The Ikea Lidingo already takes you a good step away from putting a 1920 kitchen in a 1957 home, which is good. Try looking at Google images of Lidingo cabinets--you may get some new inspirations and ideas.

Choose simpler rather than ornate, and you'll help your look plus your budget. I wouldn't recommend polished nickel as a surface in any case, but here, chrome will also save you some cash and help you integrate your kitchen with your house. I'd think long and hard about subways. Those say, very distinctly, either pre-1929 or post-2000. I think they'll be a more durable look in an older home that might've had them anyway. However, there are a million other possibilities open to you.

What are some of the architectural elements of the rest of the house? I think it helps to have a few details that are carried from the rest of the house into the kitchen. For example, if your interior doors have brass hardware, then use brass pulls in the kitchen. If the bathrooms have little square tiles, then use little square tiles in your backsplash. Maybe carry the same flooring throughout the house. I don't think everything in the kitchen needs to match the rest of the house, but as long as there are a few things, then you should be OK.

Can you share some pictures of the rest of your home? Maybe some of the brilliant minds here can give you some suggestions on how to achieve this look and help it fit in with the rest of your home. As others have said, look at existing architectural details (bathroom tiles and hardware, built-ins, etc).

mcmjilly- the rest of the home has the same hardwood floors throughout. As for the rest of the home there are no fun details that need/should be continued. The home is very simple. So I am pretty much dealing with a blank slate.

Marcolo- thanks for the advice! I am not crazy about nickel but do love those pendants from RH. I did try looking at photos of lidingo online and all I come up with is more subway tiles! I am a very plain and simple kinda girl who likes a wee bit of sparkle (SS appliances) but am afraid of tile/color. I like the white or plain colored crackle subways because they added a bit of something but not a huge commitment in terms of color. Any advice on other tile? I did like beekeepers tile.

As I suggested to another person, perhaps you should invest time finding out what it is that makes really nice homes in the style of yours...really nice. All styles of homes, even simple small ones, have wonderful possibilities, it's just that many were constructed with virtually no attention to design or investment of money beyond a basic structure. When you find appropriate details you really like, perhaps you could carry them into a couple of the main rooms too. Stock moldings used well or MDF and a skill saw in the hands of a competent handyman can work miracles for very little, same for a genuinely good quality and handsome door announcing similar niceness farther in. Etc.

Regarding bin handles, if you want them go for them! Things like that are great ways to get what you like right now since you could always change them out if you ever wanted. In the case of handles, just make sure their mounting holes are at a standard distance.

mcmjilly is giving you a great advice.
Also learn about the architectural style of your house. 1957 cape cod will have a different esthetic than a 1957 ranch. If your house has colonial influence, again, slightly different esthetic. Each has a set of "decorative" elements that work well with that style of house.
Take clues from things that you cannot change: ie window (types of panes, double hung, casement etc), doors (flat/slab versus recessed panel or raised panel), trim and moulding detail.
All of these details should effortlessly coordinate with each other.
If you have recessed paneled doors, then recessed panel cabinets would look quite at home.
The more these details are coordinated, the more "together" the house looks. (think of it as dressing the house...)
Things should repeat and relate each other with themes that are repetetive in a nice but surprising and fresh ways. For example, if you have slate tile flooring at the entryway, then slate flooring in the kitchen may work well.

Good luck.

Do what makes you happy. It sounds like you found a style you love, why dilute the style you love in an effort to give a "nod" to the era of a house that has been kind enough to not scream any particular period? Honor the kind original builder who was kind enough to give you a blank slate by doing what you love and making no apologies for it. Ironically I think the style you've fallen in love with *is* timeless -- and it's not the style I chose, so I'm not just saying that.

Here are some photos I found of my house. These are from the realtor when we purchased the home 3 years ago. The front of the house has not changed.
{{gwi:7329}}

Here is the living room. Again, this is not my furniture. Our furniture is too big for the space so we are planning on buying new later this year-- so no reason to post photos. Only major changes to this room were paint and we removed the carpeting to show the natural oak hardwood floors, which we will be installing in the kitchen and are currently in the dining room.

