Of the two, definitely crema marfil. Limestone can be less consistent color wise. Of all the tile in all the world these are the two you're sure about?

Here are your materials

Consider changing the paint color. Then think about glazed ceramic tiles. These are Fireclay tile glazed thin brick in Cotton, Alcatraz, and Vintage Blue.

I think your paint color needs to change. You have a very green-based paint and your cabinet and counter both have very red-based tones (with the brown sparkles in the granite and the undertones in the wood). I think it clashes.

Of the 2, I'd do the crema marfil but to be honest I'm not in love.

if the cabinets and granite are decided upon, I'd use the gray tones in counter for paint and backsplash.......it'll cool down the red birch. A simple tile...and a slightly warmer gray for wall paint, keeping it quite light. Of the two you show, I'd take the 2nd.....if you like it, that's what counts.

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the feedback. Paint color...have to think about that since our house is all open concept and the kitchen would be hard to paint separate from the other living areas. Hmmm...back to thinking about tile.

Is your wall textured? My concern is that your countertops are higly patterned, your cabinets have a pattern (the wood grain) & the back splash is patterned. The 1st one is more subtle but I think you'd be better off with a solid backsplash.

Your paint color is perfect. It is the complement to the cabinet color. For those that don't know about complements, a complement is the color that is opposite on the color wheel and has been a tried and true method of decorating for eons. I use complements all the time in my drawings.

I personally prefer the crema marfil but just be sure it isn't too pinky beige when you order because different lots can come in differently. Ask me how I found that out.

The wall color is ok for the cabinet color but it looks awful with the stone. Assuming the stone and cabs are ordered, it's much easier to paint the walls. If you're open to choosing another stone, you might consider sapphire green granite with a glazed tile like the one below in Willow.

As romy mentioned the problem is the size of patterns. The first tile selection has the same type and size of pattern as the cabinets which is not going to work well together. The second tile selection has a smaller pattern but is the same size as the counter which won't work. If you want interest you could do a textured plain tile such as eam44 is suggesting but I would just do a plain tile. For me, your counter is the star and that is what I would play up.

Cabinets ordered. Granite can still be changed but we would prefer not to. I don't want to repaint (do I sound like a petulant child?).

Thank you, cpartist - the color wheel explains why the green paint appeals to me. We had the same paint/cabinet combo in our last house and it was beautiful. Granite looks good with the cabinets (a cabinet/granite matching website pairs them). The cool blue tones in the paint work well with the blue in the granite.

Tile is the problem child: After seeing dizzying backsplash/granite combos, we want monotone, but not totally, some texture is OK. Looking for coolish tones. The appeal of the crema marfil is that it isn't pink or yellow - more cream which works with the lightest color tones in the granite, just bordering on warm. Other than the veining, it's very consistent. These are samples of the current lot available from the supplier.

But I'm not 100% sold, therefore my question.

eam44 - Thank you, I like the texture of the fireclay but its size is more of a contemporary look to me. I did get some ideas from the website but need a more affordable option.

Thanks all. Will keep shopping (DH will be thrilled - NOT!).

I like the first pic.

I think if you get a plain cream or white BS it will separate the slightly-clashing wall color from countertop. The cabinets look great with the wall color and a white or cream BS would, too. If you can change the granite, maybe a more earth-tone variety would look great with everything else you have chosen.

Besides a solid color BS would be best with your granite and wood grain cabinets as someone else pointed out - enough colors and pattern going on. You can always paint walls later, too at some point in the future - so I would not choose finishes to match the current wall color, which could change.

I do not like either patterned BS tile with your wall color or with the countertop.

Good call on the Fireclay brick being contemporary. I've always thought of it as a rustic look, but I can see it now in some funky urban kitchen. But with your raised panel cabinets, I would go traditional. I don't like either of the stone tiles. The blue in the granite should be accentuated imo. I'd use a blue glass or ceramic subway tile. Can you commit to a blue kitchen? If not, I'd choose another granite.

I would take a step back for a second. I have been a GW member for seven years. I can't tell you how many of us did not think about the backsplash while picking the granite. As a result, backslashes in many cases were ripped out and done over.

I am not a fan of the tiles that you have chosen. They don't relate to the granite IMHO. Also, they are dated. Just mentioning this, but not a reason why you shouldn't get them.

My question to you is, what is your favorite? If you want to go with the tiles, I would say choose a different granite that will relate to the creamy tones in the tile.

If you want to keep the granite, it will be a challenge as the granite is a tight pattern and reads blue and reddish/brown.

Another thing to consider is the floor. What are you doing there?

Do you have an inspiration picture what you are trying to achieve?

Fireclay has beautiful glass tiles! I have only looked at their ceramic line in the past. This is called Dusty Olive and is described as light and dark blue-gray, though I see blue green and the name implies green. It comes in 2 x 6 and 2 x 8, which might be a nice size to consider. Available in matte too, but I'm not sure about matte glass for a kitchen. But I like the variation, much like a crackle tile. That's also an option.

Encore has several crackles with a touch of blue. Maybe something like Riviera.

http://encoreceramics.com/crackles/

Blues that are grayed down won't overpower your kitchen with color.

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Thank you for the comments and suggestions. mayflowers, I like the variation you show and have that and crackle in my brain for a bit of texture. No inspiration picture to show, sorry. I agree that the cream isn't exactly the right tone for the granite - it's ok but not great. The limestone, which DH has now ruled out, is a brighter background that goes better with the granite.

