Congrats, khallock! Isn't it a treat to actually use the sink? What are your thoughts on backsplash on the range wall? Hood height between the windows? Between windows and cabinets? I think the layout will be as difficult to decide as the material itself. As for color - if you don't want to go green, I think you could get away with a brownish/reddish tile slightly darker than the counters, since everything else is nice and light, and you have such good lighting. I see maybe a uniform color, glass tiles perhaps, with varying tile sizes, like the second picture EAM44 posted.

It’s not bad, but I understand that it’s not exactly what you had in mind. Are you just going to keep it? Changing your under counter lighting to a warmer color might help. Your lighting in your upper cabinets is very warm, so that might help even it.

Get a sample of your cabinet doors, and then bring it to visit the samples of counters in your favorite show room. Nobody can guess.

Oh Lordie! I just saw this. So sorry!! But maybe this will help someone else. The tile is the perfect mix between gray and taupe. I actually don’t like gray but I love this. It’s just that kind of a color that will look how you need it to look with whatever you put it with. That last picture that looks yellow was because I had the under counter lighting turned to a warmer hue. My under counter lighting is tunable from warmer to the cooler lighting on the Kelvin scale. There is no yellow in it at all. And yes whitecaps is the lightest color that they make that tile in. I believe there were four colors and this was the lightest