UPDATE... I have been taking care of my dad who had dementia so remodeling ground to a halt. I still don't know whether or not to put stainless steel behind my range top. My vent hood is 3" from the wall so I have that gap to deal with if I don't put a piece of stainless steel there. If I put only a tile backsplash, what do I do with the gap from pulling the hood out from the wall? Would I regret glass tile and cleaning all that grout? I even thought about putting tile instead of SS, then adding a piece of clear glass over the tile/grout behind the range top to make it easy to clean. I am not sure if glass can take the heat there. I can't figure out what to do so I do nothing. Thanks for any advice.

I didn't want any shine, but that is a beautiful tile. First picture shows gray green and second shows gray blue and green on my monitor. I can't decide whether to go with light tiles that blend in or with some color like the crackle tiles. I like the idea of a darker grout that won't show stains as much as a white grout. Sealed of course. I guess I will be doing a road trip next week. I hate driving 2 hours just to pick up tile samples, them driving 2 hours back home. I plan on picking up Sonoma, Encore, Pratt and Larson and any other suggestions I get. Thanks, Peek Oh this is pathetic...I just noticed the number of posts on this thread. Thank you everyone for helping. Peke

Yea, I think I'm going to have to wait till I actually get the Travertine in to see what it looks like, they didn't have a sample of it at the design center. I'm leaning towards a Perla Light Quartzite, hoping that there will be more grey/silver (and some beige) in the backsplash. I'll find out in a few weeks probably.

You bring up a good point about the hood - when we initially bought the house my plan was to do exactly what you recommend. Unfortunately, once we moved in we realized what terrible condition the existing granite is in. I priced out having it resurfaced and grouted, and it's thousands of dollars. For that amount, we're leaning toward replacing and updating. The window trim gets painted next week :) We're definitely thinking along the same lines!