Cpartist, it must be my 30 years in real estate that tells me it is dated. We dont have to pull it out every time a new trend appears, however, she is updating her kitchen. . Just as oak cabinets are dated, pickled oak is dated. Its all trend and right now, busy granite is out. If you're going to update your kitchen, then dont update half of it.

Yes, like others already said, that back splash is wrong with your counter. But there are million other options, boring white subway tile isn't the only one! You could bring many samples home in a variety of shapes. Good luck! How exciting to get a new kitchen :)

Reface the cabinets and then take a break. Paint samples of colors on white board and put them where the backsplash is. Then start a new thread.
If you decide to keep the granite, the tile color needs to bring the two elements together. It’s too hard to do this without the doors being changed.

How were you planning to install cabinets without damaging the countertops or the new backsplash? I'm assuming you are getting new lower cabinets? I realize you are now taking out the backsplash and waiting until the cabinets are installed, but there is a reason that the "normal" (to my knowledge) order of installation is 1. cabinets 2. counters 3. backsplash.

From what I understand in the OP, the homeowner is resurfacing the existing cabinets. Can this be done without removing them?

Interesting. I see "new cabinets installed" and don't see anything the indicates it is a resurfacing/refacing project. But we shall await the OP for clarification.

Also, I agree with someone upthread that the counters are a much warmer color than the backsplash, which is a cool gray rather than a warm gray (at least on my monitor.) When yo go to select a new backsplash, aside from selecting a less busy tile, try to pick something that matches the tone (warm/cool) of the counters.

ETA: Major reading fail on my part! Ignore my posts that are early in the morning. :)

"We are resurfacing our cabinets and my husband is installing new backsplash."

I understood the second pic the homeowner posted to be the new cabinet colour chosen. Difficult to tell for sure if it plays well with the granite. We'd need to see it next to the counter.

Those things do not work together the cabinets and the counter are a definate no for me the backsplash no way either.

Thanks for the advice everyone! Yes, it is a refacing cabinet project. Sorry if I was unclear.
I’m okay with granite as a material. I’m not very up to date with design trends. :) We plan on staying in the house for a while so I’m not worried about resell.
It isn’t in the budget right now to install a new countertop or new appliances.
I really do appreciate the feedback! That picture might have been to grayish for the cabinet doors we are getting. It is cherry wood with driftwood stain.

Are you confident the cabinets and granite harmonize? Some were seeing your cabinet colour as too cool next to your warm granite. On my screen, it looks as if the cabinet colour is very similar to one of the darker granite colours and they look fine together. But I'm not in your space, looking at these actual elements in your natural and artificial light.

I thought it would be okay but now I’m not so sure. I’ll see what it looks like with the cabinets are in and then save for a new countertop if needed.
Thanks! :)

Carolyn, don't fret, for those of us that are not in the .01% the challenge is always picking something that works with what must stay.

I can envision rocks with your granite colors with a fallen tree where the wood has weathered into the color of your cabinet. My mother taught me that if you can find it in nature you can pair it in your home.

Wait till the cabinets are in and then deside on a simple backsplash. Does not need to be plain, white, subway tile, but does need to be simple and not compete with the countertop. The pattern you selected is fairly simple, but still has too many colors - need the backsplash to be more monochrome.

Bring home 100 samples from the big box store, even some that you think will never work and test them. I have found some of my favorite combinations when just playing.

Once you find the color you like with the counter and cabinets you can narrow your search for the perfect backsplash.

I'm now seeing your new cabinets to be a warmer color. I swear they looked more grey

when I looked at them days ago. Anyway, the new doors and granite should look ok together.

Let's wait to choose backsplash. Please keep us posted.

No mention of what the floor material is? You are getting good advice OP and you have a good attitude.

Our floor is oak throughout. I included a closeup pic of the granite and a picture of the floor.
Thanks everyone! Now just need to find that perfect backsplash to tie it all together once the cabinet refacing is done!
I also have a bag window with seats in the kitchen. We are not refacing cabinets below the bay windows. I’m open to suggestions here too. Paint them? Take them out?
Presently, my kitchen table fits along the bay window seats. I do like that extra seating. Open to suggestions!
I’m so not creative nor do I have vision! Lol!
I should have come to these boards a long time ago! (I actually didn’t know until I read these posts that granite was outdated!)
(Excuse the mess on the bay window seat. Three young kids at home!)

Well by the standard of those who think to get rid of stuff not on trend, i must be an anomaly. Two years ago i sold my condo with the Typhoon Bordeaux granite (with lots of gold and brown and very little gray), and the reddish cherry cabinets and the yellowish travertine in the master for the second highest price ever paid in that condo building and the highest price ever paid for our floor plan in our luxury building. Oh and let’s not forget the condo had tan walls too.

