I would go with the beige tile. Believe me, I have the grey hard tile in the kitchen and I hate it. I have the beige in the power room (hard tile from Lowes) and I love it. My bathroom vanity looks similar in color to your door above.

Actually, why don't you put hardwood flooring in the kitchen?

I knew that question was going to come up! :-)

I would rather have wood but, we have 2 standard poodles and in only 2 years they've managed to scratch up the vinyl we currently have pretty badly. They're not puppies, they're around 7 years old as best we know (they were a rescue). They spend most of their time in the kitchen when we're home ('cause that's where the food is!) and when we're not they're confined to the foyer & PR...they do have plenty of space).

A friend of mine has 1 standard poodle and she says that despite keeping the dog's "nails" cut, her floors have become very badly scratched up in just 3 years and she's very unhappy about it...she says she will need to get it refinished in the next year or so--and she had an extra protective coat put on the floor. (And yes, I did see the sratches...they were pretty bad.)

While I don't mind the patina of age on a floor, I do mind having it scratched so badly in just 3 or 4 years that it needs to be refinished!

I actually have a picture of some beige that I do like...Morning Breeze from Daltile which looks like it has some subtle gray... but then I don't know what to do about the backsplash... (the pic has another beige color...Bianco also from Daltile) Note that the cabinetry in the picture is NOT my color...but it was the closest I could find in the Daltile Kitchens

{{!gwi}}

The DR furniture in this picture has colors closer to my cabinets...

{{!gwi}}

BUT, DH & I really like blue (I know, I know, it's supposedly a bad color for kitchens...) & gray!

I like that DalTile shot, and think that could work very well for flooring. It's 'as neutral as beige' but more interesting. That's assuming, of course, that the picture on my monitor accurately reflects the color of the tile. Do you have a sample door you can take down to the tile showroom and walk around with?

Another suggestion -- and I mean this in all seriousness -- is to get a few small spoonfulls of dirt from around your yard and dump them onto a piece of white paper on your floor; spread it around a little bit and look at the color. That is the color of the very fine haze of dust and dirt that will begin to coat your tile the second you stop mopping. The closer your tile matches that color, the longer your floor will look clean, and the more subtley harmonious your flooring will seem with your house. A tile that doesn't match the dirt but still harmonizes with that color will also work well.

Now, not to diminish your agony or the seriousness of this choice, but:
Once it's on the ground, a neutral or neutral-ish tile will fade into the background like the mat on artwork. With your gorgeous cabintry and dark, dramatic granite, no one will be looking at your floors - so you have wide lattitude. Get a tile you can live with up close, but one that looks great from a casual-glance-distance, because that's where most of your views will occur.

For your backsplash, I'd personally want to do something more interesting, and not worry about 'matching' your floors at all. Unless you want to do the little diamond inserts - in which case it might be cool to have the flooring inserts match your backsplash and countertops.

Thanks Sweeby, it never occurred to me to do a "dirt match" check. I'll definitely do that...and the softball dirt DH and the kids drag in in the spring! You should see our FR carpet :-( One of the reasons carpet is going away!

As to the backsplash...do you think a blue or gray would be off base with my cabinets? Or do you suggest something else?

DH & I are going tile shopping tomorrow and yes, I do have a door sample that I bought just for this type of thing! I knew I was going to need more than a "chip" that my KD had for me!

Anyone else have any opinions?

I don't have any great suggestions here for you, but if you and your husband are both grey & blue people, then, do not let the KD steer you to any orange or really warm beiges. You will enjoy your new space much more if you stick to the cooler tones you both like. I cannot decorate with blue, and I NEED warm tones in my rooms, so have no suggestions specifically. Go into a nice tile store where they have a decorator or someone who has color sensibility. Tell them just what you've told us, that you are blue and grey people but don't want to go too far in that direction either and see if they can recommend something for you. Also, if you have time this weekend, go into some of the high end model homes in your area and see if they have some kitchens in similar cabinet colors to yours. Maybe you can get a tile name that would work in your home?

