A friend of mine has a cherry kitchen with absolute black granite counters and a backsplash made by Jeffrey Court called "Fire and Ice"...I know because I asked her (I like it very much and may do the same combo in our next house). Fire and Ice is a mesh-mounted mix of slate and glass tiles...mostly slate in elongated brick-shaped pieces with smaller bits of square glass tiles inserted randomly. It's kind of like a ledgestone look but with a little bit of glass tile mixed in. It looks great with the black counters because the slate has dashes of charcoal/black tones in it, and also it has the warm amber-ish tones of the cherry. I love the combination. You can probably find it online through the Jeffrey Court website.

In another house that we did, I had cherry cabinets, absolute black honed granite, and a sage/grey green handmade subway tile in the backsplash. We had the tile grouted in a cement grey tone, which helped pick up the dark tone of the granite and went well with the SS appliances, and we got tons of compliments on that kitchen. The combination of grey-green color and cherry woods is a classic Mission-style combination, and goes well with the black granite.

Do you plan to have your countertops honed? If so, it will help make the contrast between backsplash and counters a little less harsh.

Sorry I don't have photos for you! Good luck.

Susan

Thanks Susan ~ the granite will be polished because it is the only request DH made--I had complete say over this entire renovation. I've looked at 100 or so of the "finished kitchens" and all I see so far is what I don't want. I guess it's one way of narrowing things down.

Here is my kitchen with stainless steel appliances, stained cherry cabinets, dark wood flooring, Jeffrey Court Fire & Ice backsplash and Impala Black granite (looks blacker in person when a camera flash is not at work).

We love the combo!

Jodi-

Wow, what a gorgeous kitchen and the backsplash is very dramatic. I am definitely going to print this picture and add it to my folder of possibilities. My cabinets are cherry, but very light. Thanks so much for the suggestion.

Gorgeous backsplash, jodi!

I'm a visual person so it helps to see this stuff in photos but I'll take a stab at helping. Have you considered substituting a charcoal tile for the dark green and a soft gray for the pale green? You'd end up with a very similar look to what you'd planned while mimicking the new granite. Ivory, beige, yellow and gray can look really wonderful together, provided you pick the right hues.

Lisa, very good suggestion. I might be putting too much importance into the backsplash selection, but I think it's the one piece that can tie everything together or be a nonentity. Now, I'm going to take out my crayons and try the charcoal and soft gray as you suggested with the other colors. Thanks
Maureen in MA