The counter is White Princess granite. It was a remnant from our kitchen remodel...see the Kitchen forum and search "rancher remodel". It shows the granite in better detail which I used both for my counters and for my backsplash. The wall color is BM Harbour Gray and love the color! I used another gray for the living room and it kinda turned lavender (BM Pigeon Gray). To see that room look in the Decorating forum and search "Dining room chairs"...I'm still looking for those :) here's the shower area:

Yes, with paint, you just need to clean really well, prime and paint. It's stain that requires the old finish be removed. And then you stain, and then you top coat. I haven't used gel stain, but in the other bathroom, I used a stain/polyurethane "one step" product, without stripping the old finish. It doesn't look nearly as nice as a properly stained product. It was almost impossible to get it not streaky. I looked into gel stain for other products, and it looked like the only benefit to it over liquid stain was that it wouldn't run. Not any less prep. And I googled it to see where someone might have told you the opposite. Young House Love painted without stripping. They used a deglosser, I've only ever used TSP to wipe the cabinets down. It's not the same as stripping and sanding. They did some sanding, but only because they used wood putty to fill cracks and holes. (Another reason to paint vs stain, even "stainable" putty never comes out the same colour as the wood, without a lot of trial and error to get the right putty for your stain and your wood.) The Frugal Girl did a lot of sanding, but didn't remove the finish, either, from what I can see. And it wasn't necessary. Since oil paint isn't very popular anymore, and banned in many states. I recommend BM Advance paint for cabinets. I have also used a product called Cabinet Coat, which I really liked. But it's hard to get in my area. The Benny Moore stuff is easier to find. It takes a few days or weeks to get really hard, but once it's cured, it's really tough. It's dry to the touch in a few hours, but will scratch easily for the first couple of weeks.

I agree, the same tile as the walls. I don't think I'd use herringbone in that space, it isn't big enough to get much of a pattern in the niche. Or, you could use the hex from the floor in the niche. That would be fine too. I agree with the poster above - decorative bottles looks much nicer that plastic bottles that tend to get mucky and gooey in the shower. Nice idea that I must try to institute in my own home.

I would replace both counters and sinks. The sinks do not match so even if you do (sort of) match the brown counter they will not look like they go together.