The front and back doors are slabs, but also need to be replaced as they are drafty. So yes, it is pretty much a blank slate. Kris_ma- I do love the timeless look of the materials I picked. I guess I can use the kitchen to influence the rest of the rooms as we redecorate/remodel. We bought our house from the original owner, so there are lots of updates that are needed. Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming!!

bump bump

I am certainly no expert on 1950s style, but there seem to be a lot of pictures with tile backsplash...but square tile, sometimes set on the diagonal. Here's one link, but you might want to google 1950's kitchen backsplashes for more ideas :)

Here is a link that might be useful: 1950s bungalow kitchen remodel

I like to take the temperature of what's going on in my neighbourhood - either hit a couple of open houses or try on-line listings (MLS in Canada - same in the US?). It isn't that I have any intention of doing what I see but it's good to know what's up in the hood. I live downtown in a mid sized city (government town) and I am always surprised what a yawn fest a lot of other places are. Not sure if it's because they are being staged (if I see a lot of Ikea furniture I think staged) or just more sedate tastes (you would not believe the amount of black leather furniture people have around here). Anyhow it may take the pressure off - folks worry a lot about what they love but what you don't like is just as useful. I live in a 80's highrise - not a paragon of style and I think it is wise to remember to change some smaller things. Often folks will change the floors but leave the baseboards or change the switch plates but not the switches - usually a mistake. I like the sound of your approach - keeping it simple seems in keeping with your home (which is cute).

Thanks caryscott. I do not want to recreate the 1950s with my house, but at the same time I do not want to put in a kitchen where people think "what was she thinking"?

@Marcolo-I really like the subways and am having a problem finding something else I like as much-- not saying it does not exist, just have not found it. I do not like busy or too many colors. Also with dark soapstone, my colors may be limited.

Newbie- Crazy idea, but are you planning to paint your fireplace (and I'm not saying you should) but if you did, then white subway tiles would almost pick up on the white brick fireplace. You could even add a little soapstone on the hearth. Might be totally wrong for your lifestyle, but just a thought :)

If you like the look of white subways, then maybe you can use elongated subways (2X6 or 1X6) to pick up on the elongated brick on your fireplace.

By the way, I have similar brick on my fireplace and I love the fact that it survived all these years without getting the white paint treatment. I love the warm earthy tones of my fireplace brick!

I'm attaching an inspiration page I've bookmarked. I love the second and third photo best. I think those tiles could work with soapstone.

Here is a link that might be useful: linear tiles

If you like the look of white subways, then maybe you can use elongated subways (2X6 or 1X6) to pick up on the elongated brick on your fireplace.

Exactly my thought. I like the shape of your third photo--it's now, yet MCM, yet not.

marcolo- The tile in the third photo is, for me, "the tile that got away." I couldn't get it to work in my kitchen (structural issues - not because someone swooped in while clutching her pearls and insisted that I go with white subways). ;)

I like brick, in fact, I'm using 'brick' vinyl floors in my kitchen, to tie in with the living room fireplace...but Newbie knows what she wants in the kitchen, so why not reflect that look in the other rooms of the house?

Newbie- Do you have a link to your dream kitchen? What color are the walls...white? Or do you plan to have any accent colors, besides the wood floors and stainless steel/nickel/chrome? Do you plan to bring any colors in with the fabrics, accessories, etc? Maybe you could bring those colors into the living room, too :)

Hi Newbie,
Your home is the same vintage and basic style as mine (I'd say bland ranch, rather than MCM ranch) except that it looks like you have casement windows where our original casements and horizontally paned double-hungs were replaced by a PO with divided light double hungs.

I think this is a tough style of home to renovate, since there's no strong original style to begin with. I come from a family of architects, and I've always been really sensitive to retaining architectural integrity and not wrecking a home's original style with "re-muddling". Yet, this house stymied me... it wasn't MCM enough to really embrace that aethetic. And, otherwise, a pretty blank slate, as you say.

I'll describe what we are doing- maybe it can help you in some way.

In our case, we're renovating this home to be a beautiful place for us to live for a few years, but ultimately for resale. So most of our decisions are made with the local market (somewhat upscale, coastal New England) in mind.

I guess you would say that we're doing the renovations in a "transitional" style (though I hate that term...) Or perhaps "modern cottage". The exterior will be shingled in natural grey/beige cedar, with somewhat craftsman/Asian-inspired details that seem to go with the long, low structure and deep eave overhangs. Cedar trellis and pergola over the garage doors, varnished fir very simple craftsman door... stuff like that.

When we first bought the house, what struck as the "right" thing to do was to use a lot of natural materials and textures. The best thing about the property is the huge yard and natural setting, so we wanted to celebrate that and do the "bring the outside in" thing by using natural materials like wood, slate, marble, stone. And that is in keeping with the craftsman aesthetic as well.

