Some colored half marbles would look good! Are they old fan fronts? Actually painted yellow would be great sunflowers, so if you get some more that would be what I would do. You could put the half marbles on in "V" shape to follow the wire that supports them or just put them in couple of circles around or stagger around randomly. Great reuse of objects!! Jan

My father made a trivet from my 4x4 tile and novelties. He got a very thin piece of wood, masticed the tile on in the pattern he chose, grouted in between the tiles and then built a frame from moulding that has a lip to hold the piece of wood. Sounds like a lot of work, but he was very capable and creative. Now that we have redone our kitchen I still have a piece of my old tile to remember and enjoy. And something that my father made for me to remember him by as well.

I don't have any pictures of my trivets, but if you just google "trivets" you'll get lots of possibilities. You can also check out Etsy. I've found most of mine while traveling. My favorite is a tile I bought in Florence, Italy. Most of mine are ceramic tiles, but I also have a couple cast iron ones that I've found in salvage shops. Happy shopping! BTW, my friend has had Silestone (a beige/brown color) for 10 years and doesn't bother with trivets. No scorches or stains. However, no matter what countertop I decide on I'll be using my trivets; it's a habit, and I just wouldn't want to take a chance with my new counters. Here is a link that might be useful: Etsy search for trivets

About the grout, my advice is to use any other color than white. The mosaics I have done in the past where I used white grout were my least favorites. I went back and painted the grout on all of them. In the past, I have used black, grey, ocean blue, sandstone, bone, terra cotta, and liked them all. If you go to the link below and scroll all the way down to the end of the article, you will see an example of pale brown grout which is what I used on my stairs. Here is a link that might be useful: Silva's stairs