The 'normal patina' can be wiped off with a finger to some extent. It is not all that hard. It is various types of copper oxides, copper chlorides, etc. If it looks bad (or good) one week, it will be different the next.

Thanks for your thoughts - yes, we're doing the same grey for the shower/bath walls and floor (though a 3" mosaic of the same tile for the shower floor). We do like the deco tile, but it's a bit pricey, so we don't want to go crazy with it. The wood (walnut veneer) is for the vanity - the photo shows some of the different stains we've been playing with, but we're looking at the center stain, which is essentially a natural walnut color. The sidelights actually are a 2"x18" square tube with a 4"square center mount. So they're pretty narrow. But they theoretically throw off 900 lumens each (will have dimmers). Two cans above and behind, along with the Panasonic LED Fan/Light, should be enough. I'm thinking of having the electrician run another wire up on the far end of the room that could be used to power any additional lighting in case we felt it necessary, via a soffit. Also, there is a pretty good sized window over the tub itself, which should bring in some light - although, we're pretty much in the woods facing north on that side of the house, so the light will typically be subtle. But there will be some natural light. I've thought about the idea of going white, but it feels like it might hide things like the sinks, and be too much of a contrast with the rest of the room. Is it too odd to use one color for the vanity top, and a different color for the shower bench surface, beyond the cost of finding a different material? I've been thinking now of trying to use more of the ($) deco tile to highlight some space, such as the right hand side of the vanity, but I don't know.... This is somewhat outside of my normal color palette - I typically go beige/"greige", which we mostly did in the Kitchen a couple of years ago, but DH really wanted to go with a grey for the MB. Fortunately, this grey does have some bits of brown in it, so we can make it work with the wood vanity, but I'm not as confident about what works. I really appreciate any interesting ideas that might liven it up (in a subtle way...) Thanks!

Wow thank you so much everyone. These comments have been incredibly helpful. I really like painted kitchen cabinets, but I think based on this great feedback we will probably just replace the backsplash, and then paint. (This whole project started because I just wanted to paint the walls and trim, but then thought well we should replace the counter before we paint the walls, but then the countertop company said they couldn't easily replace the countertop without replacing all the tile too....) My husband called the countertop company this morning, and they say they will honor the original quote for counter/tile and come out a SECOND time and do the tear out and replacement of the tile - when they could have done the tear out of counter and tile all at once - so they are being very accommodating to my fickleness. Will definitely replace the light switch plate and pulls. I hadn't thought of that.

I am going through the same thing with my bathroom. The quartz is horrible. It looks beige against my white, brand new cabinets. It also has horrible black specs on it that look like bugs. I spent so much money on it and I am so disappointed in it. Like you, it was supposed to be white with gray veining. I saw the entire slab. I even took a photo of it and got a sample to take home. I can’t seem to get a straight answer from anyone and it’s incredibly disappointing to look at in my otherwise gorgeously renovated master bathroom. In terms of lighting, there is mostly natural light in here so a lighting suggestion is not going to be a viable solution.