Kitchen Design Tip 2: Use a Bold Backsplash for a Statement-Making Border

Designer Marianna Tomlenovich starts every project in the kitchen, and when the time came to design the heart of her own home in Coquitlam, B.C., she knew the space had to be ready for entertaining guests, rolling out scratch-made pasta and handling the occasional wine spill. “We wanted it to be bulletproof,” she says with a laugh. So, the founder of Tomlenovich Design opted to use a striking Calacatta Viola marble for the kitchen’s backsplash, and a hardier Cristallo quartzite for the countertops. (While marble is beautiful, she explains, it can scratch and stain over time.) And because it was her own space, there was room for experimentation. “As designers, we always want to push the envelope—I had to do something we’ve never done before,” she says. The marble perimeter was born: a simple but dramatic frame around the hood fan area. It’s an extra hit of that gorgeous stone, and a wow-worthy focal point of the kitchen… almost as irresistible as fresh pasta.

All About the View

Because Tomlenovich has an open-concept kitchen and dining area, she chose integrated appliances and an all-oak look for the cabinetry, including the handles. “We wanted it to look like furniture, so when you’re sitting at the dining table, it doesn’t feel like your typical kitchen,” she says.

Concrete Plan

Besides the marble and quartzite, there’s a third sneaky material that adds a subtle, natural quality to the kitchen: microconcrete. It covers the hood fan, and the dining table (a thrifty outlet find by Tomlenovich) was refinished in it to hide existing flaws.