic like a floor, so the stakes are low and the learning is high. Do one over a weekend and you'll come out the other side actually knowing how to tile. Here's how.
Key Takeaways
- Perfect first job — small, eye-level, low-stakes. Metro tiles forgive beginner errors.
- Set out from the centre or a focal point, not a corner, so your cuts land evenly.
- Turn the power off and tile behind loosened socket faceplates — never butt tiles to a socket.
- Silicone, not grout, where the tiles meet the worktop (that joint moves).
- Glazed ceramic, not porcelain — cheaper, wipes clean, and far easier to cut.
Why a splashback is the job to start on
If you've never tiled, this is where you learn — and here's why it's kind to beginners:
- It's small. A few hours of actual tiling, not a week.
- It's at eye level. You're stood up working in comfort, not on your knees.
- It's low-stakes. A splashback catches splashes; it isn't soaked daily like a shower, so there's no tanking and far less to go wrong.
- Metro tiles forgive. The brick-bond pattern (each row offset by half a tile) hides small set-out wobbles that would show on a straight grid.
Get this right and the same skills — adhesive, spacing, cutting, grouting — carry straight over to tiling a full wall and beyond.
What you'll need
You don't need much for a splashback:
- A tile cutter for straight cuts, and an angle grinder with a diamond blade for cutting around sockets.
- A notched trowel (a small notch is fine for splashback tiles).
- Tile spacers — 2mm is standard for a splashback.
- Adhesive (ready-mixed is acceptable here — it's not a wet area), grout, a grout float and sponge, and silicone for the worktop joint.
Tools I used
Ready-mixed adhesive is genuinely fine for a dry splashback — one of the few places I'll say that. For anywhere that gets properly wet, you want a cementitious adhesive instead (the adhesive buying guide explains why).
Step 1: Set out — the bit that makes or breaks it
Don't start tiling from a corner. Work out your layout first so your cut tiles land evenly and you avoid a daft little sliver in the most visible spot.
- Find your centre line. For a run behind a hob, centre the tiles on the hob or the extractor above it — that's the focal point your eye goes to, so it wants to look balanced.
- Dry-lay a row along the worktop without adhesive to see where the cuts fall. Shuffle your start point until both end cuts are a sensible size, not a 10mm splinter.
- Mark a level line. Worktops aren't always dead level — work to a spirit-level line, not the worktop itself, or your tiles will drift.
This ten minutes of planning is the difference between a splashback that looks fitted and one that looks fought.
Step 2: Tile around the hob and sockets
The fiddly bits are the sockets. Take them slowly and safely.
- Turn the power off at the consumer unit. Not just the switch — off at the board.
- Loosen the socket faceplate and pull it forward so you can tile behind its edge. Leave a small 2–3mm gap around the back box; never butt tiles hard against it.
- Cut tiles to fit around the opening with the angle grinder. An L-shaped or notched cut is normal here.
- Refit the faceplate over the tile edges once everything's set — it covers the cut edges for a clean finish.
If loosening the socket isn't something you're comfortable with, get an electrician to handle that part. There's no shame in it, and it's the one bit of this job with a real hazard attached.
Step 3: Spread, set, space
Comb the adhesive onto the wall with the notched trowel — ridges all running the same way — and press each tile in with a slight twist to bed it. Drop 2mm spacers in as you go to keep the joints even, and check your level every couple of rows. Wipe excess adhesive off the tile faces before it goes hard; it's a pig to remove once set.
Let the adhesive cure properly — usually overnight — before you grout. Tiling one evening and grouting the next morning is the natural rhythm of a weekend splashback.
Step 4: Grout, then silicone the worktop joint
Grout with a float worked diagonally across the joints, then clean the haze off the tile faces with a damp (not wet) sponge before it dries. If you do leave a film, grout haze removal sorts it.
The one finishing detail people get wrong: the joint where the tiles meet the worktop gets silicone, not grout. That joint flexes a little as the worktop moves, and grout there cracks within months. A neat bead of colour-matched silicone, tooled smooth, and you're done.
You've just learned to tile
That's a splashback — and the skills you've used (set-out, adhesive, spacing, cutting, grouting) are the same ones every bigger job is built on. When you're ready to step up, how to tile a wall takes it further, and the complete bathroom tiling guide maps out the full job.
Related guides
- How to tile a wall — the next step up
- Tile spacers buying guide — getting joints right
- Grout haze removal — clearing the film after grouting
- The complete UK tiling tool kit — what you actually need