We like modern, and have a collection of mid-century Danish pieces as well as newer modern stuff. So parts of the house are modern, but with softer touches. For instance, in our modern master bath renovation, we re-purposed the house's original 1950's exterior back door (5-paned glass) as the bathroom door.

Here are some pictures:
The house when we bought it (we removed the shutters right away!):

Kitchen renovation in progress:

master bathroom:


DD's bath:

Dining area:

Hearth seating area in kitchen (used to be the old living room)

Pantry/coffee/desk area of kitchen:

Hi newbieremodeler: We had a 1950s ranch house like yours for several years back in the 1990s. We found that you can tweak the design in any number of directions because the design of those ranches is "modern" but some of the surface elements (especially on the outside of your house) read more traditional.

Staceyneil's pictures are a great inspiration. But instead of saying designing this kind of house is "hard" because it doesn't have a clear architectural style, I would say that it offers lots of "opportunities"!

In terms of your specific kitchen, I would say that it is fortunate that you aren't doing inset white painted cabinets. They would seem too early 20th century "period" for my tastes in a post war house like yours. I think frameless IKEA cabinets, which often by its very nature reads more modern and streamlined (even in the style you picked), is a better choice for your post-1945 house.

Your mention of a stainless farmhouse sink made me think of theanimala's kitchen on GW. She/he did inset cabinets. But they manage to look sleek and modern, perhaps because she combined them with sleek quartz counters. ( Jsweenc's kitchen could be another model that would work well for your house.)

You've gotten lots of good advice about "pulling" a few of the materials and elements from your new kitchen into the other rooms of your house to create a consistent design flow.

Thanks everyone!! So many great ideas and inspirational photos.

mcmjilly-I really like that 3rd photo too! I think I would like it with the white cabinets. We are going to look at soapstone today, so I should know more later. I have resisted the urge to paint the brick white but mostly because I am nervous about how it will turn out and DH really like the brick look. My issue with the fireplace is that it is too big, it is not centered on the wall and for in an effort to try to make a long narrow room look wider-- having an oversized fireplace at the narrowest spot, is not helping. I do like the warm colors in the fireplace. I do not like the dirty look of the cement hearth. I am torn b/c part of me wants the warm brick colors to really "pop" and the other part that wants to slather it in white paint and put a decent mantle on it. (mcmjilly-are you still there did you faint?) The other oddities about my house is that there is no trim work in the house. No trim around the windows, doorways, closets, etc. We do have a little bit of cheap formerly wood baseboards that I did hit with a coat of white paint b/c they were dingy looking (sorry jilly!).

I wish I could post photos of my bathroom (I will try this weekend) which we remodeled 2 years ago. It has Emser Belgio porcelain 3x7 subway tiles in the bathtub surround and the same but 13x13 on the floor on an angle. Here is the tile:

This is the vanity

I agree that I think my house is pretty much a blank slate and open to lots of possibilities, which can be a blessing and a curse. I am trying to embrace sort of a cottage-vibe as opposed to a more modern one. We too are trying to keep resale in 5-10 years in mind. So I think things like moldings would go over well.

Thanks again for the thoughts, I hope to know more after I see the soapstone this afternoon!

Here is the kitchen that has inspired me and so many other GW'ers---Katiob's Kitchen:

Before these photos and GW I had never heard of inset cabinets or soapstone or even CP for that matter. I just feel in love with the simplicity and attention to detail. I loved that it made a statement but without being busy or colorful--its just the simple black dress.

Maybe that's your unifying theme - simplicity.

I think that katieob's kitchen works so well because she's mixed very modern elements (the faucet, the range) with more period/vintage ones, like the inset cabinetry, lighting, and pot filler faucet.

You could probably tweak a design like this just a little more to the modern side (a sleeker hood, your frameless Lindigo cabs, modern sink faucet) and it would work well in your home. Are you considering a hefty range like katieob's? Mine is a much less expensive version (NXR) and cost about $1800. But it has the same feeling, and might be an option for you.

Staceyneil- Beautiful photos...your home is so warm and inviting! :)

Staceyneil's pictures are a great inspiration. But instead of saying designing this kind of house is "hard" because it doesn't have a clear architectural style, I would say that it offers lots of "opportunities"!

A couple of people have made this point, and it bears repeating. It appears that newbieremodeler's house is something called "Minimal Traditional," which was probably the most common house style of the '50s and '60s, and beyond, as well. It tends to have modern aspects, some traditional elements, and yet an overall sense of being simplified. Historians of vernacular architecture often praise this style for precisely this reason: It's flexible. You can go in almost any direction with it, as long as you don't go too far.

