Get the marble, it will look great. I have honed marble with iceberg quartzite. The colors are cooler than yours but if you go with a warmer veined marble it will be perfect.

I thought of blue glass before I even got to the choices part. The glass in the photo looks like it has lines through it? I would like to see a simple one so it doesn't steal the show from the beautiful counters.

I think in the first you are fighting man-made -vs- nature. I like the last one best. I agree, go all natural. Love Christina's example! I see it as compliment not compete.

I'm leaning towards the last one to. Do you think a honed marble will be difficult to keep clean as a backsplash? I'm worried about the food splashes being the stove?

I would not do a marble with fantasy brown. The two will fight one another. I like your glass color but think you need to pick something with no pattern in it.

I wouldn't do the marble either. Your fantasy brown has more movement than Christine222's quartzite. Ditto to a glass with no pattern. I like the 4x12" for your kitchen.

Another one who wouldn't do marble. There's a thread here on FB and sadly a few people picked busy tile and it really competes with the granite.

I think the ribbing in the glass tile is even too much pattern.

Have you done a search for kitchens with Fantasy Brown and marble backsplashes to see if you like the pairing? There are some photos out there, here is one kitchen. Personally, if choosing a glass tile, I'd want a biscuit color. The blue would be too much for me with dark cabinets, not much light at times, and grey blue walls. But I'm guessing you've tried that.

I'm going to throw in another option. My husband is not sold on it. it will take some serious convincing to get him to use it but do you think one of these Lantern style tiles would work. Do you think it would be too much pattern?

These are almost identical in color but the smaller one is a slightly lighter shade.

As mentioned above I have honed marble for my backsplash and no issues with keeping it clean. It's had all kinds of things splatter on it. No stains, no etching. That said I do think glass would look nice.

I think your last choice would look great! I like the larger, for one thing, to minimize grout lines. I found a photo with Fantasy, but your tile would be less busy if you chose matching grout, as in the second photo.

McKinney Kitchen Remodel · More Info

Project -3290 · More Info

Match the grout to the tile and I think it would be a great choice. I agree use the larger one.

I hope "McKinney Kitchen Remodel" isn't anyone here. My eyes would go crossed having to look at that every day. Pretty tile + pretty counters does not always equal pretty combo.

I would absolutely choose a glazed ceramic tile. The arabesque shape is lovely, although I'm not sure the color is right. When judging colors, try standing the tile vertically, as it will be when installed. My guess is that something either beige-er or grey-er will work a little better than these whites, but that might be the lighting... This is Fog, it's a crackle tile, and you can find it at Builder Depot for about $8/SF. Just a word of caution, I've never seen this tile irl, and online, I've seen images that make it look much darker as well. But at least it'll give you an idea...

Thanks for the suggestion. I will see about ordering a sample pc of the fog. I hope it's not to dark. Since my cabinets are dark I didn't want to go to dark in the backsplash. The bigger lantern tile looks white in pics but it's more of a light cream.

I gave been working on my husband on picking out a glazed subway tile. He said he thinks the reason he doesn't like them is for 2 reason's. He thinks they look like a tile tgat goes in a bathroom and he thinks they are kind of boring and no visual interest.

I did see a beveled glazed subway tile online and he said it wasn't hideous. Do you think a beveled glazed subway tile would look ok? I think that is the only way I can convince him to go with a glazed subway tile.

your kitchen,to me, says white subway tile backsplash. Is that a bluish gray wall color you've done....stay with white subway: you need the lightness and non complex pattern.

Beveled glazed subway might look beautiful if you're mindful of its color. It does bring element of special-ness with it. But you'll need to consider the installation..it will look worse on the edges when cut, and you'll need to think how you will be finishing it. Maybe you'll need to purchase some tiles in different size(say 3 by 3 instead of 3 by 6), to minimize these cuts. You'll also probably need to purchase some of these tiles with glazed edges, so you can finish it nicely. If the manufacturing company does glaze the edges. In short, they'll have to be hand made, for the best result.

