I am one who pays a lot of attention to the shapes we create in kitchen design, and I don't like layers upon layers of them. Some people don't even notice such things. But I don't really know the answer to your question. I'd have to see it to decide.

I looked for some examples of floor and BS diamond together and mainly found it used as over-the-range murals. My thoughts are that if the floor tile has a lot of variation that creates distinct diamonds, I'd avoid the diamond on the backsplash. But in this example, the floor blends almost to a solid. I can tolerate this better than the second example. But your kitchen is a galley, so less floor and repeating pattern will show. Do you have photos of the tiles?

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20 inch on the diag for the floor , with busy granite......I think I'd do traditional subway with a neutral color from the granite. Your floor will probably look like a solid area with large size squares -unless they are black and white or something. Any smallish mosaic wouldn't work with busy granite, and 4-6 inch squares on the diag to"match" the floor just doesn't seem necessary and actually might not work with busy granite. The traditional subway layout will have a timelessness...works with the various things.....keep it straightforward,-----don't have to try so hard in a galley.

A2gemini did diagonal with busy quartz. Maybe it helps that she did a row of squares first. All squares are an option as well as subway. They're considered traditional, but so are diamonds. I'd avoid travertine like in the photos I posted--way too busy with a stone counter.

If you like the row of squares but not the accent mosaic, there's lots of subtle ways to divide the squares from the diagonals.

I put diagonal tiles on the kitchen floor and backsplash. I love it. I say do what you like since you have to live with it and look at it everyday. You would hate to have lingering regret and wonder "what if" you had gone with your gut. Plus, if you eventually sell, the new owners will likely find some fault with what you end up doing and probably change it up anyway.

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I think this works in Tara's example because her BS reads almost as a solid from a distance since the tiles are very small.

Exactly - I had to zoom in to even see that the backsplash was on the diagonal (very nice by the way :-) )

Thank you all for your comments and for sharing pictures. We will have to think long and hard with this. In the end, it will probably come down to what we can find that we like and the sizes available. I like the idea of starting with a straight tile to break it up if we want to do diagonal.

We went out again today and found a travertine that we really liked - only available in 3 x 6 in the honed finish that we like. (So subway might be in our future.) It's very light - Baja Cream is what it's called and I'd have to see how much variation there is to determine if it would be a good fit with the countertop. I see what you're saying, mayflowers, about travertine but think a very light might work.

Thanks again.