I think exactly replicating katiebob's kitchen might be going too far. It's clearly inspired by a pre-1929 kitchen, although it's true that its beautiful simplicity is also quite modern.

The good news is, the Ikea cabs are already a dramatic change. From inset to overlay, from shaker to raised panel, from highly trad to modern and simplified. In your house, I think that's an excellent move.

I agree with Marcolo. It's a beautiful kitchen, but making a few changes will really help it fit in, with your overall look in the house.

The fireplace is such a big feature, I would try to incorporate it into the rest of the design. What colors are you planning to use for the walls in the living room and dining/kitchen areas? What are your accent colors? Are you planning to use green or gold, or more beige and neutrals? Can you add a bit of the brick/terra cotta color as an accent, maybe for potted plants or in a fabric material?

The wood floors will be wonderful and the trim is a great idea. I think some simple trim (not too over the top) will look great and really highlight the ceiling area, too. What about window trim? It looks like the living room window is wood...are you planning to paint it or leave it the wood? Will the trim be white?

When one room is open to another, it's hard to know when to quit, but I think you'll end up with a lovely, functional and very inviting space :)

Thank you! Stacyneil- your home is quite lovely. I love the simplicity along with the modern touches. It looks quite effortless. I was thinking of a 30" GE Cafe or something like that for a range. I am on a budget-- so nothing too over the top.

I am also thinking I could play with color for the banquette cushions. I do love texture and was hoping I could work some in either the backsplash or maybe even the stools.

Here is one idea:

I also like the idea of maybe putting 4x4 on a diamond pattern? I know Ann Sacks has a beautiful diamond pattern, but I am thinking they may be well outside my price range.

Since you love it, a personal take on Katieob's fantastic kitchen should be a terrific start. Have you seen the soapstone yet? We have Lindingo doors on our bathroom vanity, which is visible the length of our attic suite, and I really like the comparatively warmish glow of their white. It looks nice in all lights.

Regarding a backsplash, I've always liked white subways a whole lot (for literally a number of decades now), and always will, but even I probably would probably opt for one of the other things I really like. Much as I try to avoid being influenced by what others are doing, they've just been all over the place for a long time now, even our local mall bathrooms.

Another of my own long-time favorites Lavender Lass actually mentioned a few posts ago--square tiles mounted diagonally, which makes a pattern with a great controlled sort of movement, similar to subways but just a bit more lively. Interpreting your "subway white" in that pattern would make a wonderful style bridge connecting today and your home's era while being nicely ahead of the what-goes-around curve. Diagonals have been "out" so long they've become rather unique again.

Regarding your kitchen layout, I really like that great workspace you've created by the stove and know now that I wouldn't break it up with a prep sink. I had plumbing run to my work island for one, intending to install it later (in the Ikea butcher block counter), but the sink's still sitting on a shelf in the basement. There's plenty of room, but the main sink counter's perfectly handy, and in 2 years now I've never felt a need, or desire, to finish the job.

BTW, I also agree your house is nice with great potential to have some good fun turning a modest little wallflower into a charmer.

newbie- I love that backsplash. It's a lot like the tile I used in my bathrooms (below). it definitely gives a more modern vibe (even with the white Lindigo cabs) than subway tile.

FWIW, I looked at the GE Cafe as well. It was actually several hundred dollars more than the pro-style range I bought. In my budget range, it made the top 3, though. (But I wanted something without fancy electronics and computer chips to fail.)

Thanks for your kind words on my house. It's still a construction zone. Someday when it's more finished I'll get some proper photos taken...

Staceyneil - Not to go OT but I thought of you recently and have been meaning to post this to the Appliance forum for you and the other NXR owners. HGTV's Bang for Your Buck did a home on Plum Island (here in Mass) which has a lot of cottages. I'm not sure if you've ever seen the show, but they rate where you spent your money and if you made a mistake/overspent. Well they get to the kitchen, which has an NXR, and the HGTV people say "They WAY over spent on that high end range. It's too much for this neighborhood." I had to rewind it because I knew I saw an NXR. Then they show the big down arrow "Overspent on Appliances". Maybe they edited it out, but the people didn't even speak up. I was essentially yelling at the TV - "that's an NXR! It doesn't cost 5K!!! So NO, they did get more Bang for their Buck since you people think it cost the same as a Wolf!"
So there you have it. The people at HGTV think an NXR is the same price as a Wolf, etc! I thought you'd enjoy that. Sorry to go OT :-)

chris, I think the point of "Bang for Your Buck" is to use a designer and realtor to demonstrate how much money one can earn with an IQ of 20. As you know, Plum Island is home to some humungo houses due to the beachfront view. Even though the market is now shakier past 128, the ocean is the ocean. Montel Williams lives there. So even if the range did cost $5K, someone who thinks that's "overspending" probably needs a nurse to dress them in the morning.

