You can always go with textured glass or slump glass,it has a more rustic look and doesn't look so modern as plain glass, it's much easier to keep clean too as it doesn't streak and there is no grout...we have a very traditional kitchen and it looks amazing,this is my laundry and is actually quite a vibrant purple with dragonflies on it because,in the laundry,why not? The kitchen is more nuetral......

We have installed wallpaper behind glass splash backs on many occasions without any problems, the glass usually being attached by a thin beading of clear silicon applied around the inside perimeter of he glass, then fitted the day after the wallpaper install. MOST importantly the INSIDE of the glass be kept perfectly clean on install as even fingerprints will stand out

It must depend what you cook. I don't do fried, spitty type dishes and the grout around the largish tiles in my now 10 year old kitchen is as good as new. I rubbed car wax into the freshly laid grout lines, same as I did in the bathroom. It also depends on how much light bounces around your kitchen, glass being so reflective shows up smears with light on it. Just above the kettle in the first photo is a good example. Each to their own, I'm a non-glass girl whenever I can get away with it.

We did pressed metal splashbacks on a display in a kitchen showroom I used to manage, and as such many of our clients opted for the same look. Powder Coated is definitely the way to go. It stands up really well for durability and is in fact relatively easy to clean compared to many splashbacks. Often people think that glass or stainless steel are the easiest for cleaning, but due to being such a flat reflective surface they show up every splash and if you're going to clean them you really have to clean the full length of splashback. The textured surface of the pressed metal means that it doesn't reflect the same amount of light so you are able to get away with cleaning it less often, and you can also get away with just cleaning the dirty area rather than the full length. The biggest difficulty we found was getting the splashbacks installed as there aren't really any tradesmen who specialize in fitting pressed metal, and those that were willing to cut & fit it were concerned about what would happen if they damaged the paintwork. We had the panels cut to size first before they were powder coated to minimize the risk of chipping the surface.