@ raehelen, Thank you, and YES, I am soooo happy that the granite/BS search is behind me!! LOL @ jancy, the cabinet color that I chose was Coffee Clutch. The code for the color is D1-7. I have read of many others using Bittersweet Chocolate by BM and Black Bean by SW. But, the Coffee Clutch looked great to me at Ace, so I chose it. I did have to sand the cabinets to rough them up, and I primed them with a tinted primer first. I think I used Zinser 123. The cabinet and trim paint goes on really nice. I just brushed it on and it went on nice and smooth. Almost smooths itself out. Just use long strokes and plan on 2 coats. It dries hard and shiny. I did not have to poly over it. I painted them over a year ago and they've held up beautifully! The other nice thing was that the wood grain still shows through. It came out really well. Don't be afraid... go for it!! :)

BEAUTIFUL! You have to enjoy working in your garden, because it is really well tended and planned also. Love it. I see your high chain link fence is like my back fence....7 foot tall and 100 feet long. I've planted Confederate jasmine...or trachelospermum jasminoides....or something sounds like that? It is evergreen here, and makes a gorgeous privacy fence withing a few years. Maybe in 4 years but by 5 it is very effective....they use it in Italy everywhere, including to climb over arbors, up old stairways, and covering fences to create a living privacy fence. Let me recommend it to you for that purpose. If you like, I'll create a Flickr album about the use of this jasmine in Italian gardens (the ones I saw anyway) in Umbria. Etc. Here the cabana was covered in blooming jasmine, the short fence covered in the jasmine is kept trimmed as a short hedge, no hint of the chainlink frame holding it up inside.

I just got a faux Thassos tile for my kitchen floor, and it is very neutral with a faint pattern from Porcelanosa. You're right that the Carrara has a lot of grey. Be careful that the greys don't clash. You wouldn't want the backsplash grey to read darker than your counter, so maybe go with the Thassos.

I’ve seen the Silestone Calacatta Gold in several “I hate my quartz” threads, and I agree. It’s not attractive installed. It looks like a child’s drawing of marble, lots of huge fake veins that never line up and look stripy. There’s an active thread on this right now, I believe. The Viatera Muse and Minuet I have heard less about, meaning there may be fewer complaint threads on them. They certainly look more subtle. The key to choosing the right backsplash for these types of counters depends a bit on the color of your cabinets. Are they white or wood?