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!

Appreciate all the feedback, thanks everyone! Yes caesarstone is what our builder includes. Its the statuario nuvo (marble look) caesarstone that I would have loved but after finding out it would be about $4k-$5k more than the 'snow' caesarstone pictured above we realised that wasn't an option for us unfortunately. We are building so I guess we're a bit limited by the companies our builder uses. The cabinetry is polytec melamine range (riga salt pictured above). They do have shaker style cabinets in their thermo laminated range but were told it would cost quite a lot more. Will have to ask for a more specific quote and see just how much extra it will be. Ultimately if budget weren't a factor I would do timber look flooring, marble bench tops, marble or white subway splashback, and white shaker style cabinets. So I guess I'll just have to try and get as close as I can to that look with our budget.

Your kitchen is a good size but not huge so I would go with gloss white to match in with your lovely fridge. All white appliances. Light coloured bench top in the grey range. Backsplash, I'd go to tile expo, choose something you love and add some colour behind the stove, the rest of the splashbacks behind the sink etc in white subway tiles. Dark floors as you have chosen, all the walls in the house Dulux Whisper White. This is a great colour to go with everything, i use it all the time in my designs.

Natural White & Whisper White will both work well with Polytec Classic White. I would steer clear of Lexicon - it's a little too cool to work well with Classic White. You might find it easier if you get some sample pots & paint up some large boards as both Whisper White & Natural White will look lighter and 'more white' once they are on the wall. Lexicon half or quarter would be incredibly light as a wall colour and too stark for most applications.