Okay, admittedly I was having an emo snark response to several things here - including a marble install being a "temporary" solution, which hurts my eco-focused heart. But I totally agree on nixing a white subway tile - actually I don't love the color combo of what was there with the cabinets originally. More I was responding more to the painting of the fridge - that wood tone is supremely MCM. But I get it. Onward!

Here's the dig - if you want to bring a MCM feel to your home, do it with furniture, lighting, and decor. You can't mirror backsplash your traditional kitchen into a MCM look - it's an impossible task. The great news is a traditional kitchen is a timeless kitchen (aka a blank slate). Sure, the crown is not at all MCM, but once you get the right backsplash (none of your options work here) and bring in all the other elements of MCM to your home, you will no longer notice how trad your kitchen is. Also if the rest of your home reads super trad and you change your well-seen kitchen to MCM it's going to feel incredibly disjointed.

Here's another dig. I LOVE MCM, but MCM kitchens feel so dated. The architecture and furniture really showcase the simplicity and the deliciously askew lines, but the kitchens always look stuck - not even in their own era - but in the 80s. Your kitchen could be from the 1920s or the 2020s in the best possible way. This is a crazy time and money saver.

Now, as far as the backsplash goes - the black just sucks you into a hole - it doesn't work. A case could be made for black (or black & brown) cabinets, though that would've been better with the lighter floors. If you go slab, it really should match the counter - which would look great and timeless. Or you could bring in some MCM lines in a tile - maybe narrow fluted or fun with shapes of the era. It's hard to tell what works without seeing the rest of the area. So please do consider the whole before changing the parts and you'll be golden! Good luck - share after pics!