I can see why it might be advisable to remove the left/rt portions of tile, but I would be inclined to wait until ithe kitchen is completed before deciding. If, as your gut tells you, it "needs" to come down, nothing is really lost except a little more time with it up. Perhaps knowing you are not "locked-in" or committed to it, will help give the perspective to view it more objectively while deciding for sure. This way you will not only have the chance to see it with everything else in place, but you will also have the opportunity to get used to it, before deciding if you truly dislike it, or just haven't gotten used to it being there. As subtle (in color) as our tile is, after months of looking at white painted Sheetrock, it still looked "different" and stood out when we looked at our kitchen. Once we became accustomed to it, we couldn't imagine our walls without it. That's how I am with many things--after living with a blank wall or empty space for any period of time, even a long awaited piece of furniture or decor item jumps out at me, and almost seems like too much, until I get used to the vacant space being filled. Thanks for the compliments on our backsplash Laura and andreak100! It's the Opera Glass tile from Artistic Tile (Stilatto pattern) in Wolfgang White. It does read greenish-blue(-grey) in certain lights or times of day. We had to think about that one while deciding if we wanted to use it, and obviously decided to go for it! Good luck Laura! Honestly, whatever you decide will look terrific!

I don't think we'll ever fully redo this kitchen. We'll probably only be in this house for another 2-5 years, and we're really just looking to make the space more enjoyable for us and up the resale value a bit. Our kitchen is very small, especially for a 4 bedroom house. So without knocking down walls and changing the whole layout of the 1st floor, we're not going to have a gourmet kitchen. And we're just not prepared to put that kind of money in the house given the state of the market, and I don't think our neighboorhood can support the kind of increase in price that we'd want to see to make it worth it. Sorry for all that rambling! Long story short, I think we're going to try to keep it simple for now, and save all these beautiful kitchen ideas for our next house.

Kathy, I am sure the picture will help get some additional suggestions. You have a very nice space but it is darker (like mine!) and I think a few other items to lighten it up would help here. It looks like your cabinets are hickory. In addition to a backsplash, may I suggest some new rugs that have no pattern or motifs in them? You have a lot of grain (and I think it is beautiful) but you need something solid in spots to break it up. I think your your instinct to stay away from any orange or red color is good. Some solid dish towels are a little but nice inexpensive touch too. Lastly, is it possible to add a light over the kitchen sink to give you more light, particularly at night? You already have under-cabinet lighting and that is good here. I am not so good at picking colors or tile materials myself. I just made a big mistake in a bath myself. I would say you need to use a light cream tile as others have suggested.

I have brick behind my range, the kitchen remodel has been in for about a year now. It was a chimney original to the house that I wanted to keep. We had it sealed with several coats of sealer that did not change the appearance of the brick. I wrestled with whether to leave the brick, paint it, or somehow cover it. While I liked the look of brick, I was concerned about the maintenance. When I found people that actually had sealed brick, they all seemed to think it was fine. Add me to the list. It's fine. It cleans fine. It's not filthy, greasy, etc (with adequate ventilation at least). We aren't a 3 meals daily from scratch sort of family, but the kitchen is used regularly and isn't just for looks. That said, I wouldn't use real brick as a backsplash by choice. I did look at the home depot faux brick you have linked above and found it to be fairly convincing. I'm thinking about doing a wall of it when we finish our basement (there is actually exposed brick there currently unfinished, but its not realistic to keep as is). There are other good brick look tiles out there as well. Getting samples should be easy. As for the countertop, you need something relatively simple or solid. I think everything the designer suggested seems too busy. Additionally, would probably not do a different pattern layout over the range, the brick itself is enough pattern. We used LG Muse which is white with modest amounts of veining. A grey could also work if you don't want the white on white look. Perhaps you've done this already, but try google image search "brick backsplash kitchen" and see what you like.