Hi Lotterticket, thanks, oh that does look nice, I'll show it to DH, I posted on my blog and others said the same thing as you suggest. Hi Nancylouise, thanks, I'm afraid if I add too much more dark tile the room will be too dark looking and we have some large tiles left, but no small tiles here's a photo of the shower which is slightly darker than the floor

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas. My granite guy and general contractor were great today!!! Both of them are so nice and worked together very well. The granite guy is the owner of the granite store and he comes out to do all the measurements. I am very lucky because I have heard horror stories about contractors being difficult! We decided to take the whole window frame off so that we can have a 4 inch backsplash. The fabricator is going to also create a granite sill so there will be a little shelf just below the window. I think he said the sill will round out about 1 1/4 inch on each side to give it a nice finished look. He really seems like he knew what he was talking about. At first my contractor said he would just cut off the bottom section of the window frame, but the granite guy said that he would prefer to have it all off to avoid any space issues when installing. My contractor said, no problem. He took the side pieces and bottom pieces off and will retrim it after the granite is installed! Granite will be installed Thursday morning at 8:00 am-- so excited tosee how it looks!!! :) Now I'm thinking of painting the trim to match the color of the new cabinets. The trim is really a stock builders white color. Looks OK next to the Coconut color cabinets (which are an off white). I went to the paint store today and they matched up the cabinet color almost exactly- Benjamin Moore Cream Cloak. There is the window trim and then door trim that leads from kitchen, near refrigerator wall. The door trim is between cabinets near stove and pantry cabinet. What do people think. Leave the stock white paint as contrast or paint trim to match the cabinets??? The kitchen got a first coat of BM Capilano Bridge today- 2nd coat will be tomorrow. I think it is going to look good once the granite is laid- should pull out the caramel coloring within the granite.

When you remove the backsplash, take a sample of it with you to a tile store and find a good sales person who can help you through the selection process. Tile design can be very difficult as, unlike working with fabrics where the designer has done a lot of work for you, you are designing the colors, patterns, textures and sheens all yourself. It can be daunting without help if you're not big into design. You can go with a plain 4x4 beige but that is a really "safe" choice. Subway tile is not 'bold' but rather another standard choice. Both can be laid in different patterns for more interest, but the more complicated the pattern, the more expensive to install as it takes more tile and entails more cuts. There are also many other tile shapes (diamonds, mosaics, arabesque, etc.) And your choice of grout color can make the pattern more or less prominent, depending on how it blends or contrasts with the tile. But whatever you choose, make sure the tile and the counter colors blend nicely as they are right next to each other for the life of the kitchen. Below is an example of the same tile laid in a different pattern over the cooktop. They make very beautiful and expensive tiles in glass and metals and natural stones including mosaics. To make a backsplash more interesting without blowing the budget, you can use a standard tile background and then add in fancy tiles as accents, or add a narrow stripe, maximizing the impact while minimizing the amount of expensive tile you need to buy. Important to keep in mind is the size and busy-ness of the counter. A simple backsplash works well with a busy counter and vice versa. What you don't want to do is go busy with both. Your counter looks to have a fair amount of pattern so to go with a plainer background tile with some accents that pick up the other colors in the counter would be a great option. Here's an example of using an accent strip against a plainer background Here's an example of using accent tiles as dots against a solid background You can spend some time with pinterest or houzz.com to get tons of ideas for backsplashes.

Thanks Crystalpea That is an interesting tile/back splash! What is it called... What is the Granite slab called? I was looking at Daltile subway tile in a biscuit color. Very simple... I don't think I can go with a big pattern as I really will not have much back splash area. Will definitely go up around window and take the corner shelfs out and paneling. Once I get the counter in than will get a better idea of back splash but it will be very simple subway or solid color no pattern...