If you do end up replacing the counter top, how about swapping the placement of the lonely end cabinet and the fridge. Eventually, you could get an under the counter mounted microwave to make up for the lost space with the short upper cabinet. If you did this, I would end the beadboard back splash before the fridge, at the orange line. If you continue the beadboard around to the other side of the doorway, I think chair rail height is appropriate, so that would be lower than the orange line. Perhaps match chair rail height to your island height. Beadboard on the front of your island would look awesome. Good luck from an amateur.

I agree with Errant. I almost always prefer the tile to die there than carry around the side wall. I've been living with painted backsplash area for almost 3 years and haven't needed a touch up in paint except maybe where the raging flame from my CC rangetop has discolored the are directly behind the center rear burner from my extremely high heat searing and stir frying.

As a Certified Red Seal Tile Setter the substrates (sub structure) and prep work are crucial elements and have a direct affect on not only the finished product but also the long term performance. Since this project involves a kitchen back-splash, there is no need to buy/install cement board of any type or a thing of the past called Green board. Like any tile job, everything must be level/square and solid first! Removing existing tiles and minimizing the damage to the existing wall board requires the right tools and a certain degree of patience. Personally, I have never seen cement board behind any type/kind of back-splash tile(s). Ceramic tiles are the most porous kind of tile and should be properly sealed as well as all grout lines. Also, in water areas, your grout line thickness should never exceed 1/8 of an inch. This helps in minimizing water penetration and also helps in the visual appeal. The idea is to showcase the tile not the grout lines! Secondly, and equally important is to try and get the grout color as close to the main color in the tile, that way it gives a visual appearance in being one large piece of tile, although it isn't! Solid color tiles should always be complimented with a slightly off color grout (i.e. white tile - off white grout). Your investment is in the tile, not the grout line, so it makes sense to showcase the tile! For DIY people, forget spending your time looking at 50 different videos on YouTubes or even worse, the advise you get from some hourly clerk at your local improvement store! It is to your advantage to buy your tiles at a place that specializes in tiles only and nothing else! They will and should supply you with everything you will need material wise to do your intended project. On another note, buy a few tiles first; take them home and place them where they are going to be installed ( tape them to the wall if that is where they are being installed); stand back an look at it to see if you like the color/size and the pattern. What any tile looks like in a showroom can look a lot different under different lighting conditions!

I wouldn't take the tile up to the vaulted ceiling even though it would look fine. It's a lot of work and you wouldn't get enough bang out of it to make it worthwhile. Usually the tile goes to the bottom of the hood but I've seen photos where it goes part way up the hood and that looks nice too. I would bring it a few inches above the door pull on the left, about midway of the hood section. I think it'd look really nice with a different colored pencil liner capping it there--much better than putting the liner at the base of the hood. What color is your liner? I'd do beadboard above the butcher block. I really like how it's mixed with ceramic tile here to create a variety of textures: