This Kitchen's 'Tetris' Backsplash Has Become My New Favorite Tiling Idea for Quiet Pattern

It can be tricky to find the right balance between a space that feels timeless and welcoming, but also visually interesting. You want your modern kitchen to be a space that your family can gather in, comfortable enough to act out their daily life in without fear of breaking or damaging anything, while also being a space you'd feel proud to host your friends in.

These two things can feel almost contradictory at times. But Jennifer Sucher, from Sucher Studios, seems to have figured out the formula. In her Belle Avenue project, Jennifer designed a kitchen that feels simultaneously simplistic and welcoming, while also being full of surprising and intriguing design flourishes.

At the heart of this design is the carefully selected color palette, full of the warm, earthy tones found in the natural world. "At Sucher Studios, color is always at the heart of how we transform a space," explains Jennifer. "We love using unexpected palettes, sculptural shapes, and unique materials to give a room its own personality."

The Brief

"The main inspiration was creating a home that could speak for itself," explains Jennifer. A space that felt natural, free-flowing, and welcoming, where hosting was just as intuitive as family dinners. To achieve this, an open-plan kitchen layout was key

The other main requirement was thoughtful, effortlessly stylish design choices. "The client wanted the kitchen to feel finished, expressive, and ready for anything. Even on the most casual day, she wanted the space to feel dressed and intentional," says Jennifer.

Bold, geometric-shaped furniture and subtly intriguing design elements, including the mesmerizing Tetris tiling, both work to emphasize this sense of intentional, yet effortless styling. Instead of relying on kitchen accessories and finishing touches that can often require constant care and upkeep, make your permanent features the accessories, so no matter what, your kitchen always looks ready to go.

To ensure these modern kitchen flourishes didn't look overly stylized, Jennifer prioritized natural materials and soft, earthy color palettes. "We looked to earth and nature for inspiration," she says, "using clay, grass, wood, and sky tones to build a palette that feels warm, timeless, and quietly confident."

The Materials

In looking towards nature for inspiration, the materials used in the final design stand as an obvious reflection of this approach. Every surface exudes the soft kitchen aesthetic, with plenty of warmth and texture appearing throughout the space.

While kitchens can often be dominated by sharp lines and cold, hard materials, as seen in the popular stainless steel kitchens that have dominated over recent years, this project was intentionally designed in opposition to this trend, instead choosing to prioritize warmth and texture.

To achieve this, Jennifer says, "We used plaster for the sculptural hood, handmade terracotta tile for the backsplash, painted cabinetry, and walnut hardware and wood surfaces."

Dominating the central wall of the room, the plaster oven hood transforms into an object of pure functionality into a highlight of the room. "The plaster adds softness and organic shape," Jennifer says. This, combined with the terracotta tiles and the wooden kitchen island, creates an atmosphere of unpretentious elegance. "The tile brings in craft and movement, and the wood tones ground the palette," she says, "Together, these materials create a space that feels both elevated and comfortable."

In choosing the materials and the colors of this space, Jennifer maintained one ultimate goal - creating a warm, welcoming room. "The soft pink walls, olive green cabinetry, and terracotta tile wrap the space in warmth, while the deeper tones and textures make it feel layered and finished rather than flat," she says.

The Design

The secret to success in this design is the balance between simplicity and surprising flourishes. The Tetris-style kitchen backsplash tiling is just one example of this - a simple material laid out in an intriguing, uncommon way.

But an even better example of this, perhaps, is the modern stained glass door separating the kitchen from the front of the house from the distinct kitchen zone.

"The stained glass door was designed as a bridge between two very different color stories in the home," explains Jennifer. "The front of the house and the back of the house have dramatically different palettes, and this door allows them to speak to each other in a thoughtful way."

Finding surfaces that allow some sense of transparency, while still providing partial shielding and separation, can be tricky, but stained glass is the perfect solution. It brings a sense of personality, and history with it, as well as an obvious injection of color and light. Positioning the material somewhere in which natural light can flow through it, flooding the room with the tinted tones of the stained glass makes it a particularly effective and beautiful addition.

"We knew from the beginning that we wanted to incorporate stained glass somewhere in the project, and this became the perfect place for it," she explains. Every part of this addition was carefully considered. "We had the door handmade out of metal and custom-selected every piece of glass, carefully choosing each color so it would connect both spaces while still feeling like its own moment of art," says Jennifer.

And this level of customization was not limited to just the visual aspect of the door, but was also applied to the general functionality of the feature, too. "We also changed the door swing so that when it is open, light from the back of the house can pour through, making the glass glow and bringing warmth and movement into the transition between rooms."

There's a touch of the Scandinavian kitchen design aesthetic to this project, and it's part of what makes the room feel so natural and inviting.