Wow laughable, your hood looks absolutely fabulous. It blends so perfectly with your cabinets. It's raw wood right now? I like the light color surrounding the carved insert. Would a creamy white paint for the hood work with your countertops? The carved insert looks lovely & appears to tie the hood to the wood cabinets. Your countertops look great too.

As far as the backsplash, I'd go a plain & simple creamy white. I think you've got just enough going on with the stained insert & your accessories.

I agree. Keep it simple.

I agree with romy and ellendi. It will be awesome.

The hood turned out beautifully! I would keep the BS the same all the way through.

Beautiful hood! It wants to be the star!

Thank you!!!

I mocked up a subway backsplash from Susanandmarkw's kitchen in the FKB. (It came with a complimentary pot filler, LOL.) This one has gray grout. What do you think?

Also, Home Depot has Almond Tile, Biscuit tile and Royal Cream. Originally I was thinking the standard off the shelf white, but we could do cream. Any recommendations on which one? My tile aptitude is very poor. ;-)

Do NOT paint the detail over the hood. Wood will come back and you may regret it...plus it's beautiful with the dark wood accent!

You know that I won't think it's too much, but I like the painted trim around the detail and definitely add the tile edge. Have fun with the kitchen! It's your space, so why the heck not enjoy it?? :)

The hood turned out fantastic! Love it.

I agree that the hood should be the star so I would keep the tile simple. I think a creamy white rather than a white-white would be lovely but I think you could go either way. I just wouldn't go with a cream that's deep enough to get yellow or tan tones. And I think it depends on our surrounding areas and what colors they are. I'm horrible with color so you should probably ignore my advice, lol.

I'm so jealous that your DIY kitchen is moving along so much faster than mine although we have had some progress. Now I see why you haven't been around here much. I bet you're having fun playing in your kitchen.

Love that piece on the hood, and I agree--don't paint it. I used some similar pieces from an old dresser top, in my guest room. They were already painted, so the detail is more difficult to see.

With the open shelf and glass door, I'd keep the backsplash plain and simple. Can't wait to see your finished kitchen.

The hood looks great! I have a two tone kitchen with a hood with an ornate decorative piece and a granite with a lot of movement, so I was very conscious of not overdoing it with the backsplash. We chose a bone stacked subway tile with a framed herringbone accent above the stove. The frame breaks up the lines of the stacked tiles without competing with everything else going on.

Plain and all the same, probably an off white. I know that decorative tiles etc. are tempting, but I think it would really break up your backsplash and distract from the hood. If you really want to, could you get a separate tile design in a frame and prop it up or hang it behind the range?

Hi laughable! I was wondering how you were doing?

The hood turn out beautiful! Tell hubby he did a great job. The clock with the dark wood ties in the carved accent piece and the lighter wood inner circle ties to the cabinets. Perfect. I cannot believe how great everything turned out. You guys must be thrilled.

This is going to be such an inspirational kitchen for people to see what can be done with reclaimed kitchen cabinets. You got them from Craigslist or habitat restore, right?

Paint: I always was leaning towards the sage green hood keeping the wood accent piece not painted. So obviously I say yes to that. But, I do remember that fickle "little miss sample" was getting tempted by that distressed black... Did she decide it was just a fling and go back to her first love? Haha...

Backsplash tile: I love that scroll tile. Trying to remember the kitchen I loved that used that a scroll border with white subways. I think maybe she didn't go all the way to the upper cabinets though. Anyways, I thought it looked so nice.

I do agree that maybe a framed design behind the cooktop might complete with the hood, but Idk, I'd have to see a mockup. Hint hint. I would just love to see you use the scroll somewhere....hmmmm. Let me think on that.

As far as the color, I like as romy described a "creamy" white. It's going to be so nice. I can't wait to see it all come together, french country style.

Love how the hood turned out ))

Your counter appears gray on my monitor, so I'd say white tiles for the backsplash.

