" I also liked the Formica Butterrum Granite, but was scared it's too busy." I HATE busy on my countertops... and i'm planning to get Formica's Butterum! I nixed everything i saw (somehow i passed over Butterum or just got so tired of looking for a plain one?)lol! I think I was driving my sister nuts too. She has a busy counter (granite - like zeus or sunny gold?). it seemed every light rather plain one I saw that i liked (in a magazine or online) I didn't like when I went into a store to see the real sample (or got sample in mail). I was so discouraged! I like light counter tops and NO spots (I'll think it's a bug or a crumb - or won't even know the difference). But my kitchen would be very vanilla the way i was going as my stove, sink, fridge etc are all going to be bisque and my cabs are a med light woodtone. very blah...and I wanted a very plain (beigey) floor (so i can see spots to clean, bugs/scorpies etc). I wasn't budging on that one because I run around barefoot inside. and i think a dark floor would made me feel closed in (I hate that idea also). and i don't remember when/where i first noticed butterum but with my cabs and the bisque it looks great! (held samples up around my sister's cabs, sinks etc). and i decided I've been too plain / playing it too safe for yrs and needed to get away from that. i needed to jazz it up a bit. and i don't have that much counter space so I think it'll be fine for me. I have about 3' to the left of my sink and 1' to the right of it... about 4' to the left of my stove and 1' to the right of it. It'll be broken up by several ft of bisque on each wall. Haley Comet has butterum and posted a pic the other week. she's gonna post more when she gets a new camera... I'm glad you haven't given up also!. just work at it as you can. working toward your goal...and the counter top is a big hurdle to get past! btw - I use my laminate samples. right now i have one on the table next to my cpu with my coke glass on it...

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.

Here are photos of the rest of the house. I'm not proud of the quality of the images, but they get the point across, I hope. The front patio and front door: The Living Room, panorama showing all four walls: The Dining Room, panorama showing 3 walls. Detail of the Dining Room paint. The lower walls is Zolotone with pink, two shades of grey, and off white. The trim is painted pink and off-white. The blind on the right is the fourth wall of the dining room, not visible in prior image - a built-in bookcase full of photography books, hidden behind a blind to protect them from the UV rays. (Yikes, nothing like a closeup image to show how dirty and worn things are.) The Dining Room is connected to the Kitchen through a single door, with very little visual connection. Bathroom, 5x7 feet: Office #1, 10x10 feet, aka Library, aka Green Room. Panorama showing all four walls makes it very distorted, but gives a sense of what the room is like. Office #2, also 10x10 feet. The only hall: The old Kitchen, looking along the north wall to the west wall. (I can't wait until this kitchen is GONE!) The old kitchen south wall, photo taken from the doorway to the dining room. We have removed the window to the left of the fridge, as the little table at that window was dead space that we never used.

bumping this back up because we have opted to go with granite- originally, we were going to get what we thought was a quartzite, but we think it is actually marble and the fabricator was selling it as "qualtcite" trying to pass it off. We tested the sample and it etched almost immediately. We looked at quartz options, and both of us like the patterns, but they are all very dull and lifeless and flat to us. Which led us to going with granite because that is most affordable. However, the granite I chose is, of course, one of the most expensive ones out there... Pitaya White. Husband wants me to consider Colonial White Granite as it was recommended as a cheaper option by the fabricator we are now going with. There is a $1200 difference so of course the husband wants me to consider it. We are also going to likely pull the mosaic backsplash and just do a super neutral grayish white backsplash that will have a little dimension (hopefully) We went to the Triton to look at slabs and that is where we chose the Pitaya. We both LOVED it. They didn't have any colonial white at the time so we haven't seen it in person. In all of the pictures I've seen online, there is a TON of variance in all of the different slabs!! Any suggestions? Thoughts? Anyone have colonial white?