Yes, the travertine is more rustic. It's also more Old World if you want to go more that way. Or 'safe traditional'.

Glass, to me, reads more modern and possibly, cold/hard. Do you want to go more modern?

Your colors so far are reading 'cool' to me. Is that something you like? Or do you want to warm the space up?
How do you want to feel when you walk into your kitchen?
Which 'mood direction' do you want to tilt towards?

Personally I think the only one that goes with your kitchen is the blue glass. It's soft enough to not read terribly modern, but goes well with your granite and accent pieces which are in cool tones. The other pieces are too warm in tone for your kitchen.

sweeby - the tiles are marble. I want my kitchen to be warm and welcoming. That's an issue because as igloochic points out, pretty much all the colors are cool. I'd love to find a way to highlight the granite yet warm things up some. The wood pieces I have will definitely help with that, I just need to find a good balance for the backsplash.

If you want to warm it up, I think a textured creme ceramic could be wonderful. Warm and cozy, without fighting with your cool colors.

Check out the site below for pics of backspashes. A visual may help in your selection of colors.

I saw stain samples on your link.........are you staining the oak cabs or leaving them as they are?

I'm not sure I'd put white tiles with the marble accents, but instead would pull out a warmer color from the granite.

Here is a link that might be useful: blacksplashes

I've browsed through the backsplashes slide show (several times in fact). Nothing quite works for me.

annz - the oak cabs are newly refinished. The color you see on the sample is the color the cabs were *supposed* to be. Unfortunately they didn't turn out that color due to several errors. Can't fire the refinisher either as it's Hubby. Also, there really isn't a warm color in the granite. It's all whites, grays, purples, blues and a little pink.

is the paint color of your walls going to stay ?

My kitchen is very clean and contemporary. I wanted glass tile, but was afraid the molded glass would be too severe. I needed something softer to take the edge off, literally. So, I went with hand cut glass tiles instead of molded. It gives the backsplash a more handcrafted feel. I also threw in a small wrought iron shelf and some hand made pottery to soften things up a bit more. Sounds like you'll do the same with the wood pieces.

Those rustic grape tiles seem to be grasping at making the room less contemporary. I am afraid they will not serve your purpose, but rather just look out of place. I don't love the Botticino tiles either, but that's just me. I agree that a ceramic tile with a soft undulating texture would work as a good transitional look.

The kitchen that comes to mind is Rococogurl's. She did a very straightforward backsplash, using simple tiles but mixed a nice selection of colors. For your kitchen, I probably would suggest three or four colors, even more closely related/less contrasty. I like your idea of 4x4s set on a diagonal. A mix of colors would create a softer look than all one color (think of heathered yarns in a sweater) and you could still throw in some 4x4 accents, either glass or an accent color in the same tile as the field tile. (The latter would be my choice.)

Keep looking and I'm sure you'll find some middle ground.

Yes, the paint color is staying. It's the one part of the kitchen that I love and that went right.

The issue is that Hubby likes things very ordered (and I do mean very). One of his statements yesterday: "I want the pattern to appear random but be ordered."

We found a Botticino that we both love. It's Italian (rather than Turkish or Mexican) and is much more white / smooth /classic-looking than other Botticinos we have seen.

Now we just have to decide on the accent and the pattern of the accent. The first tiles have been rejected. Now it's between the blue glass and a pewter-finish accent.