So, Byron got us the not-so-surprise, but still awesome gift of awesome countertops for Christmas. Deciding he was being too practical upgrading the kitchen as a gift, he also bought me a new HD TV.

Anyway, good thing he came home unexpectedly early. Because in addition to the countertops, he figured since he was here, he'd also replace the back splash and install lighting underneath the cabinets.

So, just before I arrived home, the kitchen looked a little like this:

But, luckily, I arrived to it looking awesome like this:

Being indecisive, its apparently my job to help pick out the backsplash. Both Byron and I have a slight preference for glass, as a lot of the travertine we looked at appeared old fashioned.

As is tradition on this blog, I'd like to open this up to the peanut gallery to see what you think.

Here are all the samples:

We particularly like these large green tiles:

And also this travertine - what's interesting is that the colors are not actually as bright in real life as they are in the photos:

We really liked this piece too. We liked that the glass was not perfect and all crackly inside. We have two issues with it. One, the the accent color is blue, and our walls are green. Though the blue and greens do appear to be complementary. Also, the black is black marble and clearly a different pattern from the counter top black granite, with a white vein going through it.

Other options we liked less: