As I often do, I have changed my mind on the black and white - I am afraid I might get sick of it sooner rather than later. I am now thinking I will use a marble and lay it in a herringbone pattern which ends up saving quite a bit of money. Now the master bathroom might be my problem - any suggestions for a honed grey look? I really like large rectangles, if possible and my budget is somewhere in the $5-6/sqft range.

pbear - Do you have pictures of your counter top? I was so unsure of going with the lighter granite, but thought that everyone, my sister, sister-in-law and friends all have the darker granite. We wanted to be different and thought to go light, so my DH chose the bianco romano. I loved it! I bought the samples of backsplash from glasstilestore.com. They come in 6x6 sample sizes, which is nice so you can get a better idea. I think I bought 10 samples, because I'm so unsure of what style I'm trying to go for, definitely modern. Theresse - are you talking about the plain white subway tile pictured with the red glass and granite. I love that as well... love it more because its .29 cents a tile!!! but thought maybe it was too plain, which is why I started looking at other choices, but everyone is telling me to go simple with the plain subway tile. I wanted some color and considered the red mosaic as a border somewhere in the middle, or thinking of just going over the range similar to this posting... oh and check out the border right above the granite. I love it. http://www.starpoohonline.com/photos/stiles2.jpg I added my link I added the design of our new kitchen. I'm looking for a gray slate tile for the floor, but haven't found what I'm looking for. I'm looking to have different size tiles that flow right into the sun room. If you look at the old kitchen and see where my fridge is there aren't any cabinets.... if you look at the new design I added a wall of cabinets surrounding the fridge. I'm so excited to have so many cabinets and the new countertop that extends into the sunroom. What do you think of my design? http://s919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40/rufinorox/Kitchen%20Before%20Pictures/ Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen design

katieleabrown86 - thank you for the photo - the blue island looks lovely - and I really like your chevron backsplash. alley2007 - i wish i had just one main prep area and could isolate the marble. unfortunately - the island gets heavy use all day (lunches/breakfast/baking/laundry folding (don't judge!), etc.) and the perimeters is where I do all the chopping / slicing/ dinner prep. I had a wakeup call this morning when I came down and my husband so graciously made coffee for the day. Unfortunately he didn't see (or care) that the coffee pot also overflowed/spilled all over the countertop - under the coffee pot, and about 8 inches to the side of it and a few inches before. I wish I could say that was a one time thing --- but I have had to clean that up many times before since he never "sees" the disaster. I think that was a not so subtle message that I might be asking for trouble with the marble. :( My tailspin continues…..

I’d like to play around with a few other ideas in the bathroom. I noticed that a lot of long narrow bathrooms have a runner instead of a small area rug in front of the vanity. What are your thoughts on the concept of a longer rug?