Did you buy it or are you renting?

Renting

No sense in fretting about the kitchen - the tiles and white appliances are part of the rental and won't change. Get a great rug you love, and put some nice pottery/bowls on the counters to draw the eyes.

As far as layout, do you need a table? If so, try a small table centered between the windows, and make the remainder of the space the living room. The room doesn't look wide enough to have a side/by/side area with living on the left and dining on the right.

Get a sofa and two chairs sectionals are always site specific and since this is arental the next place you might not be able to use the sectional and IMO no chaise on any sectional they already have very little comfortable seating and that just takes away another seat. Get an ottoman if you like to put your feet up and in a pinch you have an extra seat.I would like to see a floor plan with some measurements to be able to really answer the questions From what I see here there is no room for much furniture

For the backsplash...

Get some of that corrugated plastic (coroplast) and cut to fit between the bottom of the cabinets & the laminate backsplash. Try to get a tight friction fit or use some double stick tape to hold in place. Tape the seams together with a good quality clear packing tape. And cover with some of those Tic Tac tile sheets or even Contact paper.

https://www.tictactiles.com/shop

You could fit the corrugated plastic, remove & tape together and apply the Tic Tacs or Contact paper with the assemblage laying flat and then fit it to the wall.

Probably be a good idea to stop at the stove and use a sheet of aluminum behind the stove and then resume w/ the Tic Tacs.

How to finish the edges where the new splash isn't captured? Dunno off the top of my head. I would wander around the wall paneling section of a home improvement store and look at the edging materials. I'm almost certain that would will find something there that would work.

Total cost ought to be under $150. Don't know how much you're willing to spend.

Alternatively, for a temporary cover-up and lower cost you could fit foam core in and paint it. (Use some of the paneling trim that is meant to cover the seams between two sheets of paneling.) Double stick tape, good quality acrylic paint...take care to wipe dry sink splashes?

If you take your time and get a good fit, either of the above will look better than a lot of the awful real tile jobs that I have seen on this site! Won't be perfect but...

ETA that I think the green 'Subway Mist' Tic Tacs would work nicely. They have white 'grout' which would help tie in the white appliances a bit better. And, if it makes you feel any better, when I was shopping for a new refrigerator a couple of months ago, I toyed with the idea of buying a white one. Except it was priced $300 more than the exact same fridge in 'stainless steel'! Yeh, I got the SS one.

Expanding on the foam core idea, you could glue some thin lath, wood or plastic, to foam core to create a design. Board & batten look would be easy but you could do something more elaborate like squares on the diagonal...

Thank you, great ideas! I’ve never used coroplast, but I assume it’s flammable which is why you suggested switching to aluminum sheet over the stove. Would it be beneficial to use aluminum sheet for the entire backsplash, or just stick with coroplast?

It’s a rental property. You can’t change the kitchen without your landlord’s permission.

!!!