Hi. I disagree with the previous comment (sorry!). Wall colour can be easily changed whenever you like but floors are a much bigger challenge and need careful consideration. I am a fan of light floors and am living in a house that has them, and am also renovating a house that will have them. If you choose something with a warmer base (taupe/beige is fine but not yellow) it will carry you through any changes to the wall colour you might want to make in the future. Go for it! Good luck.

I work in tiles and the normal splashback height is 600 mm. This is because overhead cupboards are usually this height above the bench top. In your case you don't have this so can do anything you like. If you tile to low 200mm etc the wall gets damaged - paint doesn't wear like tiles. There are many materials you can use as a splash back but most aren't durable eg Perspex. Glass and tiles have the edge. Textured splashes are in hence the hand made tiles. If grout annoys you use large tiles you can get them up to 1200mm long these days with rectified edges you only have 1.5mm gap. Use sealer on the grout, they are now easy clean. If you have the money tile to the bulkhead a much more luxurious look. Maybe in a charcoal. I don't know how these gaps are getting so dirty. I use spray and wipe with a toothbrush occasionally and it takes little time and always clean.

hi my husband is a builder and I know about tiles a lot . there is nothing for wet area tiles . all tiles are floor and wall tiles. yea you could use rough surface tiles in wet area but it's depends on your style but you don't need to choose only rough surface . in wet area you must have to do waterproofing before laying your tiles . you can all choose from cremaic tiles to porcelain tiles. you just need to measure wall hight and width then tiles shop guys they we will work out how many sqm you need or give them your floor plan they can work it out.

Moving the niche is not an option at this point. But I do have a question about the niche. My tile installer wants me to consider using the gray tile (same as the floor) on the inside edges of the niche. This is because the wall tile is glass and imperfections in the glass (from cutting it) will show if the glass tile is on the inside edge. How do you guys think that would look? I tried to find photos of a niche where the wall and back of the niche were one color, with the sides being a second color and I couldn't find any examples. Has anyone seen that?