You ALL are totally awesome for helping (sorry if I sound like a teenager!) Great ideas and advice. You all are so right about the paint color--I can see it now. Thanks for taking the time to show me examples! (The existing paint is actually more of a gold- but looks yellow in certain spots and colors). I love those examples of the darker red backsplashes, boxerpups, with cabinets similar in color to mine. Red wouldn't match anything in my house, (I know you weren't suggesting that)but maybe a burgandy or maroon or rust would! Noobee- I can't get over how that darker backsplash you did (in the cut and paste you did over my kitchen photo) makes the cabinets and granite pop and ties it all together. I love it! I think that seems to be heading in the right direction--though perhaps the exact colors and pattern need tweaking. I love the look! Though there isn't any actual brown in the granite, some of the garnet does appear brown-here and there. Do you think I'd need to have gray in the backsplash to tie in with the granite if I went darker, with mixed colors, like that? Also, Noobee, how DID you do that cut and paste-is that a paint program that comes with windows or adobe photoshop by any chance? I'd love to try and play with that myself. I have been visiting a few tile shops, and even the salespeople there have been having a hard time finding the right solution for me. One lady who was working with me is even a trained interior designer. She was thinking darker would work, too, but was having a hard time finding just the right tile. So I really appreciate your suggestions.

Good thought. Another thing that can happen is when they do chip off a sample for you. I was given a chip knocked off a corner of my slab. I used this to go around with for my backsplash. I had to keep saying, "But at home, my counter is more brown rather than taupe." Lighting makes all the difference too. Ouside, I thought I saw more cream colors, not so when it was installed in my kitchen. But, this could also be because when I looked at it over all I was concentrating on the cream. When we templated, I was concentrating on how I wanted the pattern and the cream was probably on in the diameter of the template.

I agree with roseabbey in keeping the backsplash quiet, but I disagree with the matte approach. I just had installed today beautiful ceramic tiles which compliment my light santa cecelia incredibly. My contractor was really pushing the stone ... everyone is doing the travertine and I wanted something different. It's not too shiny with the granite. It's classy and spectacular. Once I catch my breath, I'll post a photo. I put sonoma 4 x 4 crackle tile (butter) as base with a pencil liner and pratt & larson stone gloss subway 3x6 above. I'm thrilled. My contractor was wowed at the results as well. Happy Trails!

I don't like the 4" backsplash for the following reasons: - if you are doing a decorative tile for the rest of the backsplash, you are now decreasing and cutting off your design area by 4". - the 4" creates a little "shelf" that gets dusty, just one more thing to clean. - added expense to install the 4" piece of granite along your countertop. - people who say you "need it" to cover a gap between the countertop and the tiled wall just don't have good installers. My kitchen walls are extremely out-of-plumb, but my tile backsplash meets my granite countertop with no gaps cause I had experienced installers. - IMHO it looks dated, since the 4" idea was popular with formica in the '70's. I would only do a 4" backsplash if I were doing no other backsplash at all and just leaving drywall on the rest of the wall. And even in that case, I'd try to make it a little higher, like 5" or 6".