I am doing the 3 tile set that is the "art nouveau iris" with the deep purple and green. It will be surrounded by some vintage fireplace tiles I bought a few weeks ago and then a black liner, so the vintage tiles (1 x 2s with faux crackle over light purple and green splotches) will form sort of a mat, like in a picture frame. I am hoping they help feature the middle. Our field will be gray subways capped by black bullnose edges. Luckily, our bs is a small area, so the cost is not overwhelming, but we want to make the most of the tiles we do use. The center and vintage tiles were a splurge, but I think they make the look :)

JB - Thanks : ) The faucet is made by Elkay and it's called "Victoria" (LK2546NK)in satin nickel. It's a single lever, no pull out or pull down. It's supposed to have an 11" reach, but it's acually 9" when mounted with the handle on the side. I bought it on Homecenter.com for $360. I contacted the Elkay Co. regarding the reach issue, and they were great and seemed concerned. They offered to pay for the restocking fee, but I loved the faucet so much, that I didn't want to send it back. The granite is called Luna Pearl. I've been told that it's sometimes called Bianco Sardo. It's 3 cm (also available in 2cm) and we got it through Anaheim Stone Works in Anaheim, CA. It's available at a lot of other granite yards, as well. I was checking the order form from Home Depot where we got our subway tiles. They are made by Dal Tile and called Rittenhouse, color is "white" and it says Semi Gloss. Even though it says semi gloss, they are really glossy imo.

I'm the opposite, i wouldn't like the glare from the B/S. we have a matte tile with a shiny granite...we also have UCL. never thought about the "reflecting" factor before we picked B/S but i would have done the same thing if i considered that factor. i wanted a matte tile to contrast the shininess of the granite and i thought it complimented the granite better than a reflective B/S... HTH

I used them in my recent kitchen renovation. We have an original black and white bathroom in our 1933 house and wanted them to match. They are very easy to keep clean and make the granite counters the star of the kitchen.