Thank you for all your comments. :) Boxer, we had the backsplash included in the contract with our contractor so we sort of have to do it together... If we were more experienced with remodeling, we would not have done it the way we set it up but... oh, well... Leslie and jdcl, I like your suggestions. I have been actually looking at either taupe tiles and gray tiles. There ARE so may shades of these tiles that actually have been rather confusing for me but your mentioning these olors sort of assures me! Cinlyklein... now... what is a kitchen shrine? Maybe something that I should do a search for? pdxkit, We paid $3315 for what came out to be 67 sqft of the area. The island is about 52" x 36" (39" x 24" cabinet and 12" overhang on two sides). I have replied to your email about the price detail on our granite, too. Hope that helps!

You have the same colors in your kitchen that I have! My granite they called sienna bordeaux, but it looks the same. I was thinking of ivory/beige color subway tile too. My problem is that I love my granite so much I made a 7 1/2 granite backsplash which leaves me with 11 in. to the bottom of the cabinets. I tried 4 x 6 and 3 x 6 subway tiles and they look too big. My husband also thinks that it needs something (accents?) to break up the blandness of the tile. I also like travertine but filled and honed. Any ideas? What did you choose? How about paint color for the rest of the kitchen walls? I was thinking BM Soft Fern. I'm trying to change all my appliances stainless. I'm not good at this decorating stuff and its driving me crazy. Help anybody!!!!!!

Joaniepoanie: I like your idea of pulling out the gray. The Meram blanc has a lot of gray streaks but very light. That's why I liked it. I need to check out some grayish tile this week. Sixtyohno: thanks for the suggestion. I just can't seem to find the right tile...at least not yet! I'm sure with some help from all of you experts, I'll have a backsplash before too long :). If anyone has a great idea for tile, I'm open for more suggestions! They're coming to demo tomorrow....I'm excited but nervous! Here is a link that might be useful: Grayish tile- Meram amalfi

Thanks for the feedback and compliments on the granite everyone. It sounds like all of you are on the same page and think I should wait. I am having a hard time figuring out how to make that happen. Our kitchen project is a remodel and we hired a general contractor to do the work. His crew does most of the work. Our project is scheduled to take six weeks. With the lead time on the tile, I can't wait until the cabinets and granite are installed and still have the backsplash completed as part of the project. Would you all still just wait? The pictures were taken in my current kitchen and the amount of lighting won't be changing. We live in a heavily shaded area and we have very little natural light in our kitchen even with windows along the back of the house. The amount of light wont be a lot different in the new kitchen. I know the piece of granite is just a small part of the slab but with some of the grey and tan tones in the floor tile I thought the smoke would work better overall. I think I am going to drive myself crazy with all of the decisions that have to be made before this project is over...