This might sound like a lot of work right now, but have you considered painting the cabinets white? I love the chair rail and the wainscoting in the dining room, but your cabinets do not really match that style right now. Your Kitchen would look fabulous with white cabinets and a white subway tile back splash. No matter what you do, I would suggest changing the hardware to a stainless steel. In the mean time have you considered a brown/putty color for the walls? I think that I too would go more neutral. Stay away from yellows since your cabinets have a lot of yellow in the wood. For example a brown like this picture. I think it would really play up your current kitchen cabinets. I would stick with the same color below and above the chair rail. Brown- Benjamin Moore Branchport Brown, Benjamin Moore Woodacres, Benjamin Moore Stampede, Sherwin-Williams Cobble Brown, Sherwin-Williams Van Dyke Brown (shown below), Behr Traditional.

I think your idea would be great, but being miss practicality I am concerned about how much it will show dirt. I think it would be lovely (in the right hues- not the example you posted which is too gold at least on my screen- but will definitely take a different direction than your original inspiration photo. So much more serene, but stunning.

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?

Flemish bond is great for a floor or patio, not for a backsplash. Both SW 6155 Rice Grain (bottom) and SW 6154 Nacre (top) are yellows, although Nacre is classed as a pastel shade, so the tile color you're looking for is a cream that pairs well with your stone which is largely brown - shouldn't be hard to find. The tile below is Fireclay Tile in Ivory but you can approximate this glaze in almost any other tile. If you have the budget for it, consider a pretty shape. Your space reads young and joy filled. Consider something fun like a mini star and cross, or an ogee drop.