Hi Joe, I must admit I'm a sucker for black and white and I will definately use it when I start my reno next year. I would just like to tell you something that is quite disturbing or funny depending on your point of view. My mother -in-law recently passed away in Italy and my husband inherited a 200 hundred year old house that has been passed down through the family. This house is on an island that has no cars and it is a great place to unwind. The house is heritage listed and you can imagine the problems we have just painting the outside.We had to get permission to replace the front door and things do not exactly run at break neck speed. Anyway we are now back in Oz and my husband decided he wanted to renovate the very old kitchen. We did not have time to return so everything was done by phone. Our saving grace is that we know the builder and he project managed as well. What I am trying to say is I have chosen tiles, appliances, outfitted the whole kitchen and dining room plus chose the colours over the phone and most things from the internet.Their system is totally different to ours they do not have paint companies per say. ONe has to describe the colour, shade and finish or get a friend to go along to the factory and choose. I have chosen white tiles and a tile every so often with a delicate black design on it. I really have no idea if it will work as we are dealing with history .I am terrified to return because the whole job may be a fiasco. If you want to change tiles under the exhaust maybe the black and white ones are a solution. I think plain white is a bit boring why not break out and do something different. I am not suggesting you don't know what you are doing but this I hope will be of some help to you. I have gone around the block in my advise for you but I felt I had to bore you with my problem and explain that when I return to the house it may be a dogs dinner and I will have to listen to my husband whine. So good luck with your choice and please let us know what you have decided as I am very interested . Kind regards Miriam.

My current kitchen has black subway tiles with white grout and everyone loves them. I bought my house with the existing kitchen and have changed the accent colour of the light shades and accessories from red to green in the last year (photo is pre green!) as I love retro mid bright green. Herb plants and glass containing cut herbs from my garden plus cheap black metal indust chic shelves that house lovely green china items also help soften the tiles. I would ideally change the benchtops from white laminate to med rimu type wood and steel, go for a darker grout for practical reasons and change the cupboards from this grey/dark brown laminate to lighter wood (not scandi white type though - I think is now getting dated and is to me a very cold style and not practical). I have my own style, love colour pops and I would best describe it as eco retro boho industrial chic - eclectic. Go for your style and if its not your forever house - think budget and what will be easy to update. I think subway tiles work well for updating and are classic but perhaps think colour instead of white or black as well and also grouting colour - it makes a difference.

Great job on the kitchen and I agree with some of the former comments - a glass splash back would look good and the silver seems a good choice. If you decide to go with tiles I would suggest a White Tile with a smattering of Black and Grey markings with the colors prominent not subdued. I wouldn't think Brown but why not experiment with a few different colors and see how they look and in conjunction with other colors until you come up with a match. Only a small area but nice to get it just right first go. Good luck

Cherry Pop - great looking tiles, however your decsion to use them as splashback will depend on their size and the height of the available area to tile. With such a strong pattern you don't want to trim a tile to fit the height. The ideal solution would be to install the window so that the distance between the underside of the window architrave, near the bottom of the window, and the installed benchtop is exactly one tile in height. This will need some careful measurement and juggling of trades to get it perfect. Or you could change your pool tile to be less of a feature such as this simple, white, square, contemporary mosaic. As it is smaller, and has no pattern then it doesn't matter if a row needs to be trimmed to fit in the available wall space. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls