SFGate

oakleyspanky Love your cabinets, what is the colour?

cdpearman Beautiful house! With the ocean proximity, I would be inclined to use a "sea glass" colour in a glass subway tile. Maybe something like the attached images :) Good luck! Diana

janesflame Hi Meg, My Verde Butterfly should be installed at the end of the week. My cabinets are painted Sherwin Williams - Creamy. I've decided on a 2X4 glass subway tile and the color is greenish/blue I guess. It just blended really well with the green gray colors in the counter. I have looked at so much tile it makes my head hurt but this is the one that I felt looked the best with the countertop. We painted the trim the same color as the cabinets and the walls are another Sherwin Williams color called Conservative Gray which sometimes looks blue gray and sometimes green gray depending on time of day. Of course none if this is completely put together yet so I'm leaving myself open to changing the wall color since I'm not really a gray person. I can see the sea glass posted by cdpearman above looking really good with the verde. Not so much with the river stone though. Anyway, I'll post a pic of the subway tile I'm using though in real life it looks much better. I ordered samples online of several different colors of green. Most online stores will send samples for a couple of bucks. I'll be posting pictures of my completed project in a few weeks. I already started a thread on my re-do a while back looking for advice. I ended up going in a totally different direction though! Here's the link if you want to check in a few weeks for my "after" photos. http://www.houzz.com/discussions/266519

spmm A glass, polished steel or mirrored backsplash could work well. Grout in backsplash is hard to keep clean.

Meg Rogers Thank you so very much... so helpful.... do you think there is enough room between the existing granite backsplash to place tile on top of it... see how close the windowsill is to the backsplash? Also... should I just remove the existing granite backsplash and retile it? Is that risky?
Some seem to think that the seal of the granite next to the counter is better (tighter seal and more waterproof) than tile against granite. Thanks to all.

janesflame There is certainly enough room for a backsplash as is. You'd have to do some trimming of tile to squeeze it under the window sill but you'll be trimming tile in other areas anyway. Ideally, a backspash would go all the way to the counter. I would ask a granite installer about removal of the existing granite cap. I'm not sure what type of adhesive they use or if you'd have much success doing it yourself without harming the sheetrock underneath. Perhaps they'd do it for you. We've installed a cement board backing in the area so that later removal will be easier. I wanted to have the option of replacing my backsplash later if I needed change. As to the seal between tile and countertop, a silicone caulk properly applied will give you every bit as much a barrier to moisture as you have now. If you're really worried about that seal and are able to remove the existing backsplash, then you could place additional bead of caulk between the granite and the wall before you tile. If you seal your grout well, it's every bit as easy to keep clean as any other surface. I'd much rather clean splatters off of a non porous tile than a painted wall!