The other common mistake they make is regularly identifying induction cooktops as electric. I think the show runs on the principle that, to become an "expert" and worth listening to, all you need is a TV camera and a push up bra.

Thanks Chris! That's great :) I love my NXR range (especially for the money!) and I'm so thrilled I found it. Isn't Plum Island near Newburyport? I can't imagine that $1800 is too much for a range in that location! :)

Yes it is part of Newbury, Stacey!

LOL, Marcolo! 5K def. shouldn't be too expensive either. HGTV may want to see if they're getting "bang for their buck" in the talent/intelligence vs. salary area. Although, that network does provide me with a lot of laughs.

Imagine if those HGTV hosts had to compete agains the GW community? They'd be eaten alive :-)

Stacyneil- I have never heard of an NXR range, but you have me intrigued. I was looking for a mid-price nice range. No bluestar, wolf or viking here. Had heard good things about the GE Cafe, but have not really did too much research.

newbie, if you go over to the appliance forum and search NXR, you should still be able to access several threads from about 18-24 months ago about NXRs. Some people talk about the percieved negatives (i.e. new company, made in China, etc.) and those of us who own them talk about the pluses (low price, burners and components made in Germany, same repair tech company as Wolf, etc.)
Prices are all over the place, but you can usually get someone to come down in price with a little research. Mine was $1800 for the NXR DRGB3001 model, which has a sleeker handle and more elegant look, IMHO. I linked one below for you to look at if you're interested. I think you can find it cheaper, though. And there's an optional center grate that makes it even better :)

here's one recent post from the appliance forum about them, with pics of real life installations: Recent Appliance Forum NXR thread

Here is a link that might be useful: NXR range

As a fellow bland ranch owner, I can share what we are doing/have done. We chose to shoot for a modest vintage/modern cottage look.

We are using older style simple lines and trying to make it look cozy and welcoming. MCM is a cool vibe but would not have worked with our antique furniture as well, so we went earlier modern into a 30s-40s vibe. We are using a lot of chrome to look just a little glam/twinkly, but went with slab front cabs (white Ikea Applad) and simple moldings to keep it smooth looking. Our chrome accented light fixtures add the bling and so we tried hard to keep everything else simple.
Our house will never be huge so we decided to make it look modest, despite having good sized rooms and an open plan (we added on and opened up). We added an eyebrow window to the front as a hint of the look inside. It gave charm to an otherwise plain/boring exterior. It also added some great light inside and made a great feature in the ceiling.
I hope to get to landscaping more after I finish the inside and will try to have that work with an older, simple vibe too.

Because our house was so bland and no one had given it direction, we were able to put our own stamp on it and it fits together well. If we had a mid-century traditional colonial look cape or colonial style house, it would have been near impossible to use the look we did and have it fit. We may have worked it into a split, but that may have been a stretch. Our house will look like someone who has older stuff and who moved into a modern 30s-40s house and has picked up some more up to date, for that time, stuff. Our living room & dining room will have the older pieces. We are getting more modern furniture for the den. I am not a huge fan of having a house look like it was built and all the furnishings were purchased in the same week. You don't have to pick a moment in time and make everything from that time match. That would not show evolution. You kitchen can look older or younger than the rest of the house, but it should fit the basic aesthetic.

Thanks Dianalo! I think I am more of a vintage/modern cottage girl myself, but then again I do not know much about MCM design. Right now we have a lot of older pieces that I would like to work into to newer pieces. My home will never be a wow home, not saying I want it to be that, I would much prefer something cozy and warm with hints of sparkle and very simple. My friend once called the queen of neutrals! I love neutrals and texture with a few pops of color---preferably in things that I can easily change out! I think that is why the kitchen is giving me some problems, because with the white cabinet and soapstone, I think a simple backsplash would be best. And then there is the wall color--whew-- too much! :)

Newbie, that bathroom vanity is awesome. It's neat looking in and of itself, and I think its lines work well for a midcentury home--they're clean and modern without screaming "I'M SO MODERN!!"