We were considering them(especially my husband-he also has a thing against plain subway, because frankly that s how all the public restrooms looked where we are from..)), but the more complicated installation frightened us a bit.

Which is maybe a good thing because so much depends on a person laying that tile. One side of our backsplash looks like it should be in the magazine. Another-like a tile person should practice some more. Because it was finished later by another guy..)) I kid you not. It's not really bad, and it's a small part, so there it will stay. But if it was a bit more complicated installation-we'd be in trouble.

Consider all these things when ordering tile, any tile actually. Arabesque-how you will finish it? what are your options? Stuff like that.

One thing that used to always be said on the board by Beuhl and others was to take a photograph of the tile you are considering, copy it, hang it on the backsplash to see if you like it. Give that a try! Although I like plain subway sometimes, I don't like the stark contrast it provides with a man-made dis-similar material. I think if you found a very subtly veined, very light marble with consistent background it would be exquisite! Especially since DH is fighting so much. Give the photographs a chance.

If you still think about subway, look into handmade. They won't be so "factory-made "

perfect"

It is a bluish grey wall but I'm not married to it. I haven't been 100% happy with it since we painted it. I'm open to changing the color since it's not my favorite. We did many sample patches (8) and this one I really liked but on the sample patch didn't look as dark and didn't look as blue. But once it was up I didn't love it. By than my husband was tired of the kitchen remodel and said let's live with it for a month or two to see if we grow to love it.

I have leaned so much from everyone here and I want to thank everyone for the advice. I wish I known about this forum when started the planning stages 6 months ago. I was curious what places you guys suggest I can look for a subway tile? So far I have looked at lowes, home depot, tile and decor and builder depot. I wasn't sure what other places to look. Our budget would be $14 sq foot max.

Here's a(relatively) cheaper line by Ann Sacks..they'll give you 30% off once you mention you work with a contractor. It is hand made..it has beveled option..not as many color choices as in their other lines, but still 10 colors or so.

I'd highly recommend you to see the samples first, because the color on the screen differs from a real life one.

We used one of these for our master bath where we needed a lot of tile...it's a very nice quality tile but the color is not what is seen on the screen.

These are pretty uniform, they don't have much variation. Still look great because of their handmade quality.

http://www.annsacks.com/products/tile-stone-mosaic/davenport-field-tile#/davenport-rectangle-field

PS I also wish I had found these forums much, much earlier..))))

Thanks. I will look into Ann Sacks. Any other suggestions?

What is your tile budget in $/SF? Do you have any inspiration images?

My budget is $14 sq foot max. I was thinking a beveled subway tile but wouldn't be opposed to a regular subway tile to if it's the right color. I was thinking in the light cream, white or bone color family. I do have a inspiration pic. I need to find it and post it. I am sure there are man stores and websites that I'm not aware of and figured you guys know all the ins and outs of kitchen remodeling.

heatheron40 what is that gorgeous tile and do they come in other colors? Like greens?

I agree with nightowl. And I really like the look of a glass rectangle with your space and countertop,

I can't wait to see the image. Your kitchen is already so pretty.

Fireclay Tile has its Foundations line of tiles priced at $15/SF. At that price you can get subway tiles that are 3" X 6" or 2" X 6", 4" or 6" squares and the 3" hexagon tiles, which is pretty incredible considering it's all handmade tile. I think hexagons would be lovely in your space, but it is over budget, and I get it if that rules it out. If the price is close enough, take a look at the glazes below. They're spectacular irl.

All of the Foundations glazes are neutrals, and the ones I like best for your stone include Gardenia, French Linen, and Shetland Wool. You can order five color samples for free, and each additional is $2, so you could order samples of all eight glazes in this line if you like the colors. These tiles are beyond beautiful in real life, and along with their handmade "feel" come with the kind of subtle color variation that brings a wall to life.