I am DROOLING over those tiles.

This is might sound ridiculous but depending on how much lighting windows and wall space you have in the kitchen, could you get away with a dark color? I went with a dark mushroom color in our bathroom with a granite similar to yours. I think it was called Thundersomething... I can't remember. Anyway its pretty dramatic (it looks greener in the picture than it is - but it brings out a lot of the dark movement in the granite).

Otherwise I've been loving Westhighland White SW 7566 lately - it's a very pretty neutral warm white that would go beautifully with your crispy white trim.

Pics when you're done!

Wow! your granite does look and sound like ours. That looks great!

DH just picked SW Wheatgrass or Edgy Gold. I looked at them and thought No. Way. But looking at everything together...it could work. We have fairly bold colors throughout the house, but since I'm not so sure about this, I'd lean lighter (Wheatgrass). He thinks darker would be better. I've been worried about the coolness of the granite and the warmness of the cabinets, but this appears that it would highlight the right things in the granite to make it work well...at least with the sample piece we've got.

He's also leaning toward the other tile choice, but surprisingly, I think this would work with either.

Here is a link that might be useful: Edgy Gold and family

I have a small house that has many windows. I wanted all the rooms to be the same color but I have a variety of tiles, rugs and other potential color clashes but I found the perfect color Clay Bisque. It is not any color. It is the color of very light unfired clay. It is not white. It is very easy on the eyes. I think it would work well in a museum because it disappears behind the paintings. It is a very warm, muted color that you see on European white washed stucco.
In dark areas it can be a bit gray but even then it is an interesting contrast

That granite is lovely piece of natural beauty. It will look fabulous with your cherry cabinets. I could see any of the lighter colors on the wall. The dark colors will look dramatic but do think about if you will tire of it soon.One thing that struck me is on my monitor, the backsplash tile reads more cool tones than your cabinets/granite. It might be different in person but the green in the tile is not really showing up. But, then again, I am real newbie at this so take it for what's its worth-0.001 cents.

The tile looks lilac to me. Are you trying to pull the blue from the granite?

I wouldn't use either of those gold paints. To be honest, gold with cherry feels outdated Tuscan to me. The cherry will get much darker, so I'd let that be the dark, warm element in the room.

The tile looks silver to me. So I guess I could see where there is a lilac "tone" to some too.

I love surprising color... :)

This post was edited by terri_pacnw on Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 21:12

I just stumbled on this again in my Pinterest board - not quite what you've got going on but again, kind of moody and dramatic. Like PP said you might get tired of it. I find in that bathroom that the dark color makes the walls kind of fall away into the background. The great thing about paint is if you don't like it, you can change it!

ETA: Heavily leaning towards Sea Salt.

I did get the Snowbound for the ceiling and trim. I'm thinking this morning about painting it something fairly neutral-ish and knowing that we'll ultimately probably repaint. I'm leaning towards SW Ancient Marble or Sea Salt, (probably one of those) or something in one of the grays at that 'level' Aloof Gray, Conservative Gray, Sedate Gray. I'm thinking about painting in one of those 'neutral-ish' colors just so that there's something on the walls before the cabinets go in.

Is that 'fair'? Knowing that's not DH's thing? (neutral)

I think I make a pretty good argument for it in that we can get all the elements in place and then make a decision if/how we want to spice it up. I just can't stomach putting the new cabinets into an unpainted/patchwork space. Particularly with as laggy as everything has been, I have no idea when we'd have time to paint on our own (these two teachers will head back to school right after appliances go in) or have the funds for someone to paint.

I think in the end we'll end up with a dark and/or bold color. I put samples of Wheatgrass and Edgy Gold up and was okay with them. The Edgy Gold was so deep though, I tried another sample at 75%. Saw no difference. And as much as I liked them (and sort of fought for something between the two for a smidge of time) I decided that while I could see them with the sample of granite we have, I couldn't see them with OUR slab. I remember too much taupe in our slab to see that much of a yellow/gold working.

This post was edited by cal_quail on Tue, Jul 22, 14 at 11:16

On my monitor, the tile is nice but not working with the granite.

I think you are right to look to the grey for the paint. That gold was not working. Sounding like the taupe you are talking about in your granite might be the right direction -- it might be a little grey and a little beige (call it gold if it make DH feel better -- but you might want to get the cabinets and counter in before committing to the splash.

I like the slight blue to the sea salt. I think that would pick up the swirls going through your stone. And it's the "least" neutral of your two choices. The marble will be a good greige though. But I am a girl who likes color. ;)

Definitely not committing to splash for a while. Fall? My hope is to install it either around Thanksgiving or Christmas.

One of my reasons for picking Sea Salt over Ancient Marble (or something else) is to see if the blue-ish ness works. I think that will help decide if Frost will work. And if not, then we'll likely go with the other tile (or some other tile).

