Our apartment is perfect for my partner and I as we love monochrome, soft colours and grey! The owners before us loved the red and black combo so added a HUGE red glass panel stuck onto the black caesarstone splashback as a feature. They did something similar in the bathroom over marble (gasp!) and in the study they replaced the inbuilt black wooden desk with red wood laminate. As it is super expensive to replace marble and caeserstone it is something we can't do right now and have to live with it. I tend to block it out of my mind... It's horrid.

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.

I agree that it's hard to choose the style without seeing the rest of the house but that a charcoal colour (same as the island cupboards) would tie in best with the colour scheme you have. Depending on the look of the house you have a lot of options to choose from and a lot depends on personal taste or budget. Glass is easy to keep clean and is a modern look if you are not wanting to draw attention to the splashback. Mirror (plain - modern or distressed - character) is lovely if you have something nice reflected in it. If the kitchen is messy though, it doubles the mess. Subway tiles (regular or irregular, tiled in brick format or herringbone) are always a lovely classic choice - but be mindful of grout issues. Arabesque or patterned tiles add more character if you're after tiles with a wow factor. I personally love stone, marble or quartz for an elegant, timeless look and in a charcoal or grey with veins I think would look stunning with the lamps as well as tying in the white and grey cabinetry. You can also do marble tiles that are a little less exxy than a slab although in the end I was surprised that the marble didn't cost much more than the caesarstone. Choices, choices!! Good luck. Your kitchen looks lovely!

Quartz by any major manufacturer is basically made in the same way using the basically the same raw materials and process. Caesarstone just happens to be the "COKE" of the stone world and the advertising budget to match. Is it the "BEST" in our opinion there are better options, finishes and prices. Some of the better brands in Australia would be Technistone, Silestone and Samsung for finish, durability, price and after sales service. Though Smartstone have some very nice marble look ranges now as well that look and feel just as good as the top brands. Ikea, Bunnings where, if not still are using caesarstone brands of quartz. Though it does change around. like their fabricating companies