What are you putting on your floors? And, what color is the island?

I feel a gray would work.

gray arabesque tile would be lovely

Wait until you have everything in place before deciding. Post a picture later when

everything is in place.

Wood hood is most eye catching feature: it's great . I'd pick a light green glass tile as it blends w everything and will especially look good w the hood.

If you want white, Marble, thin rectangular tiles or white tiles with any texture, likely non uniform pattern would work great. I'm not certain about herringbone or uniform type of patterns with the island countertop. What about the countertop creates an issue for you?

Thank you all! Here are some more detailed shots. Island is navy, paint is agreeable gray so sometimes shows gray and sometimes shows greige. Counter is shadow storm quartzite. Floors will be a wide plank dark wood. I like the idea of gray but our contractor didn’t seem to be sold. I also like the arabesque look but didn’t know if it would be too busy since we need to cover 40-50 square feet. Thanks for any thoughts!

Any grey that picks up the veining in your countertop will be perfect. Start shopping interesting grey tiles - glass, arabesque, picket fence. Hopefully Beth will see your question and give you a dizzying array if gorgeous ideas.

PS - Most contractors are not designers, so I wouldn’t glisten to him.

Not too much white. ;) Go with what you want, but beware of second guessing. We all do it in the midst of these projects, but look back at your idea books and see if all of the backsplashes are white. If they are, there’s your answer.

Great. Try to get a picture of your counters in daylight and we can start looking for tiles for you - white and grey. Also, what is your tile budget in $/sf?

Arabesque, if you like it, would be fine. If you are looking for a simpler shape a paseo or lantern shape might be the thing. Below is Fireclay tile in French Linen in the paseo shape.

I was thinking light grey at first, but white might look better.

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My concern with white is the counters seem bright white but the cabinets are not bright white, so I worry about so much variations of white.

How about gray glass subway with matching grout.

@Julie Haas - you’re right. Your cabinets are a creamy white (quite a bit more cream than your door casing) and your countertops are a cooler white. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, as long as it looks intentional. IMO, you would be best off with a backsplash that a) matches the creamy white cabinets, b) matches the cooler white of the counters, or c) has a variation of whites that match both. Then it looks like an intentional layering of whites. My fear is that once you introduce another color in your backsplash (e.g. gray) then the different whites look less like an elegant layering and more like a mismatch.
But I’m not a pro.

What did you end up going with?