Great advice!

Hi Carmel, I'm not a architect and I do value everyone's professional opinion, but can't help thinking that perhaps you and your husband are both right. The breakfast table would look great in a natural stone, it is the where you eat, have tea or wine on, maybe a small project, entertain or have a fork fight on. Choose a granite or marble that's going to tie in with the splash back and your lovely timber floors and go with a wow factor like a stand out vein or run of colour in it. Makes it interesting. As for the rest a dark or even black solid surface or laminate is ideal. I find them soft and touchable, easy to maintain, a pleasure to work on and it adds the extra modern elements that's missing from this lovely galley style kitchen. Corian is another brand of solid surface but a textured dark laminate from A reputable laminate supplier should do it too. Make this room an energy that you want to be in not just look great. Kind regards Marina.

Corian here in our kitchen for thirteen years. I’ve really found it excellent. It’s not cold , that’s true, but it is also quiet and harder to break things on. It comes in very many colours. It feels very solid (because it is), not plasticky like laminate. It NEVER stains. It’s very hard to scratch. I use a trivet for really hot things, not mildly hot. Heat marks etc can be professionally rubbed out if needed, I haven’t needed it yet. I use cutting boards for sharp tools but it’s not precious. It doesn’t try to be stone, can be formed in to infinitely large joint free runs and even edgy, free form shapes. It is a sealed surface so, like stainless steel, can be made/used in areas where a ‘germ free’ surface is ideal. It really has a role in choices but seems to be used less in domestic settings. It does have plastic involved in manufacture but can be recycled in some way. It doesn’t need to be cut out of a mountain. The more modern versions of these are even better and not the knee jerk benchtops we see everywhere. It’s not for everyone but it’s definitely worth considering. A very viable alternative worth exploring. Best of luck.

I've long been concerned about the formaldehyde in laminates, which also continues to outgas after installation, but until recently questions about it were met with a blank stare. A few years ago I was pleased to see a sign in the kitchen section of Masters making a claim regarding that (I think it was the first time I saw the E0 rating?) but when I asked for information about it no-one knew what it meant and eventually they suggested I talk to their 'supplier' which turned out to be the hardware supplier who knew nothing about the laminates. Very disappointing when retailers of better safer products fail to take the opportunity to educate customers and promote those products. Good on you Anne Marie for wanting to ask intelligent questions. (I could start a whole new thread....)