I can see why it might be advisable to remove the left/rt portions of tile, but I would be inclined to wait until ithe kitchen is completed before deciding. If, as your gut tells you, it "needs" to come down, nothing is really lost except a little more time with it up. Perhaps knowing you are not "locked-in" or committed to it, will help give the perspective to view it more objectively while deciding for sure. This way you will not only have the chance to see it with everything else in place, but you will also have the opportunity to get used to it, before deciding if you truly dislike it, or just haven't gotten used to it being there. As subtle (in color) as our tile is, after months of looking at white painted Sheetrock, it still looked "different" and stood out when we looked at our kitchen. Once we became accustomed to it, we couldn't imagine our walls without it. That's how I am with many things--after living with a blank wall or empty space for any period of time, even a long awaited piece of furniture or decor item jumps out at me, and almost seems like too much, until I get used to the vacant space being filled. Thanks for the compliments on our backsplash Laura and andreak100! It's the Opera Glass tile from Artistic Tile (Stilatto pattern) in Wolfgang White. It does read greenish-blue(-grey) in certain lights or times of day. We had to think about that one while deciding if we wanted to use it, and obviously decided to go for it! Good luck Laura! Honestly, whatever you decide will look terrific!

Thanks :). I LOVE the granite you are considering. I know I've seen other kitchens on this forum with granite behind the cooktop and a different finishing option where the granite transitions to the tile, but my mind is drawing a blank right now. Our tiles are 24x4 solid color porcelain tiles (Casa Dolce Casa Neutra Tortorafrom the Casamood collection). We used a design/build firm and their cabinet maker also made the beams. The designers tried to give us the feel of a hearth-look cooking area without actually having cabinets or sides interfere with the countertop, which is how we ended up with the beams framing the granite. The granite is actually also bumped out from the wall in addition to the granite thickness. From kitchen remodel The side beams are sort of L shaped and were then scribed to fit around the granite and vent. It seemed like a rather labor intensive way to do it, but it turned out nice :). I was a little concerned about having wood taht close to the cooktop, but it hasn't been an issue with the way I cook. Generally, anything I cook with high heat is on the center burner From kitchen remodel

cigi, in our last house the previous owner installed tumbled marble in a mauvish tone which IMO looked awful with the St Cecilia granite. Even though the tile was expensive, I tore them off and left the 4" granite backsplash, patched and painted the rest of the wall. The sink was the only working area as the cooktop was on the island. No problem with water as I used BM Aura, but Pittsburgh Paint's Manor Hall Timeless is just as good with a more flat look and lifetime warranty. I'm pondering the issue for my current redo. In various houses I've had paint, wallpaper, white tile with abalone inserts, plain white tile. Right now I'm weighing white tile with a beautiful insert, just paint with no granite backsplash since this area has only a counter but no cooking/wet functions, paint with granite backsplash, or a simple glass tile backsplash with listello over it a la Chinchette. I'm attaching a photo from Chinchette's beautiful kitchen (hope she doesn't mind seeing hers cited as a great example) which shows the last option. In any event, I echo others' advice to not worry about that decision immediately unless you absolutely love a certain look. Just use good paint. Here is a link that might be useful:

I think that a gorgeous stone with some movement can look like artwork when used as a full height backsplash. It becomes the center stage of the whole look. That can be especially important with cabinets that don't have a lot of detail to them, like shaker or slab. Sometimes a gorgeous color can be that lynchpin, like doing a dramatic grey paint. Sometimes, it's a highly figured wood, like zebrawood or bamboo. And sometimes it's a gorgeous piece of stone that becomes the "oooh" statement. You'd have to extensively alter your sink base cabinet to do a farm sink. I'd just do a plain large bowl undermount sink. Stainless would be fine. Or a cast iron or silgrante in a color like the chocolate brown that we used in the kitchen above.