Snookums, thanks for the compliment on my BS. :) Kek10, your GC may not be happy with your waiting until the granite is in, but it is a whole lot better than your buying expensive tile that doesn't work and you're stuck. I was POSITIVE I had the right tile. Just positive. It looked gorgeous with everything. Then the granite went it and I was shocked how awful the tile looked with it. I even called my KD and told her it wouldn't work and she argued with me about it. "Of course it will work! It's lovely!" She came over, walked in the door, took one look at the tile and said "You're right. That looks like crap." lol I ended up bringing home tons and tons of samples because the granite had such a strong influence on how the tile looked. Caramels went pink. Rich tans went flat. The tile that I ended up using was just brought home because I was bringing so many samples home and grabbing anything that looked like a possibility. Truthfully, the tile looked like barf in the tile store. UGLY! Brought it home and it looked fabulous in the kitchen. I ended up using Seneca Handmold in Bamboo. Who knew? Anyway, here are some pictures of my BS and granite. Good luck and try to enjoy the process!

With a busy backsplash like that, you will need a quiet countertop. I would suggest a solid-reading quartz counter over granite. If you love that backsplash, or any busier tile, in my opinion it would be a mistake to pick a granite now and wait until later for the backsplash. Most granites are quite or at least somewhat busy, and will limit your tile selection. It will likely work better if you find a tile and a counter that work together before you place an order for either component.

If YOU used the word, "busier" what do you imagine we will say ? : ) I can't think of a granite anything I would like with a porcelain faux "marble" anywhere. Unless it was honed absolute black. A solid quartz remnant at these vanity sizes should not be hard to find, or expensive. "Less than half the price" won't matter, when the bath is done, the labor in..............and the result not good.

I promised an update. I don't have much of one, yet. But I figured it might be interesting to update our journey since so many other people have old cabinets from the 1980s. We decided to live with the kitchen and the house a year before deciding on any directions. We keep settling back onto the conviction that we should try to get as much mileage as we can with the building blocks we have now. For example, the cabinets are not dreamy - they're the original builder cabinets from 40 years ago, and certain details (like the printed wood grain covering on the cab sides) is pretty meh. But I find the door fronts attractive and solid; I like the door style; there's very little wear and tear to the doors or the boxes despite the age of the cabinets; everything operates well. Although I wouldn't select this red-orange finish if I was buying new wood cabinets, I find I don't mind the oak. I just don't know how to work with it. Likewise, I don't love most granite. If the granite were to split down the middle in the dead of night and require replacement, I'd want my cream quartz counters from the last kitchen - or something like them. But I've come to appreciate the granite that is here, and the thought of destroying it for no reason makes me feel guilty. The kitchen layout is very comfortable for a kitchen of this size, which is just large enough for our needs. The divided sink kind of annoys me, and find it hard to clean, but again ... it seems drastic to throw out an entire counter change sink styles. Anyway, unless we find ourselves very frustrated one day or very flush with cash, we're happy enough that it seems there's merit, economy, and environmental friendliness in not throwing anything else until its lifespan really is up. Against my initial feelings, I also think the recommendations we got here to really lean into the color scheme is also the way we should go. The cream paint on the walls works. I might not be excited about it, but I never walk into the room and think "wow, these colors don't work" or "something seems wrong here." We've spent hours working in the kitchen and the adjacent rooms and nothing *bothers* us. The question is how we make the space feel more special and perhaps upgrade it a bit, but without breaking the universe. No conclusions yet. We'll keep playing and see if we land on something we want to try. I'm late, but as promised, here are some visuals I have for colors discussed in this thread from what I was experimenting. In case anyone with similar finishes is looking for ideas.... My red-orange-honey oak and granite counters next to tan. I apologize for forgetting which paint this is, but I believe it was SW Canvas Tan or Natural Tan: And here they are with SW Alabaster (the tile on the counter was Fireclay Gardinia, on the left, and Tusk, on the right) I've been moving the Gardinia tile around the kitchen quite a lot this year. I'm not sure if it is too abrupt a transition from the granite. I always wonder if fails to match when I get up close to it. But from further back I always like its effect (and its basically the paint color we have now)... If we ever get to a conclusion, I will update again. We're not in a rush since everything "works" the way it is now. If we were to pull a trigger tomorrow, I think we'd either: 1. Replace our nickel knobs with rubbed bronze or a similar earthy-dark finish. Replace the ho-hum electric range and microwave with a slide-in induction range + under cabinet hood. Keep the 4" backsplash. Compensate for the lack of 4" backsplash behind the range by running a piece of stainless steel backsplash up the wall, or by installing one of those 6" back pieces that come as options with some of the "professional" ranges. That keeps all the current finishes but gives us a prettier and better performing range. 2. Replace our nickel knobs with rubbed bronze or a similar earthy-dark finish. Do idea 1, but make the range red, orange, or yellow. So I guess we'd be looking at Viking, Bertazonni, Ilve, etc. for the color options. (Or maybe Kitchen Aid, if they decide to offer their current gas range colors for the induction units.) 3. Replace our nickel knobs with rubbed bronze or a similar earthy-dark finish. Replace the range, remove the 4" backplash, and put in a cream or tan subway tile. 4. Replace our nickel knobs with rubbed bronze or a similar earthy-dark finish. Replace the range, remove 4" backsplash, and put in a cream or tan subway tile. And try to find a some kind of decoration behind the range to help pull the cream and brown/orange themes together. To be continued...