casa1 -- the marble is 1" and the borders 1/2", yes. It's not my bath it belongs to a friend of mine. She has a teenage boy, now college age. No complaints. Hard to comment about marble and high usage with small children. I have a friend who's an antique dealer with good furniture all over the house and small kids and it's no issue at all. Others wouldn't think of it IYKWIM. I have a marble bath and it cleans up really easily with hot water. Ironically, I've had tiny bits of mildew on the grout and used a clorox bleach pen to get it off. No etching I can see when it was rinsed. Some people talk about etching and think marble isn't practical. I disagree but I love the way marble looks as it ages. If you want something that will stay new looking and be bulletproof then I'd investigate ceramic tile mosaic. With enough research I'm sure you could get the same look with ceramic tile and that should cost considerably less than marble.

I'm in a similar predicament, so I can relate. In a kids' bath I don't think I'd do cararra for the countertop because of etching and staining. I'd do either silestone, soapstone or maybe the cardosa. Instead of white grout, consider doing a gray grout. It doesn't stain and the gray lines give a nice vintage feel, and provide a graphic punch so you might not need to add additional color in the tile. If you search for white subway tile gray grout here I am sure many pics will come up.

We have considered these lines after ruling out Subway Ceramics due to cost - will make a decision soon! The thicknesses really range here - as well as the "whites". 1) Walker Zanger's Soho collection - also comes in a bevel. http://www.walkerzanger.com/catalog/series.php?mat=Ceramic&coll=Soho Made in Spain. 2) Richards & Sterling - $6.40/SF but their quarter rounds were really pricey ($6.10 per piece)- www.richardsandsterling.com 3) Tile Shop's Imperial Bianco Gloss (mentioned in earlier posts) - $5.99/SF (free shipping over $100) www.tileshop.com/product/productdetail.aspx?familyID=2041&recordID=5039511 - Made in China. 4) Westminster - if you are in the SF Bay Area, Import Tile Co in Berkeley has some back stock - no bull nose. $5.95/SF. The company is out of business but they still have stock. www.importtile.com Made in California. 5) Sonoma Tilemakers - Star collection - $12/SF www.sonomatilemakers.com/LineList.aspx?prod-line-id=8&line-list-id=32&IsLineList=True Made in Sonoma, CA. 6) Pratt and Larson - Simple Solutions collection - $10.50/SF www.prattandlarson.com Made in Portland, OR.

Like live_wire_oak said, a standard backsplash is 18". So, in theory, a 3" tile will go up 6 times with no cuts. However, not all 3" tiles are exactly 3". If they are, you'll be cutting some because grout lines might add 1/2-1" that would need to be cut off at the top. Some are nominally 3", and they account for a grout line. But then, not all counters and cabinets are perfectly level. I used 3" tiles that accounted for a grout line, and still had to make a few top cuts. But, my top cuts are minimal. You can't tell it's not a full tile unless you look really closely under the cabinets. In robotroplis' GORGEOUS kitchen, you can see at a glance that her top row of tiles is cut in half. Technically, you wouldn't want a half size (or smaller) tile anywhere. The pro tip would be to measure and figure out what the size of the last tile would be and divide the left over tile between the top and bottom rows. So then you'd have 2 rows of tile to cut. But I still think robotropolis' backsplash looks fantastic. And, standard, schmandard. Maybe your backsplash isn't even 18"? So, yeah, a 3" tile is more DIY friendly. But it's probably not enough of a deal to justify getting something you don't like anyway.