Absolutely right, marble is not recommended in a kitchen environment for many reasons. It is a soft stone, extremely porous and costly! You an address each of these things and overcome some of these issues in design, application and precautionary sealing, however only the rich can afford to do so, hence why most magazine kitchens feature marble! There are marble alternatives, but reconstituted stone will never match the natural characteristics of natural stone, mainly due to the manufacture process. By definition of the process, reconstituted stone ie made up of both natural stone by product in a granulated form, mixed with aggregate or not, and a binding resin compound that makes it durable and impervious to moisture. There are ceramic and porcelain veneer tiles that are stone slab size and will provide the beauty of marble, wihtout the worries, there is also 180fx, a laminate option for both gloss and honed (Matt) finish for a Carrara look marble, then again, real marble can be protected with a single sheet of glass on top as an island feature etc. Plenty if options, just research them.

i would fill in the space above the dishwasher with cabinets, to balance the look. i would even consider swapping out that rangehood for a slide out built in one, and make that entire wall cabinetry around the window. As you would lose all your top cupboards if you remove the wall in between, you will most likely need additional storage. also, i think that building it all in, will actually streamline the look, as the rangehood does look a bit squashed in between the fridge and the window. i like isellev's idea of taking out the wall, but bookending with storage pillars. Very functional, and would look great i believe. you could even plan them so they can have some storage on both sides, so then they look nice from the living side, as well as being functional. good luck.

Appreciate all the feedback, thanks everyone! Yes caesarstone is what our builder includes. Its the statuario nuvo (marble look) caesarstone that I would have loved but after finding out it would be about $4k-$5k more than the 'snow' caesarstone pictured above we realised that wasn't an option for us unfortunately. We are building so I guess we're a bit limited by the companies our builder uses. The cabinetry is polytec melamine range (riga salt pictured above). They do have shaker style cabinets in their thermo laminated range but were told it would cost quite a lot more. Will have to ask for a more specific quote and see just how much extra it will be. Ultimately if budget weren't a factor I would do timber look flooring, marble bench tops, marble or white subway splashback, and white shaker style cabinets. So I guess I'll just have to try and get as close as I can to that look with our budget.

I wouldn't go those dark laminate kitchen cupboards. I have the exact same and I absolutely loathe them now. I use to love the darker colours but now I wish I had just done them white, light gray or even the dark blue (although dark blue worries me a little too!). That dark laminate brown is such an absolute pain to keep clean. They show up every mark. I like your stone bench tops though but would look at other options to create the look you're hoping for with the joins and waterfall benches etc. Goodluck with it all!