The sink wall, however, is more of a challenge. As you can (hopefully) see, we have asymmetrical windows, as well as bumpouts in the corners. At first I was thinking of running the 18" line all the way across from the undercabinets to the sink wall. Unfortunately the sill of the small window is at something like 17". Also, I went without window trim in the kitchen, which means I'd have to figure out how to elegantly finish off the tile there.

DH thinks we should tile up to the ceiling on the sink wall but I was afraid of too much dark gray tile. Plus, I had been thinking of doing open shelves above the sink - originally thinking walnut veneer. Anyhow, any thoughts would be much appreciated!! Thank you.

Nancy

Is the window to the right of the sink lower than the counter? I ask because I have a window with a sill lower than counter height and I've wondered what I will be able to do. Thanks for sharing.

I think you need to create a line where the tile ends and the paint begins. Once your kitchen is complete and we see the reveal, this will not even be a question; we will all accept that delineation as being natural to the space. However, one thing that separates designers from the rest of us is being able to visualize where that line should naturally be.

My leaning is to tile up to the sill of the left (smaller) window and go straight across that wall. You may have a little jogging to do with the tile on the right side of the large window because it appears your cabinets are lower than the left window sill.

Picking a tile store or tile installer who also has a good designer (one who will be anal about the details) might be a good idea in your case.

That said, I think dark gray tiles would be very dramatic and contrast nicely against your white cabinets. Do you get a lot of natural light from your windows? If you don't, then I MAY be a tiny bit concerned about the overall effect being heavy. If you don't get much sunlight, I'd probably have to agree with colorfast...

Still, I think that whatever you do, once the kitchen is done, envy thing will appear cohesive look wonderful. This is a tricky stage to be in, especially with your window sizes... But you've made some beautiful decisions already so I know things will turn out well!

Michelle16 - I had actually gone with your previous suggestion to use Atlas and turned out great! Price was higher b/c we selected slabs from another yard. Our cabinets are BM White Dove and from Scherrs - they're great too.

Annie - our floors are white oak stained to dark walnut. We wanted to bring some warmth into the kitchen.

Prickly - Yes, in fact the window on the right is lower than our countertops and based on suggestions from this forum, we are going to install some sort of planter or flowerbox there.

Colorfast - I really like your suggestion of using the small window sill line. Perhaps if I don't tile that bumpout in the corner, then I won't have to jog the tiles up to the undercabinet line? Will that look strange if I don't tile the corner bit of wall?

Dragonfly - your kitchen is gorgeous! Love that color tile. Did you just end up using a small cut piece of the ceramic tile to trim the windows?

I would only tile behind each run of counter, not the short sides, which should help with the BS being a different height on each side. I am not sure if I would tile that little space of back wall to the right of the large window, or treat that as part of the corner and just stop the tile at the left side of that window.

If you go with a lighter tile, then I could see going all the way to the ceiling on both walls as an option.

Yesterday I picked up samples of a handmade white subway, a crackle gray blue green subway and a carrara subway. Surprisingly, the carrara (which is what I've been thinking I'd go with) was too gray. It could have been that particular tile though. I really liked the gray blue green crackle tile. We have that color throughout the house in paint colors you can see from the main room so it may work really well. I'm also getting some samples in next week of some glass tiles in similar colors as well as a small oval mosaic tile that's a really muted marble. I was hoping this wouldn't be that difficult but it's harder than I thought!

Babs - love your huge island!

Ok, back to thinking about that backsplash...

Thanks Jdknyc!!

Michelle, our cabinets are the white that the cabinet company we went with had. It's a soft white though. When I went to BM to see about matching our trim it was close to Frostine from the Affinity line.

I'm looking at samples right now. We have a white Oceanside glass sample with slight iridescence in it but it appears kind of flat, even grouted and mounted on thinset. The light isn't catching it the way I'd hoped it would. I guess I should be glad as its the priciest option I have.

I also have a true iridescent from Sonoma Tilemakers from the Vihara line. It's in the Puka shade. It's lovely. I'm not sure about going this shimmery all throughout the entire kitchen though.

The other two I have are Sonoma Stellar Glaze in Aquarius (a somewhat light greyed blue green) and a handmade crackle tile in a deeper greyed blue green.

We have BM Grey Wisp in the room right off the kitchen (which is painted Revere Pewter). So going in the greyed blue green realm is a serious option. I wasn't expecting to like it but when we propped them up on the counter they worked so much better than any of the white tiles did.

The Puka plays off both of the blue/green tiles really nicely and comes in a hex pattern. I'm thinking if doing that as an inset over the range with one of the other tiles as the main backsplash tiles.

I like the Aquarius shade but kind of wish it had the crackle finish the deeper shade has. So I'm trying to decide!!

Did you select anything??

i have recently been on a mad hunt for white quartzite.
we are currently building & all along i've had my mind set on using quartz (caesarstone/silestone)... until on a recent trip to San Antonio when i saw white quartzite.
i absolutely loved it!!!!
living in Houston you'd think i'd be able to find some.
not so easy.
after a couple dozen phone calls...
visiting two hand fulls of yards... i finally found slabs.
the one thing that i noticed & what's giving me pause... it appears to have an ever so slight tint of green.
the veins are gray... it's just a subtle hue of green coming through.

so... when i saw jdknyc & babs711 kitchens... helloooo... beautiful... :)... and right up my alley... i had to jump in and get your thoughts.
please oh please... if you have a sec.

does your quartzite have a slight green hue?
do you notice that?
i am wondering if it's just their batch of slabs they have or it's just inherit with the white quartzite.
i don't recall seeing it when i saw it in S.A... however... it could just be lighting differences & what not.

i so appreciate your help.
as i teeter back & forth between using quartz & quartzite in a crazy lady frenzy. :)

fyi... i attached a pic... shown with BM coastal fog & a basic white subway tile... just for color reference.

thanks!!!!!

To give you an overall shot of it with all the elements in the kitchen:

A bigger shot:

Good luck!!

truly your kitchen looks beautiful!
all the details... awesome!
the back splash... gReAt color!
yours looks like just what i'm after too... and no green hue! :)
your input helps a lot!

going to head back out there tomorrow...
see if that green still jumps out at me. ha! :)

hoping to find some other slabs somewhere in the area too... to compare!
keeping my fingers crossed.

thanks again!

feel thankful to have found your pretty inspiration & info.