Pity you have decided against glass in favour of tiles. We have just done our kitchen and I wanted an easy-to-clean surface for the splash back, so the rough surface of grouting around tiles, and also the indentations on some patterned tiles (which collect grease and grime) ruled them out for me! I went for glass, which the manufacturers matched exactly to the duck egg paint colour on the other walls (just gave them a product code of the paint), and although the initial outlay for the glass was expensive, the surface is so brilliant to keep clean and it looks fab as well. I would definitely recommend, and you could match it to, say, your lovely pink/purple ceiling lights ...

Hi Irina! That's a really lovely kitchen, I think perhaps using a natural material with variation will be an excellent finishing touch...have a look at our New York Brick tiles, we keep these in stock in West London can send a sample if you think these could work http://www.stoneandceramicwarehouse.co.uk/wall-tiles/floors/item/new-york-bricks

This is ours, standard upstand and large piece of quartz behind the cooker. In hindsight, and if budget allowed, we would have the upstand higher up like your image, perhaps to the bottom of our wall cupboards. We find the cooker splashed onto the paint as does the sink. We used the same paint as we have elsewhere in the house which you can normally wipe down but for some reason the finish on the kitchen means we have real trouble doing this, so we’ll have to repaint periodically.

I’d do differently. I’d tile up to the top of the units making a straight line, that way would feel nice to the eye, with a good flow feeling. To add to the look, the shelf will have a lovely background when you are setting your plants, herbs or spices… . I’d actually install tiles in a light colour with mate finish.