Have you been brainstorming for backsplash tile ideas for your white kitchen cabinets but still can't decide which of them are the best ones?

Remember, kitchen backsplashes are a surprisingly affordable way to add a touch of style and functionality to your kitchen. They're not just for homeowners and interior designers anymore - anyone interested in sprucing up their cooking space can benefit from a backsplash.

Kitchen backsplash tiles offer two key advantages:

• They give you many options to experiment with different styles and find the perfect fit for your white cabinets.
• They're relatively affordable, so you can update your kitchen with the latest trends without breaking the bank.

If you still can't decide which tile backsplashes go best with your white kitchen cabinets, we have some ideas in this article to help you achieve your kitchen beautification goals.

Backsplash Installation 101

Here are some considerations in choosing backsplashes that would go well with your white cabinets. Take notice of the elements that affect your choice—color scheme, design theme, budget range, and maintenance.

Creating a Harmonic and Well-balanced Kitchen

Creating a harmonic and well-balanced kitchen is achieved by coordinating your backsplash tiles with your kitchen's countertop, flooring, appliances, and hardware.

What does this mean? It indicates that you must match your backsplash tiles with your kitchen's overall design.

This is to prevent that sterile or boring look for your cooking area—especially when you contrast your backsplash tiles with your kitchen's white cabinets hanging or fixed on its walls.

In addition, you need to experiment with various materials, treatments, and effects to achieve the one-of-a-kind backsplash you desire. Doing so would surely capture the style you've always dreamed of—alongside your touch of individuality.

At a closer look, this means that a one-of-a-kind backsplash can solve your entire problem by strategically and appropriately putting it around your white cabinets in terms of its design and color.

And one thing more. Large backsplash tiles have advantages for your kitchen installation. This is possible when you highlight them against the background of your kitchen's cabinetry, countertops, and flooring. This goal could only be achieved alongside your consideration of your tiles' size and shape, the color of their grout, and their backsplash pattern.

What color tile goes well with white cabinets?

At the outset, so many tile color possibilities would complement the white cabinets in your kitchen. They'll even alter the ambiance and mood of your space. In this regard, it's important to note a few experts in tile colors and design to achieve that dream look for your kitchen with white cabinetry.

One of them is Clarisse Robles, a color theory expert.

For Robles, color—alongside proper lighting—is everything. She says, "Color is really about perception. It must be viewed in the exact time and place that it's intended to be used." In other words, she emphasizes the significance of proper lighting in enhancing your tile colors.

Let's now take blue tiles as an example. It would be best to use proper lighting to highlight their watery color for a serene, calm, and seaside vibe.

Another tile color expert, Cindy Flottman, stresses the importance of colors—especially in terms of their hues in tile grout.

According to Flottman, you can "change the look of your space by changing the color of the grout." It means grout's colors also affect the design and elegance of your living space.

That's why for your kitchen space's chic, contemporary, and refined appearance, you must also consider grout colors, should you like grey tiles as your choice. It will necessarily enhance the latter's beauty.

Interestingly, the architect Debasish Sahu advises answering, "What color tiles are the best?"

He says, "Shades of white and cream, complemented with gently darker shades, work well for general interiors. These are the classy and formal shades which are proved to go with any ambience."

These shades of "white and cream" also include yellow tiles, which, complemented with contrasting yet gentle "darker shades," would assure you with confidence that they'd give you that feeling of warmth, sunshine, and joy.

Sahu continues, "Highlighters can be a sharper or brighter color to break the monotony, like kitchens." No wonder red tiles can add a striking, dramatic, and fiery accent to your living space—especially when they're sharper or brighter.

Matchmaking Backsplashes for Your White Kitchen Cabinets

Now that we've discussed the necessary design and color considerations let's delve into which backsplash tiles are the perfect choice for you.  

Playful Scales

Fish scale tiles are not new. A co-founder and Royal College of Art in London graduate, Erik de Laurens, invented the fish scale tiles called "Scalite" while trying to "revitalize manufacturing in the Basque region of France, where traditional tile-making was a dying art. "

A 2022 article elaborates, "The scales resemble stone, exhibiting a textured surface and hues reminiscent of sand or aqua. These scales are derived from collagen sourced from various fish, including salmon, sardines, and other species, combined with a biopolymeric adhesive."

