Ok, ok, you mentioned Santa Fe, and my mind immediately went to a mexican tile mosaic that someone here at GW has used in a vertical orientation. This is not at all what you've been looking at, but I just have to show it to you. I love that mosaic, and it could work for you in the horizontal application throughout the kitchen, but it is miles away from what you're drawn to. OK, now that that's out of my system, here's what I think might work for you on the subtler side. The tile below is a mesh mounted mosaic and the sheet measures about 10.5" x 11", so you get an idea of the tile size, very roughly, 3" w x 4" t. The solid color field tile below in the same glaze (light green) is available in square and subway formats in a variety of sizes. I think in order to keep the look cohesive you should either keep the color the same and use a different shape for the special areas, or keep the shape the same and use a harmonizing, deeper color for the special areas. So, you could choose a light green brick subway for your counter area, and a light green ogee mosaic for the special areas. Or, you could use the ogee everywhere, in yellow quartz for the counter areas, and light green for the special spots.

wow, your kitchen is going to be gorgeous when you get the back splash in! thanks for the sneak peek :) i think something that is subway size/shape, but more of the cream color with some light taupe/beige color in it would look nice there....marblish looking. you are putting it against the brown granite, so you are putting it up against a more solid granite (non busy), therefore i would think something very slightly multi toned would be fine...and i do mean slightly so to keep from looking busy. did i even make that somewhat sensible?! i know what i have pictured in my mind, just having difficulty translating it into words!

Don't rush the decision because the contractor is ready to tile!!! The backsplash can wait until you find exactly what you want. People on this site have waited up to a year or maybe even longer to do the B/S. If you're not sure and want to wait, maybe you can get a credit from your contractor and have an independent tile installer recommended from where you buy the tile do it down the road. If we hadn't decided to do a full-height granite B/S, I would have waited to see how everything came together and then taken my time to shop...there were too many other decisions that have to be made that you CAN'T wait on...the B/S you can!

Something I learned here is that when you can't match the backsplash tile to the counter, match it to the cabinets. That doesn't mean it has to be boring. I'm assuming the stove is on the back wall, hidden from the main view, and since that's the typical focal point, you might want the tile to provide more interest than you usually see with elaborate cabinets. You have strong shapes in the cabinets and in the plank floor, so I think you just want a little touch of something special. I'd like a square tile at the counter and a subway above it. I love how this bottom row of squares is built out. The field tile is actually squares, which would be very traditional and give you a bit of relief from all the rectangles, but it could also be done with subways above. It would be pretty with all cream tiles too. I think squares at the counter need something to separate them from the subway field tile. They used multi-colored 1" mosaic here, with a very subtle touch of black. With mosaics, you can pop out tiles and sub in others to control the color. Because there's a lot of lighter colors, it doesn't look like a black racing stripe around the room. Often a pencil liner is used but I wouldn't recommend a solid black liner. This would be a pretty transition from your black counters to cream subways. The faded black tiles would pull in the gray floor too. This is gorgeous where they used long subways at the counter, a row of natural stone mini mosaic, and 2x6 subways above. You have to click on it to see the details. You can see that this is a busy kitchen but the layering of tiles doesn't make it too much. I hope you and your tiler knows not to tile your side splashes. I don't know what that counter piece is along the one wall. Maybe it's just resting there.