how can you make bright white stone a brown/taupe? seriously?

you can't.

turn off the light or tear it out and put in diff tile.

btw, it looks fine. a brown/taupe color would look horrible w/your granite. leave it be

"How can I tone it to a taupe brown-grey. Any ideas?"

Replace it with a taupe brown-grey tile. It's OK to admit you chose the wrong tile.

Doesn’t need to be dark, just want some random tiles a bit darker. The split face is absorbent, I think, and was hoping to apply something to accomplish this

you can apply an enhancing sealer. it will darken it, but I don't think you'll get a taupe color out of it.

you could replace your lights w/something dimmer

IMO it makes a bad choice for a backsplash and it also doesn’t work with the counter

I'm sorry, but that tile is way too busy with that counter. I'd rip it out and start over. ;-(

Beth is right. The lighting is the problem. It is giving your backsplash tile a bleached out appearance. Photo #2 with the lights turned off is a good match to your countertop.

I suspect that you selected your counter and backsplash from samples, and checked the samples for a color match, when you selected the products. If it were me, I would leave it alone, and avoid using the undercounter lights for anyone but myself. The tile won’t be hard to keep up as long as you use lids or splatter shields when cooking.

Almost everyone has self doubts when doing a project. It‘s not as bad as you might be thinking. In fact, when I look at photo#2, I really like it. The stainless steel in the range looks great against that tile. I’m not bothered by the difficulty of keeping backsplash clean. If it gets dirty, mix a very dilute solution of mild dishwashing liquid in water, spray it, brush it with a long bristle soft brush, then rinse generously with clean water. You probably will ony have to do that once every one to three years. It’s a beautiful kitchen. Enjoy your kitchen. Enjoy your life. Don’t sweat the small stuff; and, it’s all small stuff.

I don't think it's horrible. is this what you got? the Alaska Gray multi finish?

just make sure you apply a good penetrating sealer.

when it's time to clean them, just use a scrubby brush, warm water and a good stone cleaner.

Do what Beth says! It is much better than what I recommended.

Start over. With something you can actually clean.

Armchairshopper and Beth,
Thanks for your positive remarks. I do believe it it the lighting. I used Churchill Split Face (Jeffrey Court), not Alaska Gray, because it seemed more taupe. Bad sample maybe.
Complicating this is that the condo is in Florida, and i left there before the tile installation. Won’t be back for three weeks, so all I have to look at now are these pictures.
I hope the sealer will tone down the whiteness. I love the tile. If it doesn’t work, it’s only tile. Thanks for your help.