cigi, in our last house the previous owner installed tumbled marble in a mauvish tone which IMO looked awful with the St Cecilia granite. Even though the tile was expensive, I tore them off and left the 4" granite backsplash, patched and painted the rest of the wall. The sink was the only working area as the cooktop was on the island. No problem with water as I used BM Aura, but Pittsburgh Paint's Manor Hall Timeless is just as good with a more flat look and lifetime warranty. I'm pondering the issue for my current redo. In various houses I've had paint, wallpaper, white tile with abalone inserts, plain white tile. Right now I'm weighing white tile with a beautiful insert, just paint with no granite backsplash since this area has only a counter but no cooking/wet functions, paint with granite backsplash, or a simple glass tile backsplash with listello over it a la Chinchette. I'm attaching a photo from Chinchette's beautiful kitchen (hope she doesn't mind seeing hers cited as a great example) which shows the last option. In any event, I echo others' advice to not worry about that decision immediately unless you absolutely love a certain look. Just use good paint. Here is a link that might be useful:

I'm the opposite, i wouldn't like the glare from the B/S. we have a matte tile with a shiny granite...we also have UCL. never thought about the "reflecting" factor before we picked B/S but i would have done the same thing if i considered that factor. i wanted a matte tile to contrast the shininess of the granite and i thought it complimented the granite better than a reflective B/S... HTH

I did a matte/shiny mix, I think because I saw eam's Heath photo when I first started on this forum; and I immediately loved it. I had a 4x4 area behind my sink, visible from our living room, to tile ETA: and I wanted the tile to be the focal point. I was working with a local handmade tile company, so I had their design input about proportion. I think we just did 70 matte/ 30 shiny though. My husband laid our tile and you get it random by not using a formula. I'm hoping another poster, enzaenza, chimes in here because I think she had a professional lay her matte/shiny Fireclay tile. Heath Tile, Fireclay or my company, Mercury Mosaics, probably all show examples on their sites.

My counters are leathered finish and I plan on doing glossy for a backsplash. Initially, there was a tile I loved with a lot of texture in a honed finish....then I thought about cleaning it and decided glossy would be a better way to go.