Sometimes good design transcends “dated” or trendy

Cabinets are ordered already so we have to work with it.

Since your new cabinets are grayish i think it will clash with the warm with the floor, a creamy white or greenish gray would look good

Ok i just read the cabinets color is already ordered

Your cabinet color looks like an excellent match to your counters. Sit back, relax and once the cabinets are in, then choose a backsplash.

It's going to be fine. :) Jennifer is right: your colours are all natural and thus, can cohabit very well.

Your remark that you didn't know granite was outdated proves my point about trends. You'd been enjoying granite's presence in your home all this time because it's intrinsically beautiful and serves its purpose. I strongly recommend you continue to do so and not worry about outside voices deeming it dated. Granite was here long before humans and will last long after us.

You may be able to tie it all together by pulling out one of the grays from the granite for your wall color. I would paint white the oak window trim.

IMO honey oak can work nicely with white and gray.

Yes, good design transcends “dated”. I am amused when I see comments on here that stacked stone is a “dated” look. My parents’ home designed by a renowned MCM architect has stacked stone, original.

Here’s an example of a rug tying the colors together.

K Laurence, you make a good point. I personally like the look of stacked stone and prefer it to subway tile which reminds me of subways. Not fun.

It seems that the cabs below the window are useful to you; and I nearly never would recommend removing storage, so if you cannot also reface them to match the rest of the kitchen I would paint them... a cream that works well with the counters and new cabinet color or take the opportunity to add some color.

I would paint the wood trim around the window as well.

Granite itself is not dated, it is just this particular style of granite that some will call dated. However it is obvious that many people like it and that is what counts! When I first started visiting this site, granite with big splashy patterns was all the rage, now not so much. Trends come and go, and come back, so don't worry about it. You just have to be sure colors/tones/patterns play happily together!

I also agree, paint the cabs under the window. Do you sew? It's quite easy to take a pattern from the old seat covers and make new ones. If possible, I would make them a little thicker, but that's down the road.

The backsplash matched very nicely with the new cabinets that ur putting in but definitely doesn't match the counter tops. the counter top also match the new cabinets that your putting in. so the only problem here is you would either need to change the backsplash or change the counter tops because they don't work well together.

following to see outcome photos.

Dated or classic? My parents home had wood paneling throughout the home. But it wasn't the 1970s oak plywood paneling, it was ribbon striped mahogany. Same wood as the dining room table, chairs, coffee tables, cabnitry, dressers and accents throughout the home. I can imagine some flipper calling it dated and drywalling or painting over it.

That's very nice paneling, Jennifer. Also like the couch and cushions. :)

I don't like the granite with cabinet color and backsplash

Linda: it must be my 30 years in real estate that tells me it is dated. We dont have to pull it out every time a new trend appears, however, she is updating her kitchen. . Just as oak cabinets are dated, pickled oak is dated. Its all trend and right now, busy granite is out. If you're going to update your kitchen, then dont update half of it.

Linda, designs are only "dated" because that's what the magazines say is dated. And then suddenly they become "classic" or "timeless".

I like that countertop, AND I like that backsplash. Just not together.

Bear with me here. I'm all for half measure updates when they WORK. But. This is a case of refacing cabinetry to a "half measure" . Leaving out the breakfast bay. Not updating appliances. Tiling a splash before the new cabinet faces are in.....

Whats my point? It's a trip down the expensive money route.... and a result that leaves one disappointed.

Sometimes it is simply better to save and WAIT until a more complete redo seems feasible.

We can all like a lot of different things in isolation. We can not like them at all when stirred together.

Artemis, it seems a lot of people are offended by the word dated. Believe it or not, its not a word I made up. Its a real word! I wonder if the paneling, olive green appliances and orange carpeting of the 70'[s is considered timeless?

Give it another 20 years, linda117117! I can remember when the "classic" shaker kitchen was thought of as hopelessly old fashioned, dull, boring, and, yes, dated.

I’m irritated, not offended, by the word “dated” when it’s used inappropriately. And I see that often on this site.

I think what is irritating is that designers push all the trend colors and decor and in 10 years start calling it dated and most people can't afford to change their decor every 10 years.

Pick things that you love - ignore the current trends and timeless happens.

Anything made by mother nature and unadulterated by man is timeless. Stone, wood, metals are all timeless. Bold granite was more popular a few years back, but it will be popular again in 5-10 years, but it will never look dated like an olive green refrigerator.

