It looks like the Imperial 42" is the favorite. It is funny that most of my "inspiration" pictures have a similarly shaped hood, since I saved those images in my "backsplash" folder to try to help my choose the BS height (i.e., I didn't intentionally choose those pictures for the hood). The voting for BS height is mixed, with the majority so far choosing the 8' height. The image above with the tall gray glass BS is from the Smallbones catalog -- I love that look -- makes me wish I could have gone "topless." I think I prefer the taller glass BS, but I'm not sure how to overcome the technical difficulties with the chinmey extending beyond the glass. The glass and wall above will be painted the same color so the line will not be a strong contrast like most of the images above, although the shine factor will obviously be very different.

Thanks prill...I'm leaning towards only doing tile in area to the left of the casing...then in the window area just doing paint and the casing down to the counter. I guess I'll just have to be more dilligent with cleaning. The Reef was the first tile that spoke to me...I really thought I was going to go for a more solid blue, but reef is so much softer....it allows me to play up the color of the walls more...not that I have a lot of walls...And, I found out that my designer can get it for about 12.50/sf where I was quoted around $15/sf.

That's a schluter edge. Nice they did that...but they sure did a messy job. Same thing happened with my back splash. They tried to "clean it up" which helped some, but still doesn't look professional. I would have the gc look at it. Ask him "does this look like the kind of work you expect to see in a (whatever price) custom home? If I review you on Houzz you want me to post these pictures?" That should get you some kind of answer... Good luck!

I really love the look when you go around the corner, only to the depth of the upper cabinet. It looks very polished, very nicely finished. The size/scale of the tile matters for this type of look. (If you're using a large format tile, I wouldn't recommend it.) You would then use a bullnose tile or a deco edge to end the tile.