Netty, firstly thank you for posting your question because we are stuck on splashback ideas also and the only difference between our kitchens is that you have opted for gloss on your cupboards and we have gone satin. We are currently waiting on our shi*take bench tops to be installed.... hopefully within the next week. After much googling, hubby has decided that he likes the glass bullet style in a neutral tone (much like the tile you have gone with but in glass obviously) and I am liking the bullet style tile also, just not sure whether glass or a mix of stone, glass etc would work. At least I know we are on the right track now, so thanks again! Can't wait to see a photo when your done (hint hint ;-) )

I think it is good to mix up the warm and cool colours. We have warm furniture too so its just the walls that are cool. I even have a beige/stone coloured curtain next to the grey wall and it looks so nice. Because this is an open plan room do you think those type of tiles will be too busy? I always go for plain things but i can see how something like that would look really good! This is one big room with lounge, dining, kitchen and french doors that open to a massive decking. I will post a pic of the whole thing when the final benchtop and tiles go on

Snowy mountain is a good choice.

Not a problem :) One thing to keep in mind is that if something happens to the neighbours pipes and they need to be accessed via your unit and your cabinets, you will be need to pay for fixing the damage to the cabinets yourself, even though the repair had nothing to do with you and was a strata job. I suspect this is why you have the pipes inside the cabinets right now - something went wrong on the previous occasion (burst pipe?) and instead of doing an expensive fix (opening the walls/floor/having to retile etc) which would have cost the previous owner a fortune, the plumber put a fix via the cabinets - it would have minimised the cost. Normally, if you are completely redoing the kitchen, this alternative fix is removed. Good luck!!