The floor is staying (came with the house and runs throughout) and goes reasonably well with the cabinets. It goes very well with the granite, one reason why we changed our mind from a more earth-toned granite to the Sapphire Blue. SB was the most small grained we found that wasn't very dark, very light, earth-toned, beyond our budget and was available.

We bought our house a year ago and are not sure we will stay more than 3 to 5 years. Sadly, the house needs a new kitchen. We don't want to spend so much that it hurts financially to leave. If we knew we'd be here long-term, the budget wouldn't be such an issue.

In retrospect, I wish we'd chosen ALL the materials first but then the project would never be happening. As it is, it's already been a one-year project. DH wants me to be like the wife on Flip or Flop - boom, boom, boom, all done.

My poor DH - I have a trip planned for tomorrow to shop with a more open mind to other options.

Thanks again.

How much wall space is in your kitchen - with regard to the paint color?

The kitchen is a modified galley style. The paint in the kitchen is: 1) Behind the refrigerator which won't show (using refrigerator panels for a built in look; 2) Above the cabinets (36") up to the ceiling - 9 foot ceilings; 3) To the right of the backsplash on the sink side - about 7" of wall until the wall turns a corner; 4) On the right and left sides of the countertop on the other side, which runs between two walls.

The kitchen opens into a dining area on one side, into the great room on the other side.

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it will separate the slightly-clashing wall color from countertop.

It doesn't clash. Try Jeffrey Court Tiles.

As an aside, Jeffery Court ceramic tiles are available at HD for a very reasonable cost. They offer many colors in store and more online. If you order online and don't like them, there is no restocking charge. They have a slight variation of color. The MSI line is also available there and the tiles are almost the same but without the variation of color. I was very surprised at the cost, being less than 10.00 per SQFT.

Do you see much of the blue in the granite inside your kitchen? We looked at Peacock Verde for a bathroom, which was beautiful in the stone yard, but all the green disappeared in our windowless bath. It may not be worth getting that blue granite if it's reading brown/black like in your first photo.

I like the limestone best :) this may be one of those questions you need to step back and think about what you and your family likes, different people have such different tastes.

The paint color might not be a perfect choice with the granite, but I don't think it looks terrible with it. Especially since once the granite is installed, I think it it will probably just read dark grey or black being a flat horizontal surface.

Here's a mock up of your two tiles. This doesn't really address the swirl patterns in the tile which someone mentioned might be busy because the mockup is not to scale.

I put the wood color twice to be like the base cabs and uppers. Paint at the top and a just a sliver of the granite since that's more how you see it.

As far as color goes, of the two choices, I like the left one better. But I still think you can find something that ties everything together. The limestone, on right, looks way too pinky to me. It is really difficult to judge though since we are not seeing in person.

Just for fun, here it is with the more rich color wood and granite that someone posted above.

I happened to have saved a kitchen and it was near your mockup picture in my photos. I thought hmm, I wonder what that backsplash would look like with your finishes.

Ehhhh, not loving it, but I like that it seems to have some of the subtle grey blue in the counter and the grey green color of your paint mixed.

eam44, sapphire green is not available from either granite yard. The hex tile is very pretty but darker than I'm prepared to go. I would hope that the next owner, if there is one, would repaint - rather than rip out!!

rebunky, thanks for the mockups - was that the gray posted earlier by eam44? or a swatch from the Benjamin Moore site, which makes the paint look more gray?

cp and New Freedom - will look at the Jeffrey Court tiles.

mayflowers, the blue isn't as obvious as it could be. One of the places we'll be at tomorrow has the Encore tiles you suggested. Will definitely take a good look at those.

DC - thank you but we have decided against it.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. We can see now that the two tiles in the original post aren't right. In fact, dragged poor DH out this afternoon to a couple of places that were open and, with a more open mind, can see that there are better color tones for our materials - including the questionable, but well loved, paint :) . Thanks for the direction.

Have you seen Lisa_A's kitchen reveal? The colors are similar to yours, but it's far more harmonious. The difference is her counter was more black than blue, and her backsplash was similar to your wall color rather than tossing in another color.

Her counter is honed steel grey granite. You could go with something similar and have your backsplash match your paint, and voila. Harmony.

I think right now, there are too many colors -- reddish wood, blue counters, green walls, and white backsplash.

Just curious.. what did you decide? I'm thinking of the crema for my backsplash. I was a bit surprised someone said it was "outdated". What is considered "in" for a bs now? Thanks!

We ended up with a limestone called Perle Blanc which is quarried by a company called World Wide Stone Corporation in Scottsdale, AZ. They quarry just a few materials and cut it into large formats and over 25 mosaic meshmounts that are perfect for backsplashes. We used the running brick pattern. It was the great choice as it perfectly matched the color tones in the granite and had a bit of rust color in some pieces which picked up the color tones of the Natural Red Birch cabinets. Here's a link but the pictures don't do it justice.

https://durangostone.com/product/perle-blanc/

https://durangostone.com/product/running-brick/

The link says it's gray/white but there's some taupe and beige. Hard to describe. But if you look at Sapphire Blue (also called English Brown) granite, you'll see the taupe brown tones. That's what it matches with.

The backsplash was the most agonizing choice in the whole kitchen remodel. I appreciated the feedback from the posters and, while many of the suggestions weren't MY taste, they did prompt me to keep looking until I found something about which I was 100% confident. Obviously, by posting for advice, it meant that I hadn't found what really satisfied me.

Use what you like and what makes you happy. Good luck.