Hi Joaney & Lainy I also use only windex on all my bench tops. The granite I had before was a white with a few burgundy streaks and gorgeous highlights through it. Can't remember the name, might have been River White but not sure and I found nothing stained it at all. The marble in my bathrooms I have now look very expensive and impressive but I know every single mark on them even though a visitor mightn't pick them out. In my kitchen I now have Caeser stone and if you want a virtually indestructible bench top this would be it. I have blackbutt timber floors and as they have a lot of color, I chose all white in the kitchen with just a tiny fleck. I just love granite because of the beautiful grains you get running through it.

Smartstone Calacutta Blanco definitely has the tones that you are after, and also the scale of the veining is more similar than the other suggestions. I would check it out as your first point of call. Be sure to view a physical sample as the screen representations are often a long way off the mark. Also you could try Stone Ambassador 'Calacatta Kapak'. I would avoid natural marble if you can, just because it is high maintenance. Good luck :)

Hey mate yes you need to decide the stone bench top finish height first , and at frame stage the window needs to be installed in such a way so that the bottom frame of the window is is set to that exact height. As you wont be able to move the window up or down at later stage.

I have used 40mm Polytec laminate in my bathrooms, powder rooms, office and laundry. Very pleased with it. Home is almost 7 years old. Sorry, don’t know how much it cost, because it was in full build contract, not actually itemised. If using a builder, there will be an allowance for all bench tops, either with engineered stone eg: caesarstone, or with laminate. Builders have better buying power than if we bought these products at a retail shop. So a builder using engineered stone may not be as expensive as you think. I did use caesarstone in my kitchen, I have 9600mm of bench top, so my budget went to laminate in bathrooms, powder rooms, office and laundry.