Frost is a funny tile. If I just look at the tile it looks lavendar/light blue. And when I've seen it with light grout, that's what it looks like. But I've seen it a few times (in person and online) with grout that's the color of the clay and it's a totally different animal. I was initially against it. Then I fell in love with it, just as DH had moved on to something else. I think living in the kitchen a while will help.

I do think it's possible with the dark grout, the frost may be too busy with the granite too. Again, we'll wait.

As the light has changed this morning, I also ruled out Ancient Marble as too...something. Khaki? It looked too much like one of the old paint colors that's on the walls under where some cabinets had been. No bueno.

I took a screen shot of the installed Frost pic from the Heath site.

Sea salt..sea salt..sea salt...

This is the other potential tile combo. It's busy in a different way. And I'd think if we went this way, we'd want greige walls. And once again, I have a hard time seeing the gold working.

Sea Salt is a popular bathroom color. I tried it in my bath with my caffee stained cherry vanity and cream/taupe/gray granite. I immediately thought "toothpaste". It and all of the light blue-greens took on a minty-fresh tone. I think one of the tricks to making it not look minty is to use lots of white in cabinetry and moldings and have large windows. In other words, small spaces, not entire floor to ceiling walls.

So I ended up going more blue. My goal was to try to go as gray as possible without being totally colorless. I stopped at BM Silver Mist, which reads blue most of the time. I like when it reads grayer though, so I could have gone more gray but had too many paint samples on the wall and had to commit.

Anyway, counters first, then let your cabinets darken for a few months before chosing backsplash and paint so you can see the intensity/depth of color you'd like.

Hmmm, toothpaste doesn't sound good. I know it's one where the light definitely matters. Maybe I should go even more neutral than that in this round.

This is what I don't want my cabinets being installed over.

There will not be upper cabinets on either of these masonry walls.

Drywall patching to come, but...

You can see the outline of the fridge etc. The old cabinets came down lower than the new ones (15-16" from counter before, now 18") AND there was previously a 4"-ish laminate backsplash which won't be there. So there's lots of ick that will show if I don't paint anything at all. I've lived with:
--old end panel taken down when we first moved in 14 years ago because our fridge was wider than opening, could see ick down the side
--old fluorescent fixture taken down 13 years ago, white patch painted around fix, never painted the ceiling
--old top cab taken off the top of the fridge area 5 years ago when we got a new fridge that was taller, holes, multi-color etc. showed

I don't want to live like that for a second with the new cabinets if I can avoid it. Even if it means painting twice. Because I know I'm very good at learning to look past things.

I just got word no one is coming today. :( A down, dead day. I think I'll go bother appliance people. My last day this week to get out of the house as DH will be out of town so I'm on home-duty.

Paint color thoughts of the day:
SW Rice Paddy or Restoration Ivory or something in between.

Here's a living room where Rice Paddy looks gold-er.
https://www.houzz.com/photos/living-southern-beach-style-sunroom-charleston-phvw-vp~3485065-Southern-beach-style-family-room-charleston

And the easy-click link is to a room where it's more (too) green.

Here is a link that might be useful: [maybe a little too bright and a little too green[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/palmer-point-road-residence-2-living-room-3-transitional-living-room-minneapolis-phvw-vp~1329918)

I actually prefer the color showing in the clickable. ;)

But, isn't your swirls more blue than yellow and green?

I think there's a little too much yellow in that. Before we remodeled our kitchen, we painted our kitchen and attached DR BM Georgian Green. It's kind of olive, but it's quite bright in our north facing PNW home without going into chartreuse. It looks nice with the red of our cherry cabs. I don't know what the equivalent would be in SW.

I was going to say maybe SW Misty or Northstar, but I kept running into Krypton. I'll have floating natural cherry shelves. What do you think?

I had been leaning warmer, hence the Rice Paddy etc. And every time I looked at a gray it looked blah. And I didn't really want blue. We love blue, but couldn't picture a light blue kitchen.

The granite doesn't have much blue. A little plum, taupe, charcoal, mostly lots of different greens. (But ours isn't near as green as the ones I saw at the granite place yesterday. I'm happier with ours.)

Different granite pics:

Look at similar shots with different light:

I mixed some Moderne White and Techno Gray and I like the depth of color. With my unscientific mixing (dumping some sample paint in to a disposable dixie paper bowl) that would get me something close to Sedate Gray (between those two on the card).

I think that tells me Krypton is too deep. I'm going with Misty or Northstar. Those are the only two remaining choices!

And...I have working recessed 4" LEDs and working receptacles in the kitchen!!!!! I can't wait until it gets dark.

This post was edited by cal_quail on Wed, Jul 23, 14 at 18:15