I had a vision of my back splash even before any other kitchen element, then we picked the floor. We decided next on white cabinets. We then chose our counters based on what would complement our back splash and floor. There is no one way to pick as each person's priorities may be different. To some, the back splash is an afterthought, and others, it is the inspiration. Oftentimes, you see an inspiration photo somewhere and that is your jumping off point. I saw my tile combo in the bathroom of an old house and it was love from then on (lavender field tiles with black accents). I have seen many pretty tile combos since then but none have bumped off my original choice. I just wish I could decorate more kitchens or at least rooms, lol. If you pick a pricey back splash, there is no rule the counters have to be pricey. You also could upgrade the counters down the road if you budget only allows one splurge for the near future. In 5-10 years, a new counter could give fresh a new look. I also think you could go with contrast dark & light, go with medium & medium colors or light/light. I don't think dark & dark would work unless your cabs & floor were very light and you have a lot of light in the room. Of course, you could go light and medium or dark & medium. You need to find what hits home for you. Don't do your kitchen by someone else's rules. You are the one who is paying for it and who will live with it. Trust your instincts and if you are undecided, then you just have not seen the right "fill in the blank" yet. Keep looking at pix and go to the tile or kitchen place and play around with different combos next to each other. Something will click.

didn't have time to read all the answers. I have no backsplash and have never regretted it...been over 6 yrs. It is painted with BM matte...which has ceramic in it. It is as beautiful now as it was when first painted. I love the fact that I can showcase other things ...art etc in my kitchen and no competition. Also if I ever want to change it is as quick as a paint brush...expense is minimal..paint only ! All in all I think it is serene as you point out . Here is one pick. Since I have a lot of high heat cooking in my kitchen..built in deep fat fryer as well as gas cook top I can definitely speak to the longevity of paint only. c ( more at this album )

So tired of hearing " but that will make it look dated" or "it wouldn't be good for resale" Everything is going to be dated at some point, the kitchen designers, cabinet companies and appliance companies make sure of that. Example: stainless steel appliances were just coming on the market 15 years ago when we gutted our kitchen for a remodel. It was hard for me to find stainless in my area at that time, I live in a small mid western town. So, have you noticed in the past few years appliance companies have been trying to bring out new colors, grayed looking stainless, now ice white etc. they are trying to make people think their stainless appliances are soon going to be "dated". But I have read in several articles that stainless is still the number one choice. I chose a cinnamon stained cherry wood for our new build. I thought about white because that is the trend right now, but I reasoned cherry cabinets will always be in style while the white trend Has just a few more years. I won't be a slave to trends. Just my opinion.

I have a nice size sample of the Calcutto Nuvo that i ordered. Really nice looking and its one of my top choices for my remodel. Do you mind asking how much you are getting quotes for this? It sounds like your fabricator is taking the easy way out, plenty of people buy this style @homechef- could you expand on not mixing quartz with natural backsplash. Plenty of people use engineered counter tops. are you telling me that no of those customers ever use natural stone tile? I am thinking of going with quartz and marble tile/backsplash. I'm a novice so please assist