Hi a2gemini, Holy cow--your first counter actually avalanched on the way to your house?! Egads, that must have been an awful feeling. I'm glad that you had a great job after that! I live in northern Massachusetts. From all of my reading of GW, I should have known better than to go with the stone guys that we ended up with. It was one of the areas of the project where I got too tired of wrangling with other members of the family and took the path of least resistance. (And while I don't normally take that path, at the time, I was too exhausted to argue that we should look for another estimate/opinion on which stone contractor to go with. As my brother says "sometimes my life is just a lesson to others of what *not* to do!") --Lee

Thank you so much for the additional input! malabacat, I agree that Fireclay has gorgeous tiles! We thought about using their small glass ones, but my husband thought he might have trouble adjusting to the irregularity of their shape. I will look again at the options. lukkiirish, those are some great ideas! I think I am looking for something serene. I especially like images 1, 3 and 6. Do you happen to remember where you found those? So pretty! :-) lij48, do you think a hint of green in the backsplash would be okay if my island and glass knobs are both soft turquoise? Would the green make sense or feel random without the three colors to tie together. I am trying to figure out if I can try a different color (eg. green) or if I am tied to white, turquoise or gray since those colors already exist in the kitchen. Again, I really appreciate all of this! Here is a close-up shot of the existing backsplash to give a better view. All best, Sara

I typically do not tile end walls but in your case I would. because of the visual from left and right of the door. It appears that the countertop sits flush with the door casing so the tile should just go from under the wall cabinet to the door casing. He will need to pull the switch forward to set flush on tile and finish off the top edge with either a metal trim or pencil tile.

That backsplash that combines both cabinet colors will not age well. I have 2 tone and my backsplash is white like my uppers. I didn't want to create another stripe by using a pattern BS. In my case, the dark uppers ground a pretty large space, yet the couple of white cabinets almost disappear and let the black windows shine. You are not showing your layout or the size of your kitchen. I like more than 1 cabinet color when the space is large...small kitchens have a cohesive feel with 1 color, and then maybe a pattern splash.