White appliances have been produced and sold since the 1920s. I don't know that they can really be considered 'dated'. The whole Stainless trend is somewhat rediculous. Since the 1960s stainless was used in the homes of the wealthy who had serious cooks wanting industrial / restaurant level appliances. Somehow this got translated to the current status trend, but seriously, does your $400 stainless steel stove fool anyone into thinking that you are a serious cook or have industrial level appliances? Do you think that owning a $5,000 stove will somehow make you into a better cook? Get a reasonable stove that fits your level of expertise. If you love wiping fingerprints off your fridge get stainless, but don't get it just because it has this wierd status symbol attached to it right now.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+use+wolfe+stove&&view=detail&mid=353F26C23E6642133DD6353F26C23E6642133DD6&&FORM=VRDGAR

Remember those heavy, dark, ornate Tuscan kitchens that were being installed 10 years ago? Very expensive and now VERY dated. Sad to say, homeowners never got their money’s worth out of them....

Jennifer I beg to differ. What happens is designers help people with their spaces - those spaces when well designed inspire others to mimic. Then all hell breaks loose and everyone is doing that ‘thing’. Then it becomes saturated and starts feeling overdone. Then those homes don’t ‘sell’ and that is what starts the cycle all over again. I don’t think designers are on a mission to always do the latest thing. Lots of times we are just solving problems. In this instance clearly the OP is renovating their kitchen on their own. They weren’t forced by some designer to renovate.

it seems a lot of people are offended by the word dated. Believe it or not, its not a word I made up. Its a real word! I wonder if the paneling, olive green appliances and orange carpeting of the 70'[s is considered timeless?

Not offended, but just as Jennifer says, "irritated" - or maybe even less than that, just thinking it's simply not accurate. I know you didn't make it up, it gets used often on this site. (I have brought this up in the past on other threads.)

The wood paneling in one room of my childhood house looked "cheap" even then, even through a child's eyes. Not "dated". "Cheap."

I thought the avocado appliances looked rather cool, and though I love green, today that shade of appliance/avo green isn't to my taste. I think those appliances work fine in certain settings. We never ran into orange carpeting back in the day, and I lost any interest in shag when I first had to help Mom clean the little bit of it she had. (Man, that stuff collects cat hairs!!!) So I would call shag "impractical", rather than "dated".

Now, orange carpeting... I got a bright orange rug for outside the basement clean-up bathroom shower. Cheerful, for a clean up bath/utility room with no outside window.

Dated: dated is using a washboard instead of a washing machine. Dated is using a typewriter instead of a laptop or a "device".

I remember friends in my youth who stopped listening to what had been their favorite tunes because those songs were so "last year", ie, "dated". Me, I just simply added new stuff to my listening loves.

If this is how a design cycle happens, thinkdesignlive, why use the term "dated" to describe something perfectly functional that costs a pretty penny to replace?

Amanda - a year and a half ago my brother and his wife bought a house in Florida heavily done on the inside in Tuscan. And, it was HEAVY, to the extent of faux indentations in the drywall and paint all over the place (all the public rooms and halls and the study/office) to match.

It was a style they had never liked, even when it wasn't "dated". They, like I, don't exactly follow trends, but not wanting Tuscan in a house that really isn't meant to be Tuscan is quite understandable. They had the drywall smoothed over and the place re-painted.

My thought is, just don't follow trends, unless it's a trend that actually DOES intrigue you.

Very few people want to be re-doing their renovations every ten years, just to keep from being "dated", or behind the times.

I didn't get on this site until a few years ago - granite was the rage. Now, it seems, granite is becoming, in some eyes, "dated". Surprises me. Granite is ageless, it's been around for millions, perhaps billions of years.

(I didn't go the granite route - brother loved his quartz he'd installed in his old home, and no maintenance other than not setting down super hot stuff on it - I went that route.)

Jennifer, that looks like quality wood paneling - re your photo. (Wish the childhood stuff we had were like that!)

I think that the cabinets and the counters will work together. The color of your new cabinets (refaced) is lovely. Your granite choice is a classic. The backsplash might work if the grout is a cream color. You know how annoyed husbands become if you stop a project. I'd say go for it and if you hate it then you can always do a light cream wash over the backsplash tile (not white, cream, and very light so it looks like washed brick) and everyone's happy.

"I remember friends in my youth who stopped listening to what had been
their favorite tunes because those songs were so "last year", ie,
"dated"."

I'm doomed. Generally don't care for anything post-1750, although Beach Boys work in the summer with the sun roof open.

I am never quite in sync with the trends - had White on white 25 years ago and Taupe with White trim 15 years ago now I am back to wanting color and warmth.

I'm hoping you can reface the seat cabinets...if definitely not, tho, I'm wondering if they're far enough away from the kitchen cabs (and, since the table will be there and obscure a lot of them) you could paint them to match the new ones as closely as possible? I'm pretty sure that they'll pass as the same. I wouldn't paint them a light color.

Backsplash should be solid and will be fine...you can have an interesting shape since you'll be having a solid color.

All will be good...

ETA I like the oak...not a popular opinion around here, but it's probably better quality than what you're replacing it with. I do understand wanting change, but it's yet another thing that has, sadly, been deemed "dated".