It looks good white, sort of like painted brick. Can you paint it the same white as the cabinets? Adorable kid, quite stylish!

Can you just remove the tiles and paint the area same color as wall? You already have the splash (4”?).
You’d need to remove the little splash down the road if you want to tile the entire area

i've seen some painted using chalk paint.

if you google search, "painting travertine tile backsplash" , you should see it.

how about the same blue as the island? or black like the countertop?

I mean, doing any other color is going to look a little weird.

i would have just let it be. it wasn't that bad

Hopefully you can remove the 4" piece up the back when it comes time to redo it.

@Beth H. : has a great talent for color and what looks right, I'd go with her advice. For me, that would be a lot of blue but the black sounds wonderful! Some pictures to inspire you. But if you like blue better, try it and if you don't like it, try it black.

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Thanks @Beth H. : Too late to do nothing obviously, but that photo just doesn't do justice to how terrible the yellowish/tan color looked against our white/grey/blueish combo. In that photo it looks way more grey than in real life.

I like your idea of matching the island, or the countertop. I had wondered about going a couple shades darker than the base wall color Agreeable Gray, or a couple shades lighter than the island Peppercorn, to stay within the greige or blue hues that are used on the walls/island. But maybe that gets too confusing. Thoughts?

@tozmo1, thanks much for the pictures!