Can't help you with the granite/bluestone sorry, but I'm trying to visualise the finished result. To me having this type of combination would have your benches fighting for attention. I would be inclined to have the timber as the star attraction and keep the back bench in the background with a plain and simple material that will compliment your timber.

Kitchens are the heart of s home. You need breakfast stools at your bench so people can chat to you whilst prepping/cooking. Or kids helping or eating brekkie. tables are lower so don’t work as well. It’s not about the view for these purposes. 4 stools at least with backs hopefully and allow them to tuck under bench top to clear circulation to sliders. I would keep all within current footprint. Island: min 900 (at ends) & 1200 from other benches. If u go too wide it makes it more difficult to work. Too many steps. I can stand next to my dishwasher and unload into drawers opposte without moving with 1200. And can work on island whilst someone at sink behind Up to 1500 from sliders if having stools there. Love to see finished pics I like your style. Good luck

Hi, I'm far from the expert on this one. When I did a search for UV resistant woods/laminates up came ads for UV resistant sealer. So I looked into it and didn't find a decisive one product for the job. Olympic Maximum Exterior has a four year wear life. If you can deal with a darker than preferred stain on the first go, I'd go the real timber route; go heavy on the sealer& dark stain.. thats noticeable to fade. .. see how it wears in three years /50-75% of suggested time. Then you can sand and stain to preference; retouch as needed.

Hi Kate - my kitchen doesn’t get exist as the renovation starts early in the New Year. The attached link has some pictures of my parent’s kitchen. They used Neolith Statuario in the Silk finish - it is greyer and has a more dramatic vein than the Calacatta (which is also a bit browner and then the Calacatta gold is browner again). https://designerkitchensvictoria.com.au/gallery/item/137-coffey The photos do not do their kitchen justice - it is lovely in real life. There are quite a few different porcelain brands in Australia now - Dekton (as mentioned above) is another option and there are others. The different companies also do various different marble looks. You could have a look and decide what style of marble look that you prefer. They can then provide you with pictures of projects using that style of stone (Neolith has pictures on its website). There are also a lot pf photos on Pinterest and Houzz. Neolith gave me a really generous size chip (about 1/2 the size of an A4 sheet of paper) - that has been really handy for selecting other finish colours (eg paint for the 2 PAC and walls and trims and the Polytec laminate and tiles for the bathroom and laundry - if you do decide on Neolith, I could give you the Haynes paint and polytec colours that I am using if it helps). Porcelain is more expensive than Quartz (both in raw material and in installation costs), but then so is marble. I am using a lot of Neolith in my house, so I shopped around to find a stone cutter who was crafty with maximising the use of each sheet of Neolith (to avoid wastage and minimise the number of sheets needed). It made a huge difference. My house was also designed around the sheet size - Neolith sheets are 3.2 metres long (so you can have a 3.2 metre benchtop or island without needing a join). You need to use 12mm (or thicker) sheets for benchtops. (Splashbacks and showers use 6mm thick porcelain sheets - Neolith does 2 different matching sheets for each marble design, so you can bookmark and pattern match the splashback). Also be aware that the marble pattern is only printed on the top of all of the brands of porcelain. If you want to continue the pattern on the “lips” of your benches, this needs to be a beveled edge (which you also need to do with quartz or marble if you want any thickness of “lip” to your benchtop). So you also have to factor in the stone cuts needed to create the benchtop “lips” when calculating sheet cutting and usage. I am not having edging on my benctops and am instead going for the slim European look of “floating” benchtops. I am not worried that the 1.2 cm edge all the way around the benches will be plain white. On the marble etching and staining - at my brother’s house it is everything that has been a problem - from wooden chopping boards, tea cups, wine glasses, metal cans, citrus, vinegar, tomato, water (yep even water marks marble!), oil, certain plastics, berries, juice, even some metal cans…. I understand what you designer is saying about the beauty of natural marble and how it has been used and loved for hundreds of years in European houses - but frankly the modern day types of stains (where the toddler smeared their blue playdough, the round marks of tins, the outline of wine bottles, coffee and tea cups and tins etc) are just not pretty!