Not sure what you mean by bench but painting the cupboards white sounds like a great solution to the all green kitchen. You could even break up some of the green tiles with floor mats as well. Best of luck.

those tiles from the 1800s are encaustic... the color goes all the way through. ceramic tiles are red in the middle and have just a relatively thin layer of color and glaze. porcelain tiles do have a color matched center (look at the edges to tell) but i'm not certain that all of the pattern goes through. at least it would wear off and turn the main color, not red.

Something to take into cosideration would be the amount of light you have coming into the bathroom. Obviously if you have considerable light and air the tile shade wouldn't be too much of an issue. On the other hand if the room is small and not very light filled, then the lighter shades would be preferable giving the illusion of making the room appear bigger and lighter.

Hope post shows, got some weird error message