Hi live wire oak, the back splash is gray and white but my lighting in the kitchen makes everythng look more warm or yellow tone for some reason (fluorescent). I really don't like an orangeish tone at all, the laminate counter has no orange in it but beige, black and gray. here's another photo of the back splash and counter.

Use the same material as your counter to cover the windowsill areas, but make the one over the lower window is thick enough (underneath) - or shimmed up -to come out even with the height of the higher windowsill when covered with "matching" thickness of the counter top material. You could get tricky and have these pieces cut with a little lip to extend down to the counter surface, or fudge it with some other material or paint to blend in the gap between the counter and the edge of windowsill trim piece (s). HTH L>

yep that's my kitchen. Sorry it's not in your budget, but gpraceman does have a good idea about granite tiles. I have seen these used in place of granite slabs for the counter, when a budget dictated it. "To Me", they did not look that bad. I had to redo the area of the granite where the cook top is, due to a bad choice I made about cooktops, a 36" semi-circle Caldera. It died in about a year and the company went broke, so I had to replace it with a rectangular induction cooktop, Hence the granite rework. Well I could find Granite remnants (Arandis Gold) for next to nothing, (I paid about $75 for a little less than a half slab. So you may be able to do that too, and then have it cut to sizes you want for the tile, myself, the bigger the better, and the less grout lines. Thanks for your kind words about my kitchen, it is pretty unique, and as we tell folks here, Do what makes you happy, after all, it's your kitchen. For those of you that do like tiles and grout, that's great, as long as it's what you want, and you're not following others or doing what you "Think", might help sell the house later. Gary

Ooooh, you have me a little worried. I am planning a white on white kitchen...but back to the topic at hand. No I definitely don't think a lip of a backsplash is at all unfinished. In fact, i think most houses just have a lip? I wonder if the wall of a BS is a new thing. In fact i just took a quick look at property listings (no I am not a realtor, haha) and the 3 houses I clicked on (close to a million$) all had a lip of a backsplash. I think it is personal preference. And your right it is a dust catcher=). but better to have dust than me rub off my wall every time I wipe my counters down. (good paint may well solve that dilemma) but I do think that it looks naked with nothing. We cook alot ( and I am messy) so I have to have something behind my stove...and personally i do like the full wall of backsplash. If you have soapstone, that may break up the white enough to not make it so stark. You could possibly consider the lip of soapstone and then tile above that....? Best of luck