What color are your cabinets? Walls?

Even when you've picked out possible candidate backsplash choices, you should bring them home and view them in your space, in your light, with your materials.

• Think about your backsplash choice as much as you want to, but don't expect to make a decision until your counters are installed

I've written this so many times, we should start a "New To Backsplashes?" sub-thread. In fact, I'll work on that this week.

When you've got images of your counters installed and can bring samples in and out of your space, you'll need to share some inspiration images with us.

• Google images of kitchens with your materials and select which ones you like the look of. What type of bs do they use? The idea is not to copy the look, but to get a feel for looks you like.

I'll save you some frustration by telling you that most web images of White Jasmine counters use a self splash. And if white tiles make your counters look yellow, that's because your counters are... yellow. So look at beige-y off-white tiles.

Finally, we'll need an idea of a materials budget.

• How much do you want to spend in $/sf?

The way it works is that we can recommend a surface (usually tile, sheet glass, or slab), advise against a choice for a number of reasons (color, or busy-ness are the usual reasons), provide you with layout and pattern feedback, and images you might have missed of materials that have worked for us or caught our eye.

With no upper cabinets, your choices are going to be driven by the looks you like and your tile budget. You can tile the range wall and sink wall to the same heights or not. That height can be up to the ceiling, up to the sink shelf, or 2" from the counter surface, depending on your taste.

I hope we can be helpful!

One more thought... before you discount Calacatta Gold completely, look at large format tiles in your space, 3" x 12" or 12" x 24" shown below. The "variation" might be just what you need :-) you won't know till you see it in your space.

Best advice I got from GW is to wait until the kitchen is complete before choosing backsplash. I really think you are a bit premature at this point.

Also - just to confirm: you will or won't be taking the tile to ceiling? If not, where will you stop?

I have that sconce, and because it's "brass" inside the shade too, the light it puts out is gold and not especially bright. I don't know that it would be my first choice for the kitchen for that reason.

Thanks everyone. We are a little farther along than this but I haven't taken more recent pics.. we have little kids and doing things ourselves so it's not always in the most proper order, fumes, weather, etc.

Thanks for the info on the sconces too, I think that's good though because it will warm up the walls, which is what I want. It's pretty much just for ambiance, we have high hats everywhere possible and will have lighting under the shelf and in the hood. Thanks though, I think I will put in the lights and see what kind of light we get, and then worry about the splash. Thanks!

Eam44. I was going to ask if you could start a forum thread for backsplashes/countertops!! I'm in the throes of this and every time I need to look I'm scrolling through lots of info and then get sidetracked off on a new tangentIt makes for great reading (and new ideas) but is wreaking havoc on my planning.

Hi emmie - I'm not sure how new forums get started, but it would be great if we had some space. The thing is, everyone ends up in kitchens again anyway. The appliances forum has died down considerably since the move from gardenweb. I'm not sure how we would do on our own, but thanks for putting the idea out there!