Thanks everyone. I'm all smiley and giddy hearing your kind comments. It melts me heart. I'm glad to hear people like the backsplash tile. It is pretty bold. I was also THRILLED with how the stain on the island turned out. Interestingly, lots of people say the kitchen has a peaceful look and feel to it and that wasn't necessarily something I was aiming for but my kitchen mission statement did include "casual but sophisticated/elegant" which might boil down to "peaceful or tranquil". We feel very blessed to have been able to do such a large scale kitchen remodel and are thrilled with how everything turned out. It also means we won't be moving for the next 15+ years! I can't wait until the bar stools are in and I can start serving snacks to my kids there. We are borrowing one bar stool right now and it gets a lot of use. clarygrace and others - I'm glad to hear you think the colors are coordinate b/c I was in a quandary about that at one point. I can't wait to see your kitchen and island. We love the shape of ours but did it b/c it worked within our constraints. We didn't want to mess with the existing deck outside the bay windows and we couldn't push right much more either b/c of the powder room. And speaking of the powder room - here are pictures of that which was also part of this remodel: tea4all - the pantry is pretty small as far as walk-in pantries go. Finished dimensions are 5.5' long by 46'' wide. We weren't originally going to do a pantry but it made sense with the rest of the layout (it brought the oven closer to the rest of the kitchen) and I am really glad we did! It was actually framed larger and had to be redone b/c large aisles were more important to me than a few more inches in the pantry. The other detail I forgot to include - the grout color on the backsplash is Custom Grout Light Smoke and on the floor it is Lacrete Parchment (just in case someone really wants to know - ha!)

Posted by budgeteer_s (My Page) on Wed, Dec 31, 08 at 18:18 Thanks for all your suggestions. I wanted so much to follow with ci_lantro's suggestion because then I'm done. I'll gladly let you snatch that paint brush out of my hand. ha ha. But at the same time if a little tiling will tie up the project, then I'm game. jodi_socal: I'm a little disappointed when you said fire and ice won't work. I just LOVE that F&I BS. But then agin, I think I know all along it's a little too much for my kitchen. Caryscott & petra: Thanks for the picture petra, it says a thousand words. Is spectralight glass tiles? Prices are pretty reasonable. What about that milk green color? will it work? maybe with some garnet pieces sparingly mixed in. I will take some pictures and post two HD Behr's paint card to aid in the discussion of color. Thanks again ALL! Correction: My tiles were Alfagres: Gema4x4: different from what caryscott posted: I loved what caryscott linked:

Thanks for the replies. We tested Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, Gray Owl, and Moonshine. Moonshine and Gray Owl looked almost frosty in our room. We liked Revere Pewter, but it was too dark so we tried it 50% lighter and we love it. Here are some pictures of our tests. (Top is Revere Pewter 50% lighter, left if Gray Owl, Right is Moonshine, and bottom is regular Revere Pewter). Here is another picture of Revere Pewter 50% lighter next to our backsplash.

Glacier White Corian is perfect for what you describe wanting. No chipping or staining, some light scratching, can be a patina or buffed out if you prefer. Not heat resistant, nothing is aside from soapstone and stainless, not suitable for cutting directly on, nothing else is either.