Zellige Kitchen Backsplash in a Midtown Atlanta Condo

This kitchen backsplash in a Midtown Atlanta condo used a mint green glazed zellige square tile in a stacked horizontal layout across the full wall between the countertop and the upper cabinets. The condo is on an upper floor in a concrete building, so substrate preparation involved cleaning the painted drywall surface and applying a bonding primer before thin-set to ensure adequate adhesion without mechanical anchoring.

The mint green zellige glaze has significant variation from tile to tile, which is characteristic of handmade zellige. We mixed tiles from multiple boxes during layout to distribute the color variation evenly across the wall rather than allowing clusters of darker or lighter tiles to concentrate in one area. Unsanded white grout was used to keep the joint color from competing with the tile glaze. The building's noise policy required us to pre-cut all tiles in the parking garage before bringing them upstairs, which we planned for in the project schedule.