Depends on your budget - carrara tiles might be pretty in there too. Are you putting a hood over the stove?

My budget is between $100-$200. I found some 4x4 travertine tiles at Home Depot for $4 sq/ft. I'll look into carrara tiles. Yes, I mentioned the range hood in my post.

I looked at the carrara and that might be a little too marbly for my taste. I wonder if the carrara 3/4" trim would match a tumbled travertine. Seems more rigid and less prone to breaking.

Ahh sorry I missed that. Are you sold on natural stone? Personally I'm weird about 4x4s in the kitchen - they look so....bathroomy? That's just my own taste though. The Tile Shop sells rectangular travertine tile for pretty cheap. And if you ask nice or have a friend who is a contractor, you can get up to 30% off. Otherwise, I think white subway tile with dark grout would be pretty in there too, with your dark counters and white cabinets.

I agree that it might be a little bathroomy, but I think this style looks pretty nice:

http://st.houzz.com/simgs/53a1605a0f8072a6_4-0673/traditional-kitchen.jpg

I did see some photos with rectangular travertine, but I haven't been able to find that as cheap as the 4x4. I'll see what I can come up with. A brick-like layout might look nice.

Agree with Swentastic - white subways with dark grout would go well with your cabs & countertop! That would allow you to use almost any color as paint/accent.

I don't know...it looks so crisp and sleek the way it is right now! Are you sure you need anything? The range already has a backsplash...I suppose the sink might need a little protection.

Love the green. Hope it's staying. :)

Yes, the green is staying. There is a chair rail around the entire room and below that I've got a beige (BM Bleeker Beige and the green is BM Fernwood Green). It was all an awful glossy white before. I would like to add something to at least protect the walls from water and oil. I hadn't thought of white with dark grout. I'll look up some photos. Are you suggesting 3x6 glossy white subway tiles with matching bullnose around the perimeter? Another question I have is where the tiles should go? Do I need to enclose the entire space or just come up 5 inches from the counter? Do I need to create a backsplash all the way up from the range to the hood? How high should I go on the wall to the left of the range?

I appreciate the input regarding the travertine. Maybe it wouldn't fit the style. I'm going for a somewhat modern look. The range hood looks like this:

[Modern Kitchen Hoods And Vents[(https://www.houzz.com/products/modern-range-hoods-and-vents-prbr1-br~t_442~s_2105) by South El Monte Kitchen & Bath Fixtures AKDY Home Improvement

Thank you everybody for your input!

This post was edited by Blather on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 22:52

Oh and the floor is an old vinyl sheet made to look like stone or possibly travertine. I'm going to cover that up at some point. I haven't made up my mind about the new flooring yet, so I'm open to suggestions there. I'll likely have to use another vinyl because the floor is too uneven for anything rigid. Black and white checkerboard? Or a dark cherry wood color?

If you're curious what it looked like before, here is a photo I took before I started demolition.

This post was edited by Blather on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 22:36

What about glass tile? Modern and clean.

I considered glass at first, but the options in my price range are a little too colorful. White subway tile with black grout is starting to grow on me. I might just go with that. Now to decide where to put it..

some ideas...

I am planning to do white subway tiles w/ dark grey grout lines.

To decide exactly where I want the tile to be (and not to be) am going to take an 11x17 piece of white paper and draw tiles - actually the grout lines on it.

Then will make a bunch of photocopies and tape them to the wall - trying out different configurations.

I second mdln's pics of a white subway with a contrasting darker grout. I was going to post one of the kitchens she posted.

Yes, the snow white subway tiles with the charcoal grout seems to be the way to go. I like mdln's idea of taping paper to the wall. I might just do that tomorrow.

Great transformation! I like the idea of white subways with dark grout and a black and white checkerboard floor.

I decided to go with white shelves with corbels on the right wall. I think that would offer some nice detail with a little more shelf space. Looks like my local big box store has unpainted wooden corbels and I could just buy a plank of wood with a rounded edge for the shelf. I think I'll bullnose the tile through there as tall as the bottom of the existing cabinet.

Your kitchen is looking great! It reminds me a bit of magsnj's kitchen. Here's the thread below where she was figuring out the backsplash and I wonder if a similar solution might work for you?

I'm not really seeing travertine in your kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen reveal almost completed not staged kitchen-need tile help

A couple of pics.

How about glass? You could put it just behind the range

Beadboard

Just metal sheet behind the range

The breadboard is an interesting idea, but how would you seal that? I ordered 6.5" brushed nickel bar pulls for all the cabinets. I hope they aren't too modern for the style I've got going here. I generally see knobs on white cottage style kitchens.

White subway tiles at HD or Lowe's are cheap, just $.23 each ($2.76 per square foot). I think that back wall would look great tiled to the ceiling, and I don't think you necessarily need anything on the right wall. You might need something on the left wall by the range, though, and it might look unbalanced leaving the right wall bare. If you do the shelves on that wall, line up the bottom of the cabinet with the shelf and tile to the bottom of the shelf.

Thank you for the suggestions anenemity. While I'm tempted to go all the way up on the back wall I'd like to keep some of the green. I'm leaning toward going all the way from the right wall through the left at the height of the bottom of the wall cabinet except behind the range where it'll go up to the bottom of the hood. I'm going to try taping up some paper to visualize it.

As for the shelf just above the tile on the right wall. I wanted to use corbels, but I'd either have to place the shelf first and tile around the corbels or drop the tile to just about 5 inches above the counter. I'm afraid a floating shelf might not be strong enough for plates and ceramic dishes.