Hmm, interesting. What about a decorative tile behind the stove and the open shelves and a more plain tile underneath the cabinets? Maybe have the plainer tile go along horizontally and "hit" the decorative tile that could be in a square underneath the hood? Then, I think I would paint the walls a color that was very similar to the plain tiles under the cabinets...does this make sense at all? I am picturing a decorative tile that is a pale pattern--like cement tile, but not as bold. Like one of these Walker Zangers? http://walkerzanger.com/collections/products.php?view=mat&mat=Ceramic%20and%20Terracotta&coll=Duquesa™

Thanks so much for the comments. I love the tile in the link! Unfortunately we bought the white subway tile and the pencil rail on sale awhile ago so I need to use it. I'll try to add inspiration picture below. We did match the walls to the tile with Benjamin Moore, cloud white, as you suggested.

Kitchen · More Info

No backsplash help here, but I wanted to say that your kitchen is very appealing!

I wouldn't take the tile up to the vaulted ceiling even though it would look fine. It's a lot of work and you wouldn't get enough bang out of it to make it worthwhile. Usually the tile goes to the bottom of the hood but I've seen photos where it goes part way up the hood and that looks nice too. I would bring it a few inches above the door pull on the left, about midway of the hood section. I think it'd look really nice with a different colored pencil liner capping it there--much better than putting the liner at the base of the hood. What color is your liner?

I'd do beadboard above the butcher block. I really like how it's mixed with ceramic tile here to create a variety of textures:

Melrose Graham Kitchen · More Info

I may in the minority, but I would not put the tile in the open shelf area. If you really want tile there, ask yourself first how much stuff will be on those shelves. If they will be heavily curated with only a few display items, I'd tile it to the ceiling. If they'll be packed full of cookbooks, I'd tile only to the bottom shelf.

On the range wall, at first I thought tile to the ceiling, but then thought it might look better if the tile ends at the bottom of the hood, where the higher part is restricted to the width of the hood.

Your kitchen looks very nice. Enjoy.

ETA: I really like mayflowers' suggestion of putting beadboard in the open shelf area ^^^.

Thanks so much to all of you for yours thoughts. I've used this site numerous times during this reno and it has been extremely helpful. I've gotten ideas I would never have thought of. I like the idea of the bead board over the butcher block, I wonder if the same yellow as the cabinets would work, like in the picture, which I love. It would serve another purpose as well. This kitchen was not level on any side, we think the cabin has been added onto several times. There is a gap behind the butcher block that we need to deal with and that would hind it with a bit of molding at the bottom.

You can use whatever color beadboard you'd like. Think of it as a separate hutch. Pick a color that complements whatever will go on the shelves.