Keep your decorating neutral. Buyers will change some things in the house. Save your money and ideas for your next house.

When selling your home is not the time to be bold especially with colour. You need to appeal to as many buyers as possible and tone down on anything too personal.

Aim for continuity. If the kitchen has color and the rest of the house doesn't, it may look out of place and the new owners may rip it out for something that goes with the rest of the house.

Thank you to all these comments!!! Every comment is sooooo appreciated!! We really could use as much advise as possible!

I think the more colorful and bold back splash is a better compliment to the neutral tile countertop. The subway tile would look better against granite or quartz.

I agree with Eliza. The subway tile pattern clashes with the square tiles of the countertop. I think a glass mosaic tile in shades of brown, cream and copper would look updated and neutral which most buyers would appreciate.

If there has been no decision, I say rip it all out and start fresh!

Buyers are going to want to remove that counter top. Why not make it easier for them, and paint the wall without a backsplash? Or put the 4x4's back, as they were providing continuity. You walls are open to another area, so continuity is a plus there, as well.

I agree, I would not spend any money on the backsplash, but spend it new counters and paint backsplash area .

HI -- Both ways sounds interesting but... hubby can put his artistic touches on the new house . Go with the neutral plan because your selling . You have to remember ,your not decorating for yourself if the house is for sale !

-keep the backsplash as neutral as humanly possible. The new buyers might tear it all out anyway. Get some paint that compliments the countertop and be done with it. Use the saved cash for something in your new home. Paint the backsplash and the rest of the kitchen the color of the grout - maybe a little bit lighter It will look fresh and clean and any buyer will not have to look past a tile job they do not care for. They will love choosing their own tile and this will help to make this their own.

Best refresh would be a new ivory or white quartz countertop. Leave the backsplash painted for the next owner to add in what they like!

Husband should look at 100 houses on MLS site in your immediate area and see what is selling--
green kitchens would turn off 97% of buyers IMO and I am no realtor and don't know your area but green in a kitchen is to me a visual turn off when cooking...

and a "random" tile arrangement is asking for trouble...

He can paint the walls green if he wants. Like a greyed or browned down light neutral green. Think Behr Mocachino or SW Sawdust vcut by half with white.

But, tile countertops are bad enough for resale without having a wildly clashing tile backsplash to go with it. I'd remove them and just do a couple of slabs of a nice laminate from a box store, paint, and call it good. People may not love laminate, but at least they don't HATE it like they do tile counters.

I don't think either backsplash tile choice goes well with the tile countertops. I agree with those saying that the new owners will probably rip out and redo the counters, so putting in a new tile backsplash is not useful. Why don't you add a counter and backsplash allowance to reduce the house sale price as an incentive for buyers? That would attract me more than a mismatched backsplash and outdated counter.

The back splash is the least of your problems, the tile counters are really going to turn people off. I agree with the other posters just paint it. Save your money and time and ditch any additional tile. You already have too much tile as it is.

Yes, unfortunately, tile counters are not a selling point. I've seen too many buyers "turned off" by them on all of those home buying TV programs.

It looks like you removed some wall tile already. In that case, repair the wall neatly and paint it. Don't bother with a backsplash, it will just get ripped out if you do anything other than match the tile you have.

For the tile you already have, if you can't afford to replace it with a solid surface such as quartz or granite (or if the market won't support those surfaces), just paint the grout off white to match the tile. you can use grout paint from the home store or have some oil based enamel tinted to an exact match. If you want to see how it would look before starting to paint, just run some white tape or masking tape along the grout lines. The idea is to get away from the late 1980's-early 1990s grid style of dark grout with light tile.
Match the wall paint color to the tile to make the whole thing blend harmoniously. Let the artistic person pick out one or two colorful accent pieces per room or the fluffy new house-selling towels.

Green is a real turnoff to most buyers in my area (California suburbia). Gray is not nearly as fashionable in real life as on tv or on Houzz. White/Off white is the most popular color by far for house selling here. The suggestion to look at 100 houses on the MLS is excellent. Take photos of your house to compare to some closest to yours in price; match the location of the photos if possible. Photo-to-photo comparison works better than eyeball-to-photo.

Hi there! the problem here is the dated countertop. Replace counter and sink and taps and that will have the most impact and transform this kitchen. Then paint the walls a medium toned grey (with a hint of green in it) and you won't need a backsplash. Let the new owners do that because it is so personal, but your husband's choice of glass tile would work well. Yellow paint - no for sure. Sorry! :)

I wouldn't want a green kitchen or a yellow one either for that matter. And I don't think either backsplash option looks good with countertops. I'd just skip it. Pick paint in something neutral; warm white; beige or gray. And don't forget to declutter. Add a pretty potted plant or accessories in a pretty colour.

This is an April 2014 question - it's probably done by now. Would be nice to see what actually did happen.