Granite Tile Kitchen Countertop and Bar

Here are some photos of a countertop and bar that I tiled with 12 x 12 granite tiles. I cut 3 inch strips of the granite tiles to bullnose (round over) for the front edge of the counter and 2″ strips for the face.

The biggest problem you will run into with using granite tile on counters is that most kitchen countertops are 25″ from front to back. Since most granite tiles are 12″ square (unless specially ordered) you end up with a small strip in the back that is less than one inch wide – it doesn’t look right. To prevent this I will either tile them like this with the 3″ bullnose on the front or place the tiles diagonally (on point).

Using granite tiles rather than a full slab for your countertops are considerably cheaper – less than half. When ordering granite tile for your counter you want to order 2.5 square feet for each lineal foot of counter space. For instance: if your counter is 10 feet long you want to order 25 square feet of tile. This will be enough to cover the countertop, bullnose, and the self-edge which is the piece on the face below the bullnose.

This particular customer wanted wider grout lines so I used a 1/8″. I will usually tile granite countertops with either 1/32″ or 1/16″ grout lines which gives it more of a solid “slab” look. Most photos are taken right after I grouted so the grout lines look a bit strange – cloudy. If you would like to install granite tile on your countertops just give us a call and we can set up a free consultation.

You can click on any of the photos below for a full-size version.