And I think the same is true of the kitchen style you're working towards. I would be worried if your dream kitchen were Victorian or Craftsman and that's what you wanted to put in your postwar ranch, but that's not what you're talking about. Katieob's kitchen is very CLEAN--I mean it's black and white and the details are not ornate--and that to me is the KEY feature of midcentury homes: No frill, no ornateness. A sense of being streamlined. (Speaking of which, you might want to avoid complex or fussy edge profiles on your counters--just the classic straight edge ("square" or "eased" on this list) is the most "midcentury" choice).

If you aren't super attached to more antique-looking hardware, like those cup pulls they use in Craftsman kitchens, you could play up the clean lines of your Lidingo cabinets by putting very streamlined pulls and/or knobs on them.

In other words I think the style you're shooting for would work fine, and it could work really well if you switched out a couple of the older-looking details in Katieob's kitchen (like the Modern Aire hood and the antique-ish drawer pulls) with more modern choices. A few possibilities:

Lidingo kitchen with very modern bar pulls

If you like a more rounded shape, this is a classic style.

And here is a variant on the curved classic style.

The other thing to lean more modern on is the faucet. But honestly, for the basic style, I don't see a problem--your cabinets and soapstone would be fine.

I'm just the same about wanting, not so much what I'd call a neutral background, but a simple harmonious one, like your "neutrals and texture with a few pops of color---preferably in things that I can easily change out." Exactly! I noticed that both the kitchens you posted pix of have this. White or wood, they both are heavy on harmony, with the large surfaces blending together, enlivened with texture and limited but carefully chosen contrasts.

No pops of color in those particular pix, but the flexibility to have them is built in. Like my medium-to-warm white plus white range of honeyish tones. There's nothing I can't bring in, or I can go for serene simplicity and just let it play against the greens of summer.

Ideagirl- Thanks! I really loved the vanity, it was Kohler, so a bit of a slurge, but very reasonable considering we needed a very narrow vanity. For the kitchen I am going with soapstone with an eased edge. I like your idea of changing the hardware to go a bit more modern.

Rosie- What color are you painting your walls? What did you do for backsplash? Those are my biggest problem areas.

Ideagirl- Thanks! I really loved the vanity, it was Kohler, so a bit of a slurge, but very reasonable considering we needed a very narrow vanity. For the kitchen I am going with soapstone with an eased edge. I like your idea of changing the hardware to go a bit more modern.

Rosie- What color are you painting your walls? What did you do for backsplash? Those are my biggest problem areas.

Newbie, except for some detail on the storage wall that my husband's not gotten to--still, and possibly some decorative detail for the stove hood brackets that I haven't designed yet (we're a good pair), it's been done for a couple of years. The walls are painted an off-white cream/honey color, way up the same color card from the honey-tone wood surfaces.

Right now, the walls ARE the backsplash, on purpose copying a kitchen I loved. I have no uppers above the L-counter, just runs of windows and a decorative wood stove hood painted white with the wall color mixed in (like the window trim), so above the counter is basically wall and windows, with the hood as the focus. (Color splashes when I want them go on the hood shelf and fairly deep window sills, or curtains.) The walls are matte, and the wood counters and trim are finished low sheen. I still love the simplicity of just one wall surface/color, airy and sunny in my case.

What grabbed my attention in your posted kitchens, though, is that the wall colors are so similar to the other main surfaces. Just coincidence, or should your wall and backsplash be very similar to your cabinets, but different in textures?

Rosie- I guess you are right. I am drawn to more a subtle backsplash then something that is really different in color. I like things that are more monochromatic. I know I could do 4x4 ceramics on a diagonal-- I am just not sure if that is what I want. I may just opt for paint. I love your plan of no uppers and just a wall of windows! I would to be able to do that, but being such a small space I cannot and the idea of open shelves is neat in photos--but does not fit my lifestyle or my cleaning style for that matter!!

Check out this thread about 1/3 of the way down. Shelayne's bs is so pretty and is all one color, white, but with different tiles to make it interesting. She can change her paint and accessories and the look would change dramatically. She added a feature by the stove with color, but you could stick with the monotone look she did elsewhere.

Here is a link that might be useful: backsplash thread

Thanks Dianalo- Shelayne's bs is very pretty. I have thought of doing something different behind the stove as well.

Stacyneil- Does your kitchen have white subway tiles?