You can try to wax them. Every shell mosaic manufaturer after they polished the mosaic chips and stick in a sheet,they have one step is waxing. After waxing,the chips will become very shiny. After construction,there will be having some dirty thing on the surface.That's the reason that is dull. Hoping this is useful for you. And the right way for installing that kind of shell mosaic is following: Construction way of our mother of pearl mosaic and tiles. We can lay glue or adhesive (We suggest to use tiny granule glue or white grout) on the wall and then put the mosaic on the wall by hand until the gap is filled with glue or grout (the hand pressure should be well-proportioned). After 30 minutes (for tiny granule glue 20 minutes is okay), you can clean the surface of the mosaic by dry soft cloth. 3.Shell Panel Application & Installation Commonly use to the backing such as MDF, Marble, Ceramic, Calcium Silicate Board, Plasterboard, Acryl and Metal. Using AB adhesive or all-purpose adhesive, apply even coat of adhesive to the panel and wall, and waiting for 5 to 8 minutes, then press it carefully to the wall. Immediately wipe off excess adhesive with a soft wet cloth, and dry with a clean soft cloth afterwards. 4. Protection and Cleaning 1. Please wipe the surface with charpie to reduce the nick; 2. Please clean the surface with neutral detergent; 3. Please wax shell mosaic surface regular time; Please Attention 1.Do not irradiate the surface with 100W above light. 2. The detergent should be faintly acid,because the content of shell mosaic are CaCO3; 3.Would better use tham soft cloth clean the surface,and wax them regular time for keeping the shiny. Hoping giving you some help! Here is a link that might be useful: Solar Shell Decorative Material.,Ltd

Interesting discussion, thanx everyone. I loved finding 10' ceilings above an ugly dropped ceiling...but still am not sure how to enclose some ugly heat ducts that were exposed by the project. I want to rip out 2 more rooms, but I looked with a flashlight, and there will be quite a bit of plumbing exposed above the kitchen, so I dunno. Seems like a big job - but I suppose I might try to to re-run the lines along walls, and add soffits to hide the pipes. Or maybe I'll just leave that suggestion fo rthe next owner, who hopefully will be be a restorationist. I don't mind a low ceilng in a bedroom, since it can seem cozy and help keep the room warm, but I hate it for living areas. I'd get heavy micro-fiber blanket for sofas, and rip out that fake ceiling! (It will be cooler in summer) My 115 year old old house had 2 couple rooms with deep icicles in the ceiling. (Thank goodness it wasn't that awful popcorn stuff!) Sleeping under those daggers seems like bad very Feng Shui. Icicles can look menacing, especially when the ceiling needs paint. Who wants to sleep beneath daggers? Starting with the bedroom, I knocked off the longest of the daggers, by scooting a painters' trowel along, to knock longest edges off. I dabbed primer on before repainting; which was with a fuzzy roller made for very rough surfaces. It has reduced how visually distracting the ceiling is from all the deep valleys. (Am going to do this in the other room, too) If you try this, wear leather gloves while chipping away at icicles, or your knuckles can get bloodied by the points. There will be a lot of debris flying too, so cover hair, eyes, and anything below. You can just sweep up after this simple job, and it may help prevent a total tear out for those of us who don't like the deep valleys of an icicle ceiling. The custom ceiling will still have texture, but not as dramatic or visually distracting. The room is calmer, and I no longer feel strafed by daggers. Life is good.

xc60, that is very worrisome! My tile guy has great reviews from everyone I've talked to and I have seen his work. I know he has installed glass before, but don't think he has installed the glass subways. Should I be looking for someone else? The people who did our counters also have a tile guy who will charge several hundred more than the guy we have, but he has definitely done glass subways, so perhaps I should just pay the extra? We ordered the tile today. We ended up going with a different one from the one posted above because it was on backorder. The color is very similar, just slightly lighter, and goes perfectly with the lighter colors in the granite. I really think I am going to love it once the pretty polished tile goes in.

I am not sure about painting tile...it's not intended to be painted and I am not sure how the paint would hold up. (I.e. it might be okay in the beginning, but tend to chip badly because the paint won't really stick to it). But if someone who knows about painting tiles thinks it is okay, then their opinion should override since I don't know anything about painting tile. If you want to change something, I would change something which can be painted, like the wood trim around your doors and windows and the white shelves. Another thing you can do is paint the interior of any open cabinets (like the one on the wall to the right of your stove). Marcolo suggested green and I think that might look very nice with the white tile and brown wall paint.