Ok, I came back and saw I cross posted with the mock-up and I agree - if it turns out that dramatic - you really gotta love it! I love the second mock-up with the vertical glass mosaic, but that doesn't sound like what you are going for even though it is beautiful. You have been given great ideas - and you are right. THere is no hurry, the kitchen looks great now and take your time to find what you will like looking at for years and years. I was going mad trying to pick a backsplash and then I finally - hello?! - figured out I really don't have to choose until everything is in and I can really "see" it. Turns out I stumbled across the perfect backsplash after I gave up looking! But I just got lucky. THat space really is a wonderful opportunity to do something very personal and uniquely yours. Have fun!

I love black appliances and I did have a mix of SS and black for about 3 weeks and did not mind it at all. In fact, I kind of liked it. My stainless steel solid surface electric cooktop is, of course, black and the sides of stainless fridge are black, my built-in microwave was black. The dishwasher was black. Dishwasher went out during our upgrade of countertop and backsplash, so that was easy to move to stainless and as fate would have it, three weeks after the upgrade was complete, the microwave went out and we replaced it with stainless and I had no aversion to going to a mix for the long haul, but as it worked out it was a short haul. Personally, I prefer black over stainless just as I like other surfaces better than granite, but sometimes the man writing the check gets to pick some of the stuff. I also did not like the black sink when I had it in another house in another life, and in this house even with the black appliances, we immediately changed to a stainless sink (which we had done in the former house) as well. I think black and stainless are a good mix and match whereas some colors just do not do that well. Red, I love that Halcyon color and it will give your beautiful red kitchen a new look. (You have such great taste and that tile is to die for). I loved my red kitchen too but now I am loving my dry sage kitchen just as well. I am sure one day I will tire of that and perhaps, if and when that happens, I can find a pretty wheat color that I will fall in love with.

I have glass doors on the cabinets on each side of my stove. I used frosted glass though, and it is even worse than clear glass about showing grease spots. I have no trouble at all keeping the doors clean. I have a really good hood though, so that probably makes a difference. As long as you have a strong hood that pulls out the smoke and grease, you should have no trouble at all with the glass staying clean.

I think they are lovely. If you want to compare, Restoration Hardware has milk glass pendants that are quite nice and come in different shapes.