Dilemma #2 Here's an elevation of the powder room which has a 120mm drop down in the stone then a 180mm laminate panel... The idea is for it to look a bit (although not exactly) like this... Our floor tiles are similar (if not the same) as the above photo and go up the wall to below the vanity, the 180mm panel (which photo doesn't have - incidentally, what do you think of the shelf underneath the vanity?) is a black laminate and the feature tile between the vanity and the mirror (incidentally, should we take the mirror to the ceiling?) is Jewels Preto: So which colour should we go for the stone top, Lagoon or Blanco Zeus??... I'm swaying towards Lagoon as it's a bit more of a feature than just plain white, but I'm unsure :/

Hi I just thought I would leave a comment about the visibility of joins in reconstituted stone such as Caesarstone tops on islands longer than 3 metres. From a patern point of view; by selecting a style that has a fine grain certainly helps with reducing the visibility of a join. As for the join itself, the technology and tooling used to make such joints has come a long way in the last 10 years; therefore if you use a Kitchen Manufacturer who uses up-to-date stone fabrication methods, then such joins can be next to near invisible. Below is a kitchen we made with an Island that is over 4.3 metres long and has a join through the centre; where the join actually has to be pointed out to be seen. We have seen Kitchen Manufactures use the two height method but you really don't have to do this to achieve a long island. If you would like a long island, then you should not be put off by having to have a join; careful selection of your material, manufacturer and planning can achieve great results. Hope this helps anyone reading this article and the comments above.

Does Lexicon Quarter look a little beige? Kitchen company wants to use Polytec Classic White in the pantry. However I wanted Laminex Polar white but clearly Classic White is a better match to the Lexicon Quarter/ Quantum alphine white benchtop. Just feeling its all looking beige where I wanted a cool white. Cheers

Thank you everyone for your responses. I’m still undecided - I have a few weeks to consider what to do. The bench top salesperson showed me some photos of the few people who have added a small amount of benchtop stone to add some height (and it’s always because of a busy 60 x 30 patterned tile that the owners want to keep perfect) and in her words it looks ‘dicky’. Not least because the tile sits flatter against the wall than a 2cm thick slab of benchtop. It leaves a pronounced lip of 1.5cm where tile meets benchtop addition Then there’s the safety concerns mentioned above about flames near stone which I had not considered. Big reader - I love your maths but I’m only 150cm tall. Even with a low bench and oven height of 94cm (my oven’s lowest height setting) plus 70cm of tile between the bench and overheads, the cupboards are already 14cm above my head. This barely makes them usable for me even now! Adding another 15cm instead of the 10cm, while looking lovely and keeping the pattern intact, means my short-arse self will have real difficulty reaching anything safely. Every cm counts when you’re short! But I do appreciate your input!