onelady1dog2girls-- brick joint is another easy one-- it's your typical subway tile pattern-- set like bricks, with the joints in one row falling in the middle of the tiles from the rows above and below. When you recommend row of glass, are you talking about liners or are you talking about 2x2 or something run straight across? Whatever size you like. My recommendation would be for liners or something thin like that, because if you go too big, you're not going to have too much room to work with for your herringbone. Lets say you use a 1/2" liner, and 3" tile for a border top and bottom-- that's 7" out of what's normally an 18" space-- leaves you 11" to do the herringbone pattern. Using a 3x6 subway tile set tight, that's still enough room, but I wouldn't want to give up much more than that. What about using two 2 x 2's where the herringbone subway tiles meet? That works alot better when using a square pattern, where a corner gets "clipped" off four tiles that come together. That's not to say it can't be done, but it wouldn't be as simplistic as clipping a corner on 4 tiles to make a square for the accent. I saw a posting from Chloesmom (I think that was the name) and she had long subways with squares of glass tile between (in a typical subway running pattern), it was a beautiful repeating pattern and I was wondering if I could somehow incorporate a pattern like that? I don't remember seeing the splash you're talking about, but I don't see why not. Do you have any photos of what you are suggesting? No, I don't. I've never done one like this but you've inspired me! :-) This is the closest I've done to what you're talking about:

I literally said "oooooh" out loud when I saw that first picture. So pretty and elegant! I like the herringbone as a focal point behind the stove, because it seems like the pattern needs some vertical space to really do it justice (at least with the size shown in the pictures.) Maybe you could mock up an image of how it would look between your counters and upper cabinets to see how it would look and to make sure it's not an excessive number of cuts.

I did the herringbone above my range. My range is 36" but my hood is 42". Since my herringbone is in a niche, it might differ slightly. Mine 30"WX20"H. Hope that helps.

Agree about herringbone..I'd go for narrower tile if that possible in order to do herringbone, if no-I'd stick with offset. It's also hard to predict who'll be the tilers..some are very good, some are not as good as others. Takes some skill, as mentioned upthread. But as backsplash comes last you'll know much more and you'll have time to decide. Do you have samples of everything you showed? any possibilty for you to put them in the order they's be installed? Granite, flooring-horizontal..tile, door sample-vertical. You'll get better idea on how will look irl, because surfaces tend to read differently when light hits them at a different angle. If you did that already-great.. if you can make a photo for us-even better. how large is the kitchen, what's the layout, will it get enough light, is it open, semi-open? What the space/s next to it will be? All this would influence my choice of combinations of colors. All yours supposedly work well together, but the context is important. And I miss it a bit, because I don't know the space you're working with. As for the painted cabinets I find them all high maintenance , at least every time it's not me who's cooking, regardless their color(I have a light taupe. Because I like taupe. Btw I like purple too so it was a tough decision)) Then it's not like I'd love every wood stain out there too, so.. To me, that'd be a lot of cool, darker gray, but colors are personal, and do depend on a context which I lack as of now. Also one can add interesting hardware(depending on whar direction kitchen takes), colorful accessories and many other things. If you have linen door sample at home I'd try it with the granite sample too (in the order they'd be installed). Not because it's more timeless or whatever, but because you might see it doesn't work(for example too creamy next to the granite..hard to see the color on the screen)-or on the opposite, you might like it more than gray. With this specific granite. In short if you can try and stagger the samples together and look at them in different lghts (morning, afternoon, artificial if possible..yes, I know it's a new house, we brought a flashlight with us, at some point, electricity wasn't there yet, to look at the colors at night) ..it's worth the time and effort.