Hi Trish,
yes, the birch grout is from TEC. It didn't look beige to me... so funny. it looks like gray. I am including a few close ups of the tile and grout.

As for the color of tile. I think the white or off white would look nice with your cream cabinets, but I think it depends on what else is going on in the room. In my case, I have the granite with cream and gray running through green (no white, whatsoever) - I also have a butcherblock island top - and then I have the stainless appliances. I didn't want there to be too many elements so choosing a tile color that blended with my cabinets was important to me. BUT I can understand the rationale of choosing something that will POP - that is a different way to go (but not what I opted for in my kitchen... the kitchen I pulled out had sea glass tiles set in a herringbone pattern and I liked it but tired of if a little).

oh, btw, the tile I have is walker zanger - gramercy park - bone china 2" x 6" field tile.

Great close ups! I guess I'm considering white since I have white appliances and white trim so there is white elements in the room. Other colors are warmer, yellows, browns and greens. Of course going with white could draw
attention to the appliances and that's not what I would want. Did you consider the Pearl grout or you went right for the birch?

On another note, mamadadapaige, do you happen to recall what stain was used on your hardwood floors? thanks!

hockey,
i think I did consider Pearl (I can't remember now though what it looked like... maybe it was the one that would have provided slightly more contrast?? can't remember).

what sort of overall look are you going for in your kitchen? could you draw off of those other colors (yellows, browns, greens) for you backsplash? maybe it would provide a WOW factor if that is something you'd like. If you went with white subway tiles, that would be a really clean look and you could get a little punch by going with a medium toned grout (maybe tan to pick up on the browns/yellows??)

beachbum,
the stain was purchased through Carlisle. It is called Indian Summer. It didn't come as dark as I would have liked but I learned a lot about staining floors during this process and am happy to pass along what I learned. The floor finisher did three samples for me:

* one coat of stain
* two coats of stain
* one coat of stain on conditioned floors

the one coat on conditioned floors came out closest to the Carlisle Sample I had based my decision on (but still wasn't quite as dark). I think what they do to condition floors is wet them somehow to open up the pores of the wood, this allows the stain to seep in more readily.

I would highly suggest you test the stains on your wood floors before proceeding. I would have been SO disappointed with either just one or two coats of stain. It wasn't anywhere near the Carlisle sample.

They did the samples of my floors before doing the final sanding so it didn't really matter as it all got sanded off.

I have two extra gallons of the Indian Summer stain that I over-purchased (unopened still in box that they shipped it to me). As I paid $60 per gallon, I'd love to recoup so of the cost. Any interest in purchasing it from me? I can ship it to you quite easily if so. If not, no worries.... just me trying to get a little pocket money.