The silver cloud granite is pretty, however, do not put up the 4" backsplash that matches it.

Did you consider extending the hardwood floors into the kitchen? This will give a nice consistent look to your spaces.

I prefer the darker one with those counters. The lighter one fights a bit with the grey of the counter.

Are the cabinets staying the same?

With the counter top color you have chosen the darker color would be different , I feel if you choose the more grey tone for the floor it may look washed out.

I much prefer the ligher choice in the pic. The dark is ok but IMO too dark against that person's cabs and kinda sucks the light out of the space, looks like you'd be walking on a black hole.

Make sure you evaluate your choices against *your slab* and *your kitchen*. Light has a huge impact on how things look. Those tiles might look lighter or darker in your space, as can the counter, and you have to take the cabs into consideration. If you do want to go with the lighter choice, make sure it looks darker than your choices in your setting for some contrast.

ETA: BTW -- you do not have a "small kitchen".

the medium one is dark enough. you dont need full on black in your space....a black pool ...uggghhh no. a small galley maybe.

The lighter of the two would be my pick. Have you considered extending the hardwood from the adjoining space - I think that would look the best!

To answer the questions about extending hardwood into the space: that was my first choice, but it ended up not being possible. The subfloors in the two rooms are different heights, which prevents the hardwood from being continuously run from the other room. My contractor tried to make the subfloor work out, but it was going to end up too bouncy and structurally questionable.

With the option of continuous hardwood off the table, I felt like it would look better to have two separate flooring materials than to have hardwood at two different heights. A lot of people in my life who have hardwood in their kitchens also told me they kind of wished they had tile so they wouldn't have to worry as much about dropping things on it or getting it wet.

The cabinets are all staying the same.

Here are some pictures of the lighter tile in my actual kitchen. I haven't had a chance to bring the darker sample over yet. Maybe not very helpful since it's a construction zone, but it at least shows the cabinets and a sense of the light (late afternoon with lights on and off).

@shirlpp I'm curious to hear more about your backsplash opinion.

I've had hardwood in my kitchen my entire life ... it's been fine. I did in a rug by dropping some cookies on it (oils stained it), but the floor was fine. The only water damage on the floor was from a child being allowed to play with pots/bowls of water on it by a relative babysitter. I think there might be a dent or two from the marble rolling falling off the counter, but you can bet that would be a broken tile, if it were tile.

Yeah, like I said, hardwood was my first choice, but I think it might look weird to have two hardwood floors at a 1/2" difference from each other.

change the hardware to black or a rustic pewter etc and the medium selection will look quite nice. [its not light]

Purchase your countertops without the 4" backsplash. You'd then put in something that extends from the countertops to under the cabinets(usually about 18").

Beautiful cabinets!

I think the lighter is too similar to your counter top, so I would go with the darker. Also agree to not use a 4” backsplash and tile from counter to under cabinet in a while tile that works with the countertop.

I like the less busy, darker tile as it won’t compete with your counters - if you are worried it will be too dark, a terrific rug can help address that

The comments about hardwood have me entertaining the idea again one more time. I've also been thinking more on the suggestions to do a backsplash.

I just used an online visualizer tool to get a rough mockup of what the space would look like with wood floors (just randomly chose a color that kind of matched what I have now), a Silver Cloud counter, and a white subway tile backsplash (as you can see, it missed part of the wall for the backsplash).

Borrowing from another Houzz photo, what I'd be going for with the counter and backsplash would look like this:

12188. - Silver Cloud Granite Project · More Info

For additional perspective, this is what the adjoining dining space looks like:

Upstairs Kitchen · More Info

For the height change you'll just need a small threshold..

If you can swing that hardwood into the kitchen - Do It!

I'd talk to another flooring contractor to get their take on how to deal with the 1/2" height difference. Can you not build up the sublfoor in someway that is stable enough? I really would think so. Wood will look so much better. I've loved wood floors in kitchens and ripped out a tile floor to replace with wood. I have never had problems with stains or scratches. And certainly no worries about cleaning grout or the tile cracking.