Kitchen Conundrum

Brad and I will be picking out our kitchen with the builder's wife tomorrow night! Now that tomorrow is tomorrow, it seems so close. We've discussed what we like and what we don't but trying to nail it down has been difficult.

We know we don't like white or light wood colored cabinets, so we are mostly focusing on a dark cherry or maple finishes but the countertops are our biggest confusion. Granite comes standard in our new place so light or dark is the question. The kitchen in our new home is a decent size and receives good natural light but I'm concerned that going too dark will make the room appear smaller than it really is.

Below is a photo of the finished house we viewed. I actually really love the colors they selected. I think the cabinets are a wonderful color and the granite they selected was soothing in the room.  

Kitchen in finished sample home.

We negotiated in a back-splash and cabinet hardware so we have a few other pieces to consider and I think it might be the extras that are throwing me off. I'm not sure how to pair a back-splash with granite or what kind of back-splash to do. I tend to be drawn to the glass tile back-splashes.

Inspiration photos:

I know they look pretty similar but I really like both of these looks.

These cabinets with the brown toned granite is really great!

I really like the darker granite in this photo.

Really love glass tile back-splashes!

Oh so many choices!!