Personally if I had the access to the marble I would take it! Traditional concerns regarding bleach spill etc are not that relevant these day s. If you keep these items like laundry powders and cleaning chemicals off the bench and in the cupboard they shouldn't cause you much trouble. I keep all mine in a caddy that keeps them off surfaces and easy to move around the house and store in the cupboard. How many of us hand colour or hand bleach anything anymore. Most laundry troughs these days are too small to make these jobs even possible. Or if you are a craft lover do these things in the outdoors or garage. Hand washing is usually with very gentle detergents on smaller items and usually done with care. If the laundry is a chore make your work area a pleasure to be in!

I actually had a marble counter in a flat I lived in in Europe for a while. I knew nothing about maintenance so just treated it like any other hard surface, and it looked fine (and I wasn't the first person to live in that flat, I assure you). It's more common in Europe, and not so much trendy there as classic. But Europeans aren't quite as finicky as North Americans and Australians seem to be about flawless and unblemished finishes.

Thanks Fort Interiors. I checked out the Smartstone website and found my dream kitchen! I just received the quote from my local joinery works for my proposed kitchen island, bench and splashback in 'statuario venato' including under mount sink cut out, 2 power point cut outs and waterfall ends -just under $13000!! Unfortunately it seems I will be needing to reign in my naive champagne taste ideas :(

An undermount stainless steel sink will match well with your brushed gold tap and white benchtop. Although different in colour, the sink and tap shared same kind of texture so It won't be distracting. Colour wise, the sink will match perfectly with your white benchtop. We got some photos of our customers who have used the same kind of design before, check out the link below if you would like to have a look. https://fontaineind.com.au/colette-kitchen-laundry-tap-mixer-brushed-gold https://fontaineind.com.au/ariella-kitchenlaundry-mixer-tap-brushed-gold