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LizaJane What is the stain on the oak cabinets? If it is going to lean toward golden/orange and the floor is a terra cotta then you need to be careful with paint. I would either choose a reallly warm nice white (say BM Antique White) which has a slight taupey feel to it or a more grey/taupe. Hard to say without seeing cabinet color.

greenwood8 Thank you - th eoak is not greyish, it is goldeny but not dark stained, light golden I would say- I like the idea of contrasting all those warm colours with the white

greenwood8 the terracotta is slightly pinky also- is the antique white at all rosy?

greenwood8 Am thinking of white tumbled stone marble travertine- nice contrast with glossy granite and picking up earthy floor...

Stoneshop I was thinking that a soft travertine would look nice as well. Try picking up some of the light white/taupe flecks in the granite. Also, be sure to view the backsplash tile with the granite in your own space.

greenwood8 Thank you so much for great advice- light and ensemble make all the difference.. funnily enough took advice yesterday that travertine is hard to seal and keep clean- splashback is for a hob with a wok burner that will see a lot of use- so I may have to go for a smooth surface :-( I love your pictures, gosh some really beautiful work

Stoneshop You are welcome, greenwood8! Thank you for the kind compliments :)

You can get travertine tiles in a filled and honed finish. This means that all of the small holes in the travertine have been filled in, making the surface smooth. The photos in our album entitled "Upstate Ski Chalet" use honed Durango travertine.
[houzz=Upstate Ski Chalet 1]
[houzz=Upstate Ski Chalet 2]

A good tile installer will know how to properly seal your stone tile, which he should do three times. Once when he lays it out, again once it is set, and then lastly once it is grouted. This will protect the stone, and you should never have to seal it again.

greenwood8 Thanks for the tips Stoneshop- I probably will go with travertine and will post pics of the result :-)

Stoneshop Great! I will be looking forward to the photos!

Emerson Brothers, LLC. Home Remodeling I would go to your local tile store with the granite sample and find glass tiles with similar colors that are present in the granite.

greenwood8 Thanks, Emerson Brothers! Like glass tiles in principle but in practice like few. Having pathological aversions to shiny glittery things and subway tiles (sorry, whisper that :-)) am left with little choice in UK. Am investigating the possibility of featuring some dark glass inserts though and I appreciate the tip about the local tile store- one can lose half a lifetime finding stuff on the net that can't be sourced but the perfect thing might be sitting there waiting..

greenwood8 Only have 'before' pics at present but will certainly be uploading as the project unfolds and is finished. Did I mention I have an electric tile cutter and am gonna use it?!