KITCHENS

Bookmatched Porcelain Slab Kitchen Wall
in Culver City, California

Spanish Porcelain Slab

LOCATION: Culver City, CA

PROJECT NOTES

Spanish Porcelain Slab

A porcelain slab installation in a recently renovated Culver City, California home with high ceilings and a kitchen open to the patio. Four bookmatched 6′ × 11′ slabs from Spain run floor to ceiling across the kitchen's primary wall so the veining carries from slab to slab, and a single matching slab behind the cooktop picks up the existing countertop, with a mitered niche cut into it for spices and utensils.

LOCATION: Culver City, CA
YEAR: 2024
SCOPE: Kitchen tile work
THE HOUSE: Recently renovated contemporary home, high ceilings, kitchen open to the patio
AREA TILED: Four 6′ × 11′ slabs on the primary wall, one on the cooktop backsplash
MATERIALS: Four bookmatched 6′ × 11′ marble-look porcelain slabs from a manufacturer in Spain · one matching slab on the cooktop wall, cut with a mitered niche

The primary slab wall seen across the dark island, with brass fixtures below and the veining running unbroken to the ceiling.

The bookmatched slabs wrapping an outside corner and running full height under the vaulted ceiling.

The full primary wall from the island, a ceiling beam crossing above it, the pattern carrying from slab to slab.

The cooktop backsplash, a single porcelain slab matched to the existing countertop, behind a stainless hood.

The right edge of the cooktop wall, where a mitered niche is cut into the backsplash slab for spices and utensils.

THE SITUATION

This project was in a Culver City home that had been recently renovated with modern, contemporary design throughout: high ceilings, and an open, airy living room and kitchen that opened up to the expansive patio. Our clients wanted large porcelain slabs on both the primary wall of the kitchen and the backsplash above the cooktop.

HOW WE BUILT IT

For the primary wall we ordered four bookmatched 6′ × 11′ porcelain slabs from a manufacturer in Spain. Buying the set of four together is the whole point: it is what lets the pattern carry through from slab to slab instead of stopping dead at every seam. Each slab was laid out to the specific measurements of the space and cut before anything went on the wall.

Each one weighed over 200 pounds and had to be placed on a rail system that kept it perfectly flat while it was set. Porcelain this size will crack if it is allowed to flex even slightly on the way up, so the rails are not a convenience, they are what keeps the slab in one piece. It took a crew of four to lift and install each one, and each took almost two 50-pound bags of thinset mortar to guarantee full coverage behind it.

For the backsplash we ordered one large porcelain slab that matched the existing kitchen countertop, and installed it with a mitered niche for storing spices and various kitchen utensils.

THE HARD PART

Two things, and neither of them was the tile setting. First, finding a way to lift and carry the slabs without damaging the tile or anything else on the property. Second, getting them lifted and placed on the wall with limited space and access to work in. A 200-pound sheet of porcelain is unforgiving in both directions: it will break if you handle it wrong, and it will take a doorway or a countertop with it.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about
this project.

What does bookmatched mean, and why order four slabs at once?
Bookmatched slabs are produced as a set so the veining continues from one to the next, the way facing pages of an open book mirror each other. Ordering the set together is what lets a wall read as one piece of stone rather than four separate panels with the pattern stopping at every seam.
How do you install a porcelain slab that weighs over 200 pounds?
With a rail system and a crew. The rails hold the slab perfectly flat while it goes up, because any flex on the way to the wall can crack it. On this job it took four people to lift and place each slab, and every slab was measured and cut before it left the floor.
Why does a single slab need almost two bags of thinset?
Coverage. A slab that size has to be fully supported across its whole back, with no voids, or it becomes a hollow spot waiting to crack under an impact. Full coverage is what that quantity of mortar buys.
Can a niche be cut into a porcelain slab backsplash?
Yes. On the cooktop wall here we cut a niche into the slab and mitered the returns, so the opening is framed by the same material as the surface around it and there is no trim piece interrupting the veining.