I have the Subway Ceramics Avalon / Minas with a medium gray grout. And a Shaw's white sink, if anyone is considering that, by the way. (My contractor could have ordered it directly, but at his request, I went through a tile store, and by the time everyone had put their sugar onto it, it was OBSCENELY expensive.) I'm not an installation expert, but at least with the Subway Ceramics, the installers use little plastic spacers between the tiles (I think some others have their own spacers?) when they put them up, they don't do it freehand, so how much grout you get is a function of 1) the limits set by the curvature of the tile and 2) what size spacers they use. So you might be willing to go a little darker with a smaller grout line, or with a handmade tile that refuses to go close together, you might want to stay light. The traditional color is close to concrete. But most modern people don't seem to like that, so do what pleases you!

Yeppers.... IKEA boxes with solid QS oak slab fronts from Scherrs. We went with the Premium cause it had the most flecking and I just found it so funky it was worth the upcharge to me. Thanks again for all the awesome compliments. DH is enjoying them as much as I am. OH... and he wanted to make sure I mentioned that he did most of the work... :-)

I do not like this white spot, either. I do not think you are being unreasonable to want to fix it. I think that we are just trying to help you think about other solutions. My first experience with stone was my 2003 kitchen remodel. tumbled marble. I remember looking at the finished backsplash and thinking why didn't my contractor set aside those dark ones that popped up every once in a while. After all, I had three boxes of tile left over. To me, it seemed a no-brainer. I also had no idea there was this much variation. But my contractor did. He knew what the tile looked like and how much variation was there. To him, the dark tiles were not something undesirable, or even something to ask me about. He had more experience, and I had not looked through the tiles to see what they were all like and pulled out the dark ones. Come to think of it, I helped him do tile on the second day. I put extra mastic on the back of the tiles that needed to be set forward a bit. On that day, I did pull out some tiles that were "too dark" for my taste. My expectations were different from Jim's. Now I am doing a second, different kitchen. I have an island that will be topped with 19" porcelain tiles that look like stone. I know from watching HGTV that some people lay tiles like this with no thought to the direction of the streaks of "grain" in the color. I hate that look. SO I am taking off a few hours on tiling day to give my input on the placement of the tiles and cuts. I would not know to do this if I had not seen other tile jobs I did not like, or see the dark tiles on my old backsplash. Since the sealer wears off in time, and since it is a liquid, I bet it has a solvent that will remove it. You may be able to do a "faux" finish on the white spot, then reseal it. It is possible that taking out that tile could hurt your wall and mean that the whole thing has to come down. Try something else first. After Bill Vincent jumps in and gives advice. There is a thread here somewhere about people hiring painters to faux finish outlet covers and other obstructions so that they cannot be recognized and ruin the flow of the backsplash. I would try that before taking out a tile and risking tearing the paper off the drywall underneath. Here is a link that might be useful: Painted outlets

here is a wall with delineation with the light grout....smart looking. your tile is ending at the top of range back or so.......do you have more tile to carry it up? if you are all done w tiling.....maybe just a black grout because , as is, this mimics the 4 in strips that come w counters..so you may as well make it smooth and cohesisve... but if possible... I'd go higher and use light grout for a different result. the area between the windows seem perfect for more of this..... ]