jdknyc, this may be too late to help you, but I'll post it anyway in case you are still looking or someone else wants a darker BS to use with white quartzite. My designer recently recommended Nine Lives from the Crossville Color by Numbers collection. It is a medium-dark gray with bluish tones, and the sample we have really worked with the dark vein colors in the slabs we held it up to. I am not sure if we will use it since I pictured a lighter BS next to our walnut uppers. I think the Nine Lives would look great with your white cabinets and white quartzite. It costs under $4 sq ft (at least with my designer's discount). Here is a link that might be useful: 9 Lives

I don't like the 4" backsplash for the following reasons: - if you are doing a decorative tile for the rest of the backsplash, you are now decreasing and cutting off your design area by 4". - the 4" creates a little "shelf" that gets dusty, just one more thing to clean. - added expense to install the 4" piece of granite along your countertop. - people who say you "need it" to cover a gap between the countertop and the tiled wall just don't have good installers. My kitchen walls are extremely out-of-plumb, but my tile backsplash meets my granite countertop with no gaps cause I had experienced installers. - IMHO it looks dated, since the 4" idea was popular with formica in the '70's. I would only do a 4" backsplash if I were doing no other backsplash at all and just leaving drywall on the rest of the wall. And even in that case, I'd try to make it a little higher, like 5" or 6".

Sorry, I forgot to add details of my kitchen. My cabinets are teak wood in a natural stain and my floor is wood in a natural stain. I'm having second thoughts on both the subway tile and the glass tiles. I looked at the backsplash slideshow on this site and like the look of 4" tiles in tumbled marble on the diagonal, however I'll probably change my mind tomorrow. I'd love any and all suggestions!!

Hi everyone, Thanks for checking in. I decided to live with my kitchen for a little while. I finally placed my tile order last week. I decided to go with a plain matte finish tile. Too many windows adjacent to the kitchen so I was concerned about the glare bouncing off of the granite and the backsplash. So, that being said, I ordered Ann Sacks elements 3 x 8 (a little variation on the standard subway tile) in the "warm candle white" matte finish. The sales person in the store recommended the antique white grout and the tiles need to be sealed before and after grouting with a product called pourous plus. The downside is the tiles take about 6 - 8 weeks to come in (I swore I would never wait that long) and the frieght charges were very high. I figured I waited this long what's a "few" more weeks. The only concern I do have is cooking without a tile backsplash. I dont fry much but the other night I stir fried and some of the oil splatterd onto the backboard. I scrubbed it down afterwards and hoping when I finally do install the tiles this will not give me a problem later on (i.e. mold, bacteria, who knows?). So my advice to anyone waiting for a backsplash but still cooking is to put a piece of tinfoil behind the stove. I wish I had done this before but didn't think about it until the problem arose. I will start a separate thread on this to give people the heads up. In the meantime, I purchased curtains and am looking into purchasing a light honey colored or natural oak dining room set. I would like to get something that contrasts the cherry cabinet and easily "melds" with the natural oak floors (so, if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears). I also found a very nice paint color for the dining area...its called "Mascarpone"...it is part of the Benjamin Moore Pottery Barn collection and it looks very nice. So, I'm excited, everything is coming together little by little. I will definately post photos when it's all completed. In the meantime, I really thank everyone for their suggestions, support and for posting photographs. It helped me arrive at my decisions. All of the backsplashes you folks have posted came out great! Thanks for sharing them. I'll write soon, everyone please do the same. Sincerely, Melanie1121