I like the larger subway tile in the beige shown as a 2x3 size. From the photos, it is the only sample that doesn't have pink undertones. Agree with others that the smaller size tile will look very busy with your counters. The travertine will likely look dated before the rest of your kitchen, and the 4" square pattern you describe sounds both busy and very 90's. Have you found any subway tile that is a creamy off white like your cabinets? Is this the house with the pine paneling and ceilings in the family room? Adjacent to a huge but dated white kitchen? I have wondered what you ended up doing with the house....this is an unsubtle hint for pictures, Caroleh!

Oh Bill, Bill.....trying to distract you again here. The grout colorant you mentioned says it can be used inside or outside...I think? Does that mean it would work for a problem with a "mortar" color on an exterior entryway? A portion of our flagstone topped landing coming in the front door of our house had to be torn out as it was not square. The mortar color of the part that was redone does not match the other part. We had a brown colorant mixed into the mortar for the entire project, but the redo came from a different bag and is darker. I don't know if there is a difference between "inside grout" and "outside mortar" as far as this colorant goes. Do you know? Thank you, Mr. Bill, for any help.

I just put a bathroom floor (yeah, well, someone else did the work, I just did the pattern!) with 1" hex unglazed in white. When the guy helping me said "I can grout tomorrow" I ran to Home Depot to see what sort of gray grout I could get, and the choices were pretty limited. The recommended-by-Bill in that brand was Platinum, and it would have been a special order. I went with a slightly darker grout and it thankfully dried light. I'll snag a photo when I go up to the house later today and post it, even though it's hex and not subway, if you like. I love the way the soft gray accents the tile, and I would have assumed, prior to the Bill/Mongo/Bath and kitchen forum experience, that I should have done white.

agree with previous posters..simple tile-blend the grout, as similar to the tile as possible..unless you deliberately want high contrast grout to accentuate it for some reason. then it becomes a decorative element on its own, and needs to be considered as such. more rustic tile that has different shape, like say star and cross mosaics, or lantern shape, etc-you want then a grout that's just a tad different in terms of shade, so it won't blend with the tile to the extent the effect of shape will be lost