If those are the only two options I’d go with the 3 X 12 honed marble.

I do not like honed stone where greae and spills can ahppen and why not just use the taj fo the backspash. Foe sure not the mermaid it fights with the taj which BTW should be the star in a space .

Those all clash. As most natural stone will with stone other than itself. If you want a stone splash, you should have done a full height Taj splash.

You still can do slab Taj as the backsplash. The labor is much less than tile. Be mindful of how the wall and the counter figuring flow together when you plan your cuts. Pictures can help. Communicate with the fabricator. You may have remnants of the counter material still available.

Your husband thinks he wants natural stone. Ask him to find an image of stone over quartzite that looks good that you can use as an inspiration image to find more sample tiles.

If you can do all taj, that’s a decent option. Stone over non matching stone always looks heavy and dated (it was often done in the oughts and teens). A much more pleasant option is ceramic tile. Look up the hundreds of posts here looking for backsplash tiles for taj. You’ll get great ideas and some lovely images. Below I’m showing you Fireclay Tile in Dolomite Gloss. Also, you might want to consider re-orienting those outlets, or installing plugmold before you install the tile, whatever it is.

Good luck!

We have taj countertops and went with a zellige backsplash (two different colors). Something to consider.

We love our Taj Mahal counters and backsplash. It's too bad you didn't consider that initially, so you could have used the same slabs, but you still might be able to get a close match.

Here's ours - I worked with the fabricator to match the backsplash to the counters.

I totally understand that Taj is super pricey compared to other slabs and that tile might be better on the budget. I think your samples look more stark white than the creamy grey tan than Taj has. You likely need to look for more of a creamy grey toned tile. My aunt actually did Taj with tile and it looks great.

From more than 3 ft away the Taj Mahal quartzite looks quite "boring" beige, so it really isn't the "star" of anything!

How much pattern and/or color one can have is very subjective, and this forum tends to lean to very safe/predictable choices.

I used natural stone with Taj Mahal. A Jeffrey Court marble mosaic. The white marble is honed and the brown marble is polished (hard to see unless the light catches it just right). The white marble complements my BM Chantilly Lace cabinets and the brown marble ties into my stained ceiling beams and wood floors. The kitchen is large and it can definitely handle the "bolder" backsplash. That is the "star" and not the "beige" counters.

Taj Mahal counters with natural stone backsplash ...

This one is the same as my Jeffrey Court marble mosaic, but in a different pattern.

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Marble mosaic

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Marble subway

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Walker Zanger marble mosaics

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Love that second one! These are great examples:)

Second one is from Mosaique Surface, Metis warm. I actually ordered a sample board, but it looked too washed out in my kitchen.

I like the tiles chispa showed. It brings in the brown and I find the white clarifying, something that pops amidst all the beige. I like that shape as well because I think all the horizontal lines of subway tile can take away from the organic, oblique lines in the Taj Mahal stone. That Mosaique surface is gorgeous! The tile eam44 offered could be a nice mediator, and classic, if you like subway tile. I think that the subway tiles you picked compete with the Taj Mahal.

chispa, I would love to see a photo of your kitchen with your tile. I hope that suggestion isn't intruding on the OP, but it seems relevant.

I'd like to know about that floor. Is it bluish?

Hello, no I just realized one of the pictures has very bad shading. The floor is very much ivory with subtle veining. Cabinets are alabaster with a wood island. And the marbles are both warm, no blue tones.

One of my favorite tiles with Taj Mahal when looking at Houzz photos, but when I saw it in person, the sample board was really glossy. Very pricey too, something like $180/sq.ft.

Ann Sacks, Nottingham Veil.

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Also considered Sonoma Tile, in the Dahlia pattern, and I ordered/tested many colors, but it just seemed like too much of one color in my kitchen. It did look pretty in the Houzz photos.

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I tested every tile out there! It took me 5 months, after we moved in, to find the right tile for my kitchen backsplash. Don't rush.

I realized before you wrote it, that the blue was the lighting. Okay, yeah, ignore all my blue comments.

In my opinion, if you want your countertops to be the star of the show, you could opt for the honed marble subway tile. Taj Mahal is such a beautiful stone. it should stand out. The mermaid tile would compete with your countertops.

That is the thing though ... the Taj Mahal doesn't really stand out on a horizontal surface. It just looks off-white/beige from a distance, specially the Taj Mahal slabs that are light colored with a swirly/subtle pattern.