Red

Thanks for the advice Red. We're heading out to a large tile store today (Flooring America). As to the model home route, most of the developments in our area are high-end, but they don't have or man model homes routinely...you have to make an appointment...the population density & foot traffic out here is too low for them to man the homes full time. But, I will keep my eye out...

I agree that the Dal tile will work. I think a greyish beige is a good crossover and very doable.

Red also has a good point. Who cares if blue is a "bad" color for kitchens? If you guys like it, that that's what will make your heart leap when you walk in your kitchen. If you go by someone else's rules, you won't be happy. (Yes, I have a blue kitchen!) Don't let that KD get to you. ;-)

So, that said, I also think that the cabs and black granite should be easy enough to work with. The real question is...what do you want from your backsplash? Mine is the jewel of the room, the pivot point for all other design choices. Are you looking for the signature surface or just something to gently complement everything else?

What have you seen that you like? (I assume you're familiar with the finished kitchens blog.) What speaks to you there? Contemporary mosaic? Or maybe a traditional subway look? Lots of color? Little color? What is your budget constraint? (My tile was very expensive but we only needed a bit of it to do the job.)

You should go with the blue, but heck, there's a lot of blue out there. Looking at the Ann Sacks website, they must have a hundred shades of blue, each more beautiful than the last. Oh such fun!

I think that whatever you decide, using some of it to accent the floor would be wonderful. I love the square dot in the Dal photo.

Well, we're back from tile shopping and I think we may have found our tile for both the backsplash and the floor. The combination is remarkably similar to what I originally posted in my Kitchen Forum post on the same subject (I posted here b/c I wanted to here from the "decorating people") See the link below and the "Tue, Oct 23, 07 at 13:12" post for the floor....

The floor tile is a darker blue-gray with a few splashes of orange that complement my door color perfectly...the orange in the tile "pops" but since there isn't a lot of it it's more of an accent than an overwhelmingly orangey color.

The backsplash is a creamier color with some very light orange highlights (I don't know how else to describe it!) We haven't, though, picked out any detailing for it yet...I don't know what I want...well I do, but I'm afraid it will blow the labor cost out of the water! I like the black galaxy granite dots and I think I'd really like to put those in the backsplash, but I was told that would significantly raise the labor cost...all the extra cuts and more careful laying of tile, I guess... If you look at the same post I mentioned before, you'll see the dots. But, rather than 6x6 tiles I would probably do 4x4 with dots every 3 or 4 tiles. We will have about 20 linear feet of backsplash + the cooktop to vent area to tile, so it's not a small area.

Any thoughts or ideas about the backsplash?

They didn't have any decent size samples of the 2 tiles so they're ordering samples for us on Monday and they should be in by the end of the week. When I get them, I will take a pic with our door and the Back Galaxy and post it here for more opinions, comments, thoughts.... Nothing is set in stone yet ;-)

++++++++++

Speaking of Black Galaxy granite, if we stick to our choices it looks like the Black Galaxy will look better than the Diamond Black (our first choice). The Diamond has silver speckles while the Galaxy has coppery speckles.

++++++++++

Amysrq: Our "bling" is our cabinetry so I want the backsplash to "gently complement everything else". That doesn't mean I want it to fade into the background and not be noticed at all, but I don't intend for it to be "center stage".

Yes, I've checked out the FKB and the Finished Backsplashes Slideshow, but nothing jumped out at me....some I just didn't like..like mosaics. I don't like the look of all those 1x1 tiles--they look too busy and, in many cases, have too much color.

Our budget is mid-range especially since our cabinets are costing more than we had planned...cherry wood + a glaze + some custom cabs + glass (2 cabinets w/glass doors + shelves)...definitely our "bling"!

Here is a link that might be useful: Opinions Needed (please!) Cabinet + Backsplash + Floor Tile