@Yvonne Martin along with a new counter all the same material I am assuming or keep my existing counter?

my vote is option 3 with the grey green version of the encaustic tile.

Option 3 w/ far right (blue hue) tile gets my vote and def new lighting/ undercabinet lighting

Holy granite Batman, that stuff is everywhere!

If you really want to brighten your space, why are you choosing another brown counter, when you could go for a lighter cream? Frosty Carina is warm enough to go with your wood, but would brighten the space considerably. If you love brown, go with what you love.

I love encaustic tile, I prefer the one with the blue. I would stop tiling from the height of the upper cabinets, and finish the windows with sheetrock corners.

This is what one of the encaustics looks like assembled. I prefer this to the grey/blue for the colors in the rest of my house.

I used a similar tile for n my walls, here is what it looks like. In the kitchen I used a very neutral counter, in the pantry I used walnut because the cabinets were painted a richer color.

I like the blue but would find a lighter countertop for it. Consider remodeling the pantry first to have working space in there for kitchen counter appliances and storage. Way too much stuff on the counters to even see backsplash.

IMO granite is by far a better choice tha fake plastic for a counter . I agree the room is dark so start by adding light . Undercabinet lighting all the bulbs in both cans and under cabinets LED 4000K then add a couple of pendants over the island also the same bulb get all the clutter off the counter the bowl of fuit can go on the iland. If you keep the granite you could remove that matching backsplash and go with a glass subbway tile in a color from the stone but I would start by just addessing the lighting you will be surprised how much differnt that space will look

For backsplash, choose a light color, found in your granite, that "reads" solid! You have enough speckling and pattern going on!!

So what about doing full height backsplash with the same quartz material?

Yes, keep it calm. A coordinating tile would also work. Think "Plain = Timeless"

I feel your pain. Agree with the above recommendation to go lighter with the countertops with Frosty Carrina instead of the Taj. You don't need more brown tones, and if you are going to do a bold pattern backsplash you need the countertop to read basically as a solid. I love the tile pattern that you picked for the backsplash. If they have a version that's a little bit smaller I think it would work better. You don't want it to be such a large pattern that it's jarring when it cuts off around the sink or at the top edge or what have you.

Which one is going to be the star, the counter or the backsplash?

If you go with the encaustic backsplash, I would go with a solid color countertop (see @stoussai beautiful kitchen above).

If you keep the countertop (or any busy patterned countertop), I would go with a plain simple backsplash tile in your herringbone pattern.

I actually found Taj Royale quite solid. Maybe its not when slab is bigger? Another option is to do backsplash and counter Taj Royale

@Artemis You're right. I was thinking of the Taj quartzite, which tends to have a lot more movement in it. I looked back at your samples and both of those read as a solid to me.