I would think any marble or tile with some white in it would work and look nice. A mosaic with some white for the floor would also work, but I wouldn't use too deep a grout with the subways as you wouldn't want the grid pattern too prominent. You can even use any color solid flooring as long as you pick up that color in a liner or border somewhere else. I saw a gorgeous medium grayed brown marble the other day with some white veining in it. Would be stunning with an espresso vanity and a light counter. I also love the larger scaled subway tile for a more modern look, and those with a bevel for interest.

Blue I'm going to print this and put it on the door of my house. People walk in after hearing "mosaic marble rug...crocodile tile...stainless steel and granite...26 different knobs in the kitchen...and hand done plaster" and I can see them bracing themselfs for horror. (I'll cut out the part about your dissent on my vote though :oP You might give my GC ideas) heh heh Red, I'm curious...have you laid out a herringbone with those tiles. That would be fun and still carry over the traditional.... I've made quilts in the tumbling block (similar to the raking stretcher run you like) so I am also infusing my opinion of that pattern on this question. I like the tumbling blocks on a quilt, it's fun and quirky, and on a huge surface (big square) it looks great. I don't however like it on a pillow unless done in tiny pieces because you don't really get the feel of the tumble without a large rectangular expanse of the pattern. I see the same issue with your walls. If you had an open wall or were tiling up to a ceiling with a glass hood, you could get the feel of the pattern more because it would be easier for your eye to take it in. But you know...I bet either way you go...it's going to be gorgeous. THe tile is lovely, and your kitchen is yummy. You make me want to do a white kitchen now :oP ANd I'm running out of kitchens to do!!

I think this is what you are saying. Your niches are not like the original image but they are lined up in the middle of a row of tiles. But within that row, one niche is 3/8" higher than the other, like this: It would bug the heck out of me that they didn't start on a full tile in the first place, but that's usually how it ends up most of the time, like A or B. On top of that there is the3/8" height difference. I would have to compensate for this at the very least but using grout that matched the tile so I wasn't visually measuring that all the time. However, I was trained to differentiate between 0.5 of a mm for my job at one point, so 3/8" is huge to me visually. Not so with many people. Why do you know about it? Did you notice it yourself? If you did I think you have to have him change it. But if not, use grout that minimizes it.

Thanks everyone! Here are a couple of pics from this morning in the daylight with no lights on. As far as hiring an installer, I really wanted to. For the sake of time and end result. But we got a few quotes from well reputed installers and their prices were well above what we were able to pay. I’m not saying they were unreasonable now knowing how much work went into this, but it was just a lot right now. So we went in armed with research on how to do handmade tiling and a willingness to be patient. Overall I think we did a good job. There are few spots that we are calling “character”. :) And despite measuring, measuring again, dry layouts, etc. we still ended up with a sliver near the ceiling that’s narrower than I’d like. But we may end up covering it with molding when all said and done. So no I don’t regret doing it ourselves knowing that we saved quite a bit of money and I’m satisfied with the result.