Thank you all for such encouraging words! I appreciate all the feedback. We are very happy to have progressed this far. It's a pleasure making meals in here! We got to celebrate our 11 year old's birthday yesterday. It was fun to make her cake in the new kitchen. : )

So. It's definitely simple subway tiles, color to be determined. A
nearly unanimous vote really helps. DH could only find one off-white
color tile at Home Depot yesterday. It's almost an almond color. I'm
not sure what to think of it. There are swirls of both cream and white
in the countertop, so we could go either way with the wall tiles. If we do cream, does that mean that the outlets are all "wrong"? If so, I think I'd rather go with white since DH has enough other projects to do that I wouldn't want to have to have him change all the outlets out. Gah! He needs more resting, not more work.

The swirly tiles might be able to go on the walls of our master bath, so I'm ok with not using them in the kitchen. No worries. : )

What a beautiful, happy family. Compared to the KA, outlet covers, and paper towels, the white tile actually looks off-white/cream to me, so I think it will be perfect, especially with the light veins in the counter top.

I like the white. It gives more contrast and brings out those light veins in the counter. Your family looks so happy and full of laughter. You are well nicknamed. I just wanna jump in and join you all on the couch!

I like the one on the right the whiter one. Your kitchen looks great! It's nice to see other diy kitchens on here, we also are diying our kitchen remodel and I felt like the only one.

Congrats to your 11-year-old daughter and thanks for sharing your happy moments with us. May the best of your today's be the worst of your tomorrow's.

“Another vote for white.

White! Looks great with the counter and nice and bright.

So - you should know I am a rebel. The tile frame on the backsplash could look awesome. Like another suggested, is there a sample you could prop up, so you could see how it looks?

It depends on you. Personally, I do not think it would detract from the hood or look too busy.

Maybe it is just on my iPad screen, but that one on the right you are calling white or off-white, looks very peachy-pink to me. The shot of it flat on counter looks ok, but pictures on the wall is where I see pink undertone.

I think if you put it up closer to the outlet covers, or behind your mixer, which are more pure white, you would really notice it. Is there another plain white tile at HD or lowes you could put next to that for comparison?

Oh and let me add...what a beautiful family!!!

I like the white too. Great pictures of your beautiful family.

Well, that was easy, LOL. White! I think the pink tone must be a screen thing, since it's not reading pink irl. Thank you all for weighing in, and thank you for the kind words about our family. We were able to enjoy a sweet celebration with each other. My momma heart was touched to see all the thought and hard work that the kiddos put into the gifts that they made or got for their sister. I got choked up seeing how much they love each other. I'm so grateful for each and every one of them. And, you all can jump in and join the fun any time. The more the merrier! : ) (I removed the family pics. DH wasn't keen with having them up.)

It would be cool to prop up a sample tiled decorative piece, but I have no such thing. I was talking with one of my daughters and a friend the other day about adding some decorative tile details. The brought up that more grooves might be harder to clean, where a totally subway tiled area would be a cinch to wipe down. I like cinches. If I had to take a scrub brush to a tiled frame behind the cooktop in order to clean out all the grooves, it would not be pleasant.

DIY can be so much fun, and they are some of my favorite kitchens to keep an eye on here. The mega kitchens are wonderful for drooling on, but seeing a kitchen that a family has worked on themselves, leaving their special mark, is inspiring and heartwarming to me. I came across this one one the Finished Kitchen Blog while searching for white subway tiles the other day. It's full of ingenuity. We DIYed our last kitchen as well. It can be seen here. Like Funkycamper said, we DIYers are here quietly cheering each other on. It just takes us a little longer to finish up sometimes. ; ) So, you are not alone diymom. Hopefully you'll share your progress with us!

A hint on the grout. We paid the extra for the non mildewing grout. After 4 years it still looks new, and we have never had to scrub. It cost between 50 and 100% more for the actual material (grout), but is totally worth it for us!
It comes in a nice range of colors, too!