My wife watches Holmes the renovator guy on HG TV. She said that he recommends quartz for durability so that's the way that we went.
We have never had a stain nor a scratch or blemish in over 2 years - it is really tough whereas granite is more prone to damage, or so I've heard.
Nice colour you've picked - it will hide crumbs, etc, well. If you look at the backsplash in their gallery pics, ours goes right up to the bottom of the cabinets & right up to the ceiling behind our stove where the vent hangs. I believe that it was 1 thickness less than the counter top but not the thinnest due to fragility problems of moving big pieces during the transport & install process...
TAM
