I've got to say pps7 I was so excited when I came across the pictures of your bathroom a few months ago! It was very similar to what we were looking to do for our main bathroom with the AO Catarina tile, white wainscoting, dark furniture style vanities, and soft blue green walls. It was awesome to see it all put together and have it turn out so good! You did a great job! Our bathroom is smaller and only has a shower/tub combo so I hope we can get the same look in our scaled down version.

I don't think a dark walnut vs. an espresso would make much difference. Both will look dark. With that said, I think both match your countertop really well and will be beautiful. The cream subway tile would be perfect... it would brighten that space and give you some contrast (is the lightest color in the counter cream? just try to match that.) When it's all installed and you've lived with it a while, if you need more light, lighten the wall paint color. Really, though.... it looks like it will be lovely...

Is it for display or dish draining? If for draining wet dishes (that get later put away in cupboards) then I think that function would outweigh any drawback - assuming you had thought through any downsides to drips off the wet plates. (Some people would go nuts with dripping/spotting issues.) However if for display purposes I would think twice. I know at my sink I often have lots of steam (dumped pasta water, for example) and from daily hand dishwashing, a lot of potential for stray droplets of water/soap to fly around. (I use my hand sprayer for really hot rinses of stuff in the drainer rack fairly often and it splashes.) I also wash everything by hand not liking a DW, so YMMV. My final issue is that unless everything is used every day you are setting yourself up for having to re-wash each time before reuse. That's what happens in my house to open-stored stuff. It's one thing to have to rewash essentially display pieces every now and then. But for stuff I might use to get out a meal, I want to know it's ready for use before I reach for it. If it needs rewashing, again, sometimes I just feel like throwing it across the room instead! Maybe if I used a DW it wouldn't bug me so much - but one trip through the washing process per item per use is my hard limit. I have had open storage of dishes and cookware on shelves, plate racks (both over sink) and a pot hangar for a couple of decades and in my new kitchen there won't be any of it, if I can help it. I was beguiled by the look, but in practice I loathe it. And since I've been looking at it since the late 1980s, it looks pretty passe to me, despite it's current flash of popularity. (Probably seems trendy to all those people who have had -quite sensibly - closed or fitted kitchens up till now.) My kitchen is an historically unfitted one (same as it was in around the time of the Civil War). As for your question of depth. My own above-sink open shelves are 12" deep and while I don't find them troubling, my much-taller DH does. They are up about 24" (I'll be glad to measure if that's important) from the counter. Fifteen inches would seem to me to be encroaching and would be much more troubling to my DH; assuming I liked the look and function of the set-up I have now, I would be looking at making it narrower, not deeper. HTH, L.

@modern_mom35 Yes, this thread is 8 years old, but I found it searching for Torquay and dark cabinets, as that is what I plan to put in my kitchen. (I don't like painted wood and while white cabinets are lovely, my kids don't mix well with white!) I am also drawn to blue in a backsplash but am somewhat hampered by the '90s off white (slightly warm) 12"x12" tile that is in my kitchen as it is most of my first floor and out-of-budget to replace it. I was thrown into the remodel due to a burst pipe, with a large section of my kitchen already demo'd due to having to fix the pipe, so I don't want to take months to decide or wait to find the "perfect" deal or for backordered items. At the same time, I don't want to hate it when it's done. I am loving your toaster pullout and trying to see exactly what you did with the microwave. I'm wishing I had an exposed end to do shelves (saw it in another kitchen and loved the look) but the kitchen is built into an L with walls cutting it off, so nothing open ended for me. I don't have the budget to gut everything but I do mostly like my layout. I was thinking my kitchen might be too dark with a backsplash like that, but yours shows it might work, although you have windows spread throughout and mine only has windows in the breakfast nook, and I'd punch another window in the wall, but it's the north side that just shows my neighbors house far too close, not really a view I want, even with more light. I think installing proper lighting will really help, as it almost has none since we took out the old large soffit fluorescent main light due to having to move the large built-in due to water damage (which I hated anyway). Trying to figure out the layout before we start punching holes in the ceiling! Thanks for the links of what you purchased. The online photos make the backsplash look much lighter than your kitchen photos which is good to keep in mind when I'm looking online. I am curious if 8 years later there is anything you would change? This was truly a stunning remodel.