I am no design expert so I am sure others will chime in that have more experience than me. Since you said your floor tile is already busy, and you want to go with a busy skinny brick backsplash, on the wall that has the range and hood, I would only put that skinny brick behind the stove and hood and go straight up to the ceiling. I personally would not do the entire wall with that tile. Y'know that saying "too much of a good thing"? That's what I think of when you say you want to tile the entire wall. The tile looses it's uniqueness (is that such a word?) when it's everywhere. Plus, if your floor is busy, and your countertops will be busy with granite, and your wall is super busy, your eye will be drawn to all these different surfaces and textures. It's not a soothing look. All three textures will be competing with each other. The wall with the sink....does it have a window in it? Are the cabinets on that wall? Again, I would not tile the entire wall, only up to underneath the cabinets (assuming there are some there). I personally would have one texture be the focal point, whether it be the countertops, backsplash or floor. I really love the tile around the fireplace so I personally would choose that as the dominant texture and have the other surfaces more soothing, if that makes sense. When you mention painted crown moulding, I am assuming you mean on the walls and not on the cabinets. I think you would be fine with white above the cabinets since the cabinets do not go up to the ceiling. I have also seen crown moulding on top of tile, should you decide to tile the entire wall. As I said I am sure others will chime in. Good luck!

Bill - can't a tile person do it this way? Can they be set almost touching, grouted WITHOUT filling the pits in the marble?? If the marble is sealed, how would it then be a breeding ground for bacteria? You CAN NOT set tumbled marble that close without culling through alot of stone to get the proper sized ones you want. I'm about to do a wall hanging project where I bought literally three times the entire square footage for just this reason-- to be able to cull through and get the stone I want for it. That's 45 square feet for a 15 square foot project at 7.00 a foot. Tumbled marble varies so much in size that to set it tight like that would end up in misalignment of the tiles pretty quickly, and then the whole thing would end up looking like hell. appears to be mostly contractor types with will intentioned advise but laced with poor opinions of kitchen designers. Actually I'M the one with a poor opinion of MOST kitchen designers. Many of them don't think things through. So long as they can create a piece of eye candy that THEY like, they're happy. Now, NOT ALL of them are like this. I know of several good KD's. But I've also heard more than my share of horror stories about them. I feel that contractors objectives on a backsplash job may be to get in and get out as quickly as possible, and to do at least a good enough to not get called back for rework. If you'd gone through my gallery AT ALL, you'd never make that statement. They may not want to do a project with grouted joints but leaving the aesthetically desirable voids of tumbled travertine/marble unfilled because it would be hard to do and take too long. That's simply ludicrous. If someone's willing to pay for my time, I'm willing to do what they ask, no matter HOW crazy I think it is, so long as it's not detrimental to the installation. There's a project I've posted many times here and at John Bridge's forum of a roman tub, deck, and circular floor that I did years ago-- total about 150 square feet, and it tooke me three work weeks to install because of the way the homeowner wanted it installed. So don't tell me I'm not willing to put in the time. Concerning some earlier questions, the tile are spaced at about 1/16" +/- You've got two courses of the same sized stone together. Try doing an entire backsplash with that small a joint!! and are set in white mastic. This one speaks for itself.

Kitchenchaos -- have you posted photos of your backsplash yet? I would love to see it. Thanks. In the meantime, I'm posting a link to my kitchen photos (ignore the white kitchen -- it's the 'before') in case someone would kindly like to give me some backsplash advice. I can surely use it! Thanks. Here is a link that might be useful: fromflorida's new kitchen in need of backsplash

ngng Your kitchen is beautiful. Next to your dish washer you have a cabinet, we have a 30 inch wall next to that cabinet, which leads into our dining room. my concern was how to wrap the tile around that wall and where should we end, at the counter depth, which is 24 inches. Also, I like your granite, what is the name of it?