We can now see with these statements that fish scales are indeed exciting and fancy tiles. Among the advantages of using them include:

• They are available in various hues, dimensions, and textures to accommodate your taste and style.
• Their designs and patterns are very organic and dynamic, which would surely give your kitchen the movement and texture you've always desired.
• They add glitz and whimsical touches to your kitchen by reflecting light, producing a shimmering look.

In short, not only would your kitchen and cabinetry look good, but it would also give you that relaxing and soothing vibe because of their fancy and playful designs. Imagine your backsplash with tiles such as Bangkok Straight Joint.

Iridescent Tiles for a Sparkling Kitchen Glow

Iridescent tiles are striking, eye-catching backsplash alternatives that would complement your white kitchen cabinets. Not only are they as stylish as the fish scale tiles, but they’re also available in a range e of hues, forms, and sizes. These tiles reflect light, giving your kitchen a brilliant and luminous appearance, making it appear larger and brighter. Try these Interlocking glass tiles from the Serenade collection.

Modern Mosaic Symphony: Random Glass Tiles in a Vibrant Chorus

Random glass tiles have designs and compositions with various hues, sizes, and erratic or rather bizarre forms.

The advantages of using them for your kitchen backsplash are numerous. These include:

• They produce an abstract, mosaic-like look that would surely enliven your kitchen space with striking color and originality.
• They’d brighten and illuminate your cooking space by reflecting light, producing that glossy, sleek, and light-hearted ambiance.

Consider Daltile’s glass tile Blue Lagoon Straight Joint from the Color Wave collection:

Earthy Elegance: Encaustic Tiles Bring History to Your Backsplash 

Not only would encaustic tiles give your kitchen a charming and old-world look, but they’d surely give your white cabinets a personality. Their matte and textured appearance will give your kitchen warmth and depth that will give you peace of mind and relaxation. See how tiles such as Crystal Black Square from the Memoir collection blend well with your white kitchen cabinets.

Herringbone Chic: Timeless Texture for Your White Kitchen Canvas

Herringbone tiles are a classic backsplash material for your kitchen. They’re even the most stylish, too. Among the advantages of installing them are:

• Available in an extensive array of timeless and adaptable hues, materials, and finishes, these herringbone tiles will accommodate your taste for fashion.
• They produce a sophisticated, geometric look that adds flavor to your kitchen life.
• Made with an even more refined and shiny finish by their glossy and silky texture, your kitchen would look lovely and appear welcoming and accommodating to all your visitors at home with a tinge of class or elegance.

Look at how the backsplash tiles below from our vast range collection of herringbone designs fit seamlessly with white contemporary kitchen cabinets.

Concrete Couture

In describing these tiles, the differences and similarities between modern couture and traditional encaustic tiles can be identified by pointing out their design patterns.

While both are composed of cement and colored pigments layered in a pattern, modern couture tiles have more minimalist and current patterns and hues, while traditionalistic encaustic ones have less.

Contemporary couture tiles are durable and long-lasting. They’re elegant and state-of-the-art, and they’ll even give your kitchen its industrial feel with the contemporary couture tiles’ concrete-like look. In turn, they’ll give you that edge over the other tiles available in the market—with a bit of your style or personality. Finally, contemporary couture tiles would surely give your white kitchen cabinets a touch of tenderness and refinement.

If you’re looking for a fitting tile option, check out this Thunder Rectangle concrete-look porcelain tile.

Choosing the Right Backsplash Tiles for Your White Kitchen Cabinet

We have seen in this article that different kinds of backsplash would surely go well with your white kitchen cabinetry—depending on your preference.

In addition, you’ve also read that different tile colors complement your white cabinets, especially according to the kind of tile backsplash you’ll install.

And so, in matchmaking backsplashes for these cabinets, there are many to choose from—from playful fish scale tiles to concrete couture ones.

And yet, the most important takeaway you’ll ever get from reading this blog is that there are still many choices, especially in our collection at Otile.

We’re here to guide you throughout your backsplash tile journey with our vast porcelain, mosaic, and glass tile collection.