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.

Rellish, did you have trouble getting matching grout and silicone? We're about to use the exact same tile in our bathroom. Also, did the tiler have any trouble due to the embossed pattern? Our builder thinks we need to install the tiles on top of the vanity as the tiles are not flat and it will be difficult to get a good, clean seal if the wall is tiled first.

Thanks Fort Interiors. I checked out the Smartstone website and found my dream kitchen! I just received the quote from my local joinery works for my proposed kitchen island, bench and splashback in 'statuario venato' including under mount sink cut out, 2 power point cut outs and waterfall ends -just under $13000!! Unfortunately it seems I will be needing to reign in my naive champagne taste ideas :(

Thanks interiorispirations. Sävedal fronts in the metod range. I did it very slowly but I think the demo took about four big days (the floor was four layers of lino, each glued on top of the last...steam was my friend) two days to build and install the cabinetry, two days to fit the plumbing and electrical, and a day to tile the splashback. Spent $4k at IKEA, all cabinets, sink, tap, benchtop, in cupboard and under bench lighting, internal drawers, corner carousel etc. $5k at Harvey Norman for appliances. $400 for splashback tiles.