Crackle is out of style, but so what? If the cabinets are in good shape, put your thoughts, budget and efforts elsewhere. My old kitchen had partial overlay, bullnosed laminated slab, knobless, oranage oak from the '80's, with MDF interiors. Nothing to show off there! Lots of frustration with having the wrong kind of cabinets in the wrong places, too few uppers, too few drawers. If it hadn't bee for the awful layout and for the fact that MDF does not stand up to water damage at all well (plywood would probably have been okay--the MDF croaked), I probably would have just replaced the appliances and been done. Decent quality and not glaringly ugly is sufficient. (I'd call the orange oak non-ugly the way a new pair of coveralls isn't ugly. Not pretty, but functional and not ugly.) Not-ugly is also saleable. The best thing you can do for your kitchen for resale is clean the heck out of it. Empty all the cupboards and scrub the insides. Let them dry before putting stuff back (do a section at a time), and stage your belongings inside the cupboards to look good, like in a magazine ad. If you have overflow, pack it if you can, or put it in plastic tote boxes that can be put in the gargage during viewings. Get the appliances pristine. Pull out any free standing ones and clean all the area behind and under really well, then clean the backs and sides of the appliances. Wash them thoroughly inside and out. Use baking soda and boiling water (let them set) to get spots off of cooking equipment. And let the cabinets be what they are. If you hate the crackle, you can take apart the cabinets (remove doors and drawer fronts from all hardware including screws and hinges). Sand lightly, but thoroughly, and clean with TSP. Get a primer recommended at the paint store for covering faux, and prime carefully, then paint. That's a lot of work, however, and if you're really thinking of selling, it's not worth it.

Going through something similar -- but I am going to end the tile run even with the upper so that the tiles will run down straight from the upper to the counter, and the counter will then stick out past the tile (not a very elegant description but you know what I mean, right?) Doing it this way, I don't have a corner, just the vertical line. The tile I'm thinking of using only has 6 inch bullnose so they need to be cut for the ends. May-be I will look at what you're using! Where are you getting it from???

I'm so sorry this happened! What brand of cabinets? As Chicagoans said, contact your point of puchase immediately with lots of pics and your warranty paperwork in hand. Let us know how this works out for you. Good luck and be firm about expecting the company to do right by you!

I like the two together. Pretty granite! I already love that backsplash from having seen it with the African Ivory in the salmon colors as mentioned above. It was just fabulous with it. The harlequin tiles are small and so it is just the right size to not compete with the pattern in the granite. The tiles are mounted on 12" x 12" sheets if memory serves which made it a lot easier to install.