How old is your house? What about those tiny glass subway tiles in a neutral color (cream? grey?) or green? Or a creamy typical sized subway tile? While I like a very simple backsplash, your kitchen would look great with something a bit more fun/creative...some sort of combination of colors of artistic tile? Combination of warms (to pick up the warmth of your wood) and cools to pick up the coolness in the black/greys? http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2009/03/belgian_farmhouse_inspires_a_p.html I've been looking at Walker Zanger tiles lately as well as Pratt & Larson in Portland. Look at the 4th pic down in the second column in the following link, as well as the 2nd pic down in the 2nd column. I like their combo colors of greys and peaches/oranges: http://www.walkerzanger.com/gallery/kitchens/index.php Look at the far right example of the upper right hand corner picture here: http://www.empirekitchenandbath.com/pratt-and-larson.html Or something like this, w/ purples & golds: http://nwrenovation.com/kitchen-articles/tile-trends/

That yellow color was there when we moved in, it's something the devil painted I think, just god awful ugly. Well I primed today/night so I will post a pic tomorrow to give you a better idea. here are some of the I think we will have to repaint the red anyway, seems to marred up, but nothing we need to do right away, I like this Red at BM (pottery barn collection Here are some of the colors we are considering for the kitchen, which is having stainless steel appliances put in along with ew corian chocolate brown color. and next year a wood floor. OPh nevermind, I can't find the color on their website. we were looking at putnum ivory but fear it may be a washout with the oak cabs. so we may need something with a bit more punch. You will understand when I post the pics.

I love the choices! I am smitten with basketweave tile. Again, and only because I like it, it's a gudzillion $$. Pretty!

Wood floors - We put in natural Sassafras floors where the new kitchen is going - no stain - stain will DEFINITELY need touching up sooner than later in a kitchen. Sassafras is a light-colored wood with interesting grain, but it is soft (just barely harder than pine). Natural Maple is light-colored - very little grain though, so it is a more modern, clean look. Ambrosia Maple has character - worm holes and darker streaking. Where the new floor meets the antique Fir floor in the DR we will be adding a decorative strip between (probably Walnut and Ash). We hand-finished all our floors with Tung Oil; the benefit is that any wear-and-tear can easily be touched up with a bit of steel wool and new oil on just that area, rather than needing to re-do the entire floor. Search this forum for Tung Oil - there is one thread where I posted all the details on how to properly do it (April or March 2011). River rock tiles - the average price for those is about $10-$12 / sq.ft. Your link is in Polish Zloty, but I don't know the current exchange rate. I'm not Jewish, so I don't know the rules, but I agree that a small oven sucks! We have a 37" wide vintage Chamers Range, and the oven is SMALL! If I cannot get a separate baking center (where the laundry is supposed to go), we'll be putting one extra 30" electric wall oven under the counter in the island. Not so convenient, but a necessary evil - we NEED the counterspace, so wall ovens are out in our small kitchen. My kitchen is an "L" with an island - open fully on two sides to DR and FR; the cab walls are only 12' and 13'6" long. I am still able to fit a separate 33" fridge and 33" freezer, an extra 27" 3-burner electric cooktop with storage below, the 37"w Chambers range, one smaller 21-24"w sink with double dish-drawers next to the range, and a large 36"w sink for pots and pans and prep (next to compost drawer) on the island. Both sinks will be at least 9" deep, the smaller one maybe 12" deep because that will be the dish sink. Do you need 2 separate dishwashers? What about a double dish-drawer unit? They take up less aisle space when open, and for us the benefit is that smaller loads can be done more often, rather than waiting to fill up a standard D/W and running out of coffee mugs and spoons in the meantime ;)