I think you could do what Patti Bee did, and line up the marble tile to match the height of the tile under the window. This will give you more decorating options for that wall. You won't be limited to a small picture that has to hang up above the marble. If you extend the backsplash out, it may beg the question 'why didn't you make the cabinet wider?' If you have a shorter backsplash, it will look intentional.

Holligator, I didn't realize that you had to be a member to enlarge my photos in the other forum. Not sure why you couldn't see them because you can see the thumbnails without a membership. Really that should be enough to get an idea of the area I'm concerned with. (Sorry but just not comfortable after reading Photobuckets policys on info sharing to sign up just to post a photo here...Guess I may have to reconsider when I have more time). Palimpsest - The plastic strip that I mentioned that Lowes has is the same thing as the Schulter system. Problem is, I can't seem to find any good photos of it being used to see how it looks...especially around a window. Even Schulters site only shows 1 little close up photo of an outside corner that isn't helpful at all. BillP1 - Please Please Please post a photo of your metal edging....if you used it around a window, that is what I'd really like to see...a close up and from a distance if you could! It would help me so much! I have a bare ugly wall and really need to make a decision so I can move forward. Thanks so much! Anyone else try something else? Maybe just painting the edge? Just really don't want any vertical lines to take away from the clean look that I have in mind. Hoping for any photos that show options other than bullnose or framing around window. I want to take tile all the way up around the window but if I have to frame out the window it will look weird since there is only 2 1/2" on the right side before the cabinet starts, and 10" on the other side. The side with 2 1/2 would be taken up by the framing so would look like tile only on one side if you can visualize what I mean. Thanks!

I appreciate everyone trying to help me out to make sure we are safe but your dimensions are all off. I had mentioned some in an earlier post but perhaps you missed them. Math doesn't lie, but your brain can deceive you with size perception (sorry I am a vision scientist so I had to throw that in). The center of the arch is in fact 66" from the floor. I measured it. I am not making it up. We do have 9' ceilings which is why maybe your perception of the size is fooling you. Also the cabinets are not standard. They are completely custom, not just the faces but the actual boxes too. They are higher than 18" above the counter- the wood on the side of the hood that protrudes below the cabinets is at 18" and as you can see in the pic, the cabinets are above that by a few more inches). Also the cabinets aren't standard depth, they are 15", which again might be throwing the perception of the size off. I am pretty tall and when I lean forward over the cooktop, my head does not hit the hood at all. I don't know how hoods and measurements work but the wood casing around the hood that you see is not over any burners at all (so even the lowest areas of the arch that are closer to 64" are in front of the cooktop and not over it). The actual inside of the hood, in the area right above all of the burners, has a clearance that is a bit over 66". The house is new construction so it did have many inspections, and passed them all. I am hoping this is all proper and safe now that the dimensions are clarified. We worked with a kitchen designer through the custom cabinet builder. We did not do the backsplash at the time as we were rushing to move in by a certain date and had to focus on other things (the whole house was custom so we literally had to pick every thing). We are now hoping to finish that off and the fireplace stone. The house has been a long process :) Thanks for all of your help and input. And in other news, I spoke to the tile store and they do have our tile in bullnose on the short side, and in bullnose on the short and long side (in case we need to have some of the upper edge exposed too). Hooray! Once I get the tile up and finally add a little decor I will post a reveal.

Beth H. : Thank you for your suggestions & photos. I will ask our tile guy if they'd be able to do some kind of casing for us around the window. I wish our kitchen window had either a straight rectangle on top or a real arch like the photos you posted. The top window is tricky for me to conceptualize what it would look like without molding. I thought about encasing the whole window with two vertical pieces on the left and right side but the middle piece that separates the top window from the bottom window would be strangely thick. At this point it may be easier to just bring the tile to the red line and add a roman shade over the top of the bottom window but I'm not 100% sure yet. As for the tile, we are doing the plain subway tile pattern. I thought about herringbone for the backsplash but my husband and I love the classic look. We are weird with patterns and not gutsy enough to try anything bold lol. Our kitchen has a lot of white in it and we went with honey/light cinnamon colored floors to keep it very neutral. I change color schemes at least once every two months so it made sense to keep it very neutral for us.