It seems that with the cabinets and counter you have chosen, the sky is almost the limit with the backsplash, depending on the impact you want it to have. Clean, simple, and classic?...You could use white subways. For classic, but with a little more drama, maybe subways in glass or olive...or other deeper color of your choice. (I keep saying subways, because nice smooth subways are usually consistently sized and of consistent thickness which makes for an easier installation, and since they're relatively large, fewer of them are needed). If you want a backsplash with more pizazz, there are glass mosaics, etc. For very simple, maybe beadboard. To give you more help you need to help us more...Colors you like or are in the house, the style and feel you're going for, etc. Maybe start with flooring, which generally has to flow with the rest of the house somehow, then let that narrow your backsplash choices. Also, look at stores, and look at magazines and on-line photos to see what you like. You can start with the Finished Kitchens Blog, which has kitchens, as well as backsplash pictures. Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Kitchens Blog

Well congratulations on your new home! And welcome to the money pit, er, I mean, home ownership club! I didn't see where you indicated what part of the country you live in. I live in Florida so my priorities might not match yours if you live in a cold part of the country. Generally speaking, my advice is to spend the "hard money" first no matter where you live. The "hard money" is what you spend to protect your investment that doesn't necessarily have any impact on aesthetics. Address structural and infrastructure issues first how is the roof, the foundation, the plumbing, the electricity, heating and cooling systems, windows, doors, floors and walls? It makes no sense to take down a nasty popcorn ceiling and make it beautiful only to have a roof leak ruin it and have to do it again. Likewise I wouldn't get hardwood floors refinished until I knew that my floor joists were sound. So spend the money that seems to go toward invisible things first  this is a major investment in your peace of mind and will help you to avoid spending any money twice. If you didn't have a home inspection before you bought your house, do it now. We bought our house "as-is" from an estate knowing that the seller wasn't going to do any repairs, but we paid for a home inspection to help us prioritize the work that needed to be done and spot things that we might not notice. A good home inspection is worth the money. In the last year, I put on a new metal roof (energy savings and hurricane protection), and all new impact resistant doors and windows (again with the energy savings and hurricane preparedness). The inside is a mess (exposed concrete slab, kitchen remodel in progress, ceiling patches from previous water intrusion). All of my new windows went in with virtually NO damage inside. I did have to touch up the paint job to the outside that was done in March. The new doors were quite another story. But, hey, now that you are a homeowner, you are quickly going to become intimately acquainted with drywall spackle and a putty knife and paint and brush. You can perform minor magic with paint and spackle. That's easy and fairly cheap. Your kid decides to see if a cutting board will fly like a frisbee? Spackle and paint. Fido decides to chew the corner off the wall because you left him at home alone while you went to work? Spackle and paint will fix that, too. Make sure you get enough paint to have some left over when you are done! It comes in handy. When it comes to doing work that is cosmetic, I'd advise you to start at the top and work your way down. If you can get ceiling work  texture and paint  done before moving in, your life will be simpler. Except maybe for carpeting. I have asthma and allergies. Why we didn't pull out the carpeting when we first moved in is beyond me. We've been living with the naked concrete slab for almost a year. Yes, it is ugly. Yes, it spawns dirt moments after it is swept. But I haven't had a asthma attack in a LONG time. Your mileage may vary. You can save a lot of money by being flexible and shopping online. If you "get married" to one specific thing, then you lose options to save money. For example, I knew I wanted a single-lever faucet with a non-polished, white metal finish. I looked at the prices for good brands in person and then I looked to see what I could find online. I found a brushed chrome Price-Pfister single-lever bathroom faucet on eBay for $25; the seller was one I've seen favorably mentioned here. I wouldn't spend over $100 for that faucet, but for $25, I'll pay $10 for shipping, and maybe have to bid on more than one auction to get the minimum bid price. I ended up getting two of them at the minimum bid price in about 24 hours. I didn't get to combine the shipping cost, but I still saved a bundle. Check your local Habitat for Humanity. Mine has a resale store where you can buy building materials for a fraction of retail. I haven't bee there yet  it's probably like thrift store shopping  you never know what you'll find. I was at Blowes today and found fancy white vitreous china bathroom sinks marked down to $19.50 (discontinued item). I don't need a fancy one, but I want white. I can live with the fancy one! My home is not architecturally distinctive in any way, but there is an architectural salvage place not far from here that is chock full of goodies, from door knobs and chandeliers to kitchen cabinets and doors. You can also pick up some good deals by watching Craig's List for your area. Examine everything carefully and use common sense  don't go to a stranger's home to buy something by yourself. Some people have said some very harsh, judgmental things to you. I hope that you will ignore them. I haven't heard you say that your objective in life is to sit in front of the tv and I don't think that it's unreasonable to want ONE orderly space to retreat to. It's not realistic to expect that you will feel like spending EVERY waking moment at work or working on your house. You will need to take breaks and PLAN on down time if you are going to live in your house while you work on it. Otherwise life becomes pretty miserable pretty quickly. You can do this if you want it. Lets face it, you have to live somewhere. You will need to make a priority list that fits YOUR needs. That list can and will change when things happen. Since I moved into this house five years ago, the AC died and had to be replaced ($5K), the power supply to the house died and had to be replaced ($1.5K), my 16 year old dog, 82 year old father in law and 40 year old niece died and can never be replaced at any cost. So I probably spent some time in front of the tv when I "should have" been painting a wall. Don't apologize for wanting some comfort in your life. Best of luck to you. B

I'm having a hard time seeing all the details in the pic because it's too small. Is it possible you could post a larger picture? I think you'd get more responses. Plus provide some details about what you want from the space. Do you need/want seating/eating space in the kitchen? Kids? How many cooks? From what I can see, you don't have anything on that run of cabinets on the bottom. I can't see that area serving any purpose. You certainly won't use it for working or preping. I'd be inclined to get rid of that run of cabinets entirely and use that space to make the island larger. Then I'd add a prep sink to the end of the island by the fridge. BTW, when you start a new thread, it remains at the top of the board until you start getting responses. When you responded to your own post, your thread started dropping down the board. Try posting larger pictures so people can see the details and provide more information all in one post. I think that would help a lot. :)

Declutter. CAREFULLY pressure wash the house from the roof to the foundation. I would keep the fretwork ornamentation and the shutters. The swing, accent table and ferns can stay. Once you wash everything, you might not need to do anything more. The home is very charming. Love the soft colors and the brick porch. Add geraniums to the planters.