I had black stone bench tops at our old house. My kids would sit up at the bench whenever I was in the kitchen, so I was constantly cleaning off the little hand prints they left behind which seemed to be more obvious when light would hit the bench top, but it was easy to clean overall. Just moved into a house with a white corian bench top around the kitchen sink and stove area and it shows everything, every splash, bit of dust, tiny speck of whatever, everything. Makes me miss the black stone!

Know thy self... you sound like you're bobbing around in an ocean of ideas and safety nets and don't know whose life rope to grab. Take time out to look at addressing a few aspects of yourself : * the dynamics of yourself as an individual and the needs upon you and of you in light of your desires for better feeling and functionality of the space * then let's select pieces, items and collections you feel compelled to hold onto for one reason or another * group things and find the unique story that is you ... your family ... whether letting go of or even moving toward * then start incorporating the reno decisions to compliment and contrast, moving outward with the eye and feel into other areas of your home * if working from a blank canvass then pull pics from magazines and start a collage or a number of boards to express interpretations * another idea is to simply sit in meditation... close your eyes, relax, in your minds eye walk into your dream kitchen. Picture this by yourself, as a family, entertaining and any other occasion you experience. Have fun! Let me know how you get on. I'd love to see pics and know your thoughts and feelings around the choices, not decisions, choices.... you made :)

Thanks for all those comments. It would be nice to replace everything but it was done in stages and some bits cost a bit. Taking shape piecemeal with out a whole perspective resulted in the dilemma now. I would hate to lose the stone bench top and the tiles laid recently to match it. The rest is negotiable so I really aim to tie it together. No one is tending to sit in the kitchen they rather sit in the living room. And yes I need better shelf space and spot for microwave and I did hope to get the fridge next to the door beside the wall return but I would need a thinner fridge. I had hoped to remove that door altogether and use the bi fold doors in the living room as an exit but they may not be ideal for that. So my main aim was to tie together the bench top and floor with colour and maybe some modifications to the upper cabinets?? The back door is actually and off white.

One thing you might want to consider too is the finish of the bench top. Even though dark colours absorb light if you have a shiny coating on your bench top it might give you that glare effect. We have a dark green laminated bench top. And we get a lot on sun in the morning and the bench top is quite resonates a lot of glare. Opt for a matt finish in a material that won't throw a lot of light back. I have attached a photo of our bench top to give you an idea of what I mean