I don't think you're playing it safe. I think you're finding your style. We all mess up with our choices. If you take a look at the color tone of all your favorites and the one you installed; they are all light. So that's where you start. A light backsplash is definitely a perfect match for your stone. You cabs are darker and something light with some visual interest will be great. I think people find that visual interest in different things. Yours just happens NOT to be in tumbled stone. One is not "more right" then the other. I happen to find I'm always drawn to glass... it's just a matter where you taste lies. I can't wait to see it photoshopped. I have no clue how to do that or I do it for you!

thepseudophone -- sorry! That is my granite, Typhoon Bordeaux, but unfortunately, I don't have dark cabinets. If I did, that is EXACTLY the tile I would have wanted. It's too cool for my warm kitchen,though. I think that it is perfectly fine to let the counter be the guide as to where the tile goes. In this case (and yours and mine), the counter extends beyond the cabinet...so let the tile go with it. I mean we all practically age ourselves ten years just to find that PERFECT tile that will go with our counters, right? So why not show it off?!? My two cents. Please be sure and let us see your finished product!

I found it, I found it, I found it! Searched "granite, anyone?" on google, and there it was. I can't figure out how to get the pic from there to here, though. We have a freestanding range so there's no way to put something fancy behind the range, and this suits me perfectly. If anyone wants to see it, it's in a pic in the Home Galleries called Red Granite, anyone? The granite is Red Dragon. It's posted by krislrob. Thanks, all, for your help.

Oh, gang, sorry for not responding earlier. I wanted to have something concrete to offer, at least more sample boards, before posting again, and I don't. Thank you so much for your help and continued interest. I am grateful for the support. My current game plan is to use a pattern very close to what EAM posted on 11/25 @22:55. Just a single, slim pencil liner bisecting tiles set on the diagonal: I plan to make one sample board that has the pattern like she showed, and another with the field tiles clipped a little bit so that the grout lines above the liner are collinear with the grout lines below the liner. (EAM, this is what I was trying to describe by "grout lines lining up above and below the liner" in my last post a while back.) The next question/quest is to find the right tile and the right liner. Still leaning towards a warm, neutral ceramic field tile, hopefully with color variegation, and a liner that is cut from either Rain Forest Green tile or Rojo Alicante tile. Of course, a coordinating ceramic liner is also a possibility. Walls would probably be repainted to a pale yellow. The other possibility I circle back to is a pale yellow tile, much like Circuspeanut's: In that case, the walls would have to be repainted to something complementary. DebraK and corgimum, thanks for the pencil liner vote of confidence. They helped convince me. And, of course, EAM. OB2B: I do like the color and the pattern on that BS of hoboken, but, sadly, I think it looks too busy in my application. Thanks for mocking it up! In fact, your mockup of my wide, triangular liner helped me see that the thinner liner would be better. raee: thanks for the thoughts. I agree that less is more, and I like some of your color ideas. One of the self-imposed deadlines I had was to be done by this evening. I am hosting a dinner party, and wanted to have the BS done before that. However, I had a number of other things to do to get ready; when it became clear that I was not going to make my BS deadline, I triaged and concentrated on other aspects. The good news is that I finished constructing 4 custom picture frames to display the art I chose for the kitchen! I made two of the frames from wood left over from the original door casing, which got torn out in the demolition.