Hi, if it's any help I went through this recently too. We built our first new home and colour selection was a nightmare for me, I wanted everything white! With so many different shades of white I was concerned we would get a 'stark' look, I can tell you that's not the case. We have Lexicon quarter on our walls, white ceiling, white porcelain floor tiles, white Caesar bench top in kitchen, white Polyurethane kitchen cupboards, white shutters, even a milky white splash back and marble fireplace surround, I thought it was too much at first...but...when you start furnishing and dependent on what style your after, I was going for a hamptons/coastal relaxed but modern style it will all come together...I found neutral colors bright pillows and soft light really make the home 'alive and inviting' and it always seems fresh, I have some of our home pictured on Houzz, just click through to my account and you can get some ideas :) you can never go wrong with white IMHO or have too much because it's always a great canvas to work with and always in style. Like illegally blonde said its the pieces you place with the white that pop and you can always change to what you feel like, I also have had 3 toasters dependent on what mood I'm in, the white always gives me a blank canvas to work with :) I hope this helps, happy to help with anything you might need :)

No idea in terms of pricing company vs company. All brands we’ve looked at so far have had three or four tiers with their pricing. So each product falls into a category eg. Essentials (cheapest), Premium (dearer), Luxury (dearer again) and Exclusive (most expensive). I wouldn’t limit yourself to a particular company, I’d be looking at the ones you like best and seeing what category they fall in. Have several options so you can get several quotes.

I had the same dilemma so I bought samples of both to test out before making a decision. Porcelain is less likely to scratch and is more stain resistant, but is more likely to break or chip. I ended up using an engineered stone.

Hi Kate - my kitchen doesn’t get exist as the renovation starts early in the New Year. The attached link has some pictures of my parent’s kitchen. They used Neolith Statuario in the Silk finish - it is greyer and has a more dramatic vein than the Calacatta (which is also a bit browner and then the Calacatta gold is browner again). https://designerkitchensvictoria.com.au/gallery/item/137-coffey The photos do not do their kitchen justice - it is lovely in real life. There are quite a few different porcelain brands in Australia now - Dekton (as mentioned above) is another option and there are others. The different companies also do various different marble looks. You could have a look and decide what style of marble look that you prefer. They can then provide you with pictures of projects using that style of stone (Neolith has pictures on its website). There are also a lot pf photos on Pinterest and Houzz. Neolith gave me a really generous size chip (about 1/2 the size of an A4 sheet of paper) - that has been really handy for selecting other finish colours (eg paint for the 2 PAC and walls and trims and the Polytec laminate and tiles for the bathroom and laundry - if you do decide on Neolith, I could give you the Haynes paint and polytec colours that I am using if it helps). Porcelain is more expensive than Quartz (both in raw material and in installation costs), but then so is marble. I am using a lot of Neolith in my house, so I shopped around to find a stone cutter who was crafty with maximising the use of each sheet of Neolith (to avoid wastage and minimise the number of sheets needed). It made a huge difference. My house was also designed around the sheet size - Neolith sheets are 3.2 metres long (so you can have a 3.2 metre benchtop or island without needing a join). You need to use 12mm (or thicker) sheets for benchtops. (Splashbacks and showers use 6mm thick porcelain sheets - Neolith does 2 different matching sheets for each marble design, so you can bookmark and pattern match the splashback). Also be aware that the marble pattern is only printed on the top of all of the brands of porcelain. If you want to continue the pattern on the “lips” of your benches, this needs to be a beveled edge (which you also need to do with quartz or marble if you want any thickness of “lip” to your benchtop). So you also have to factor in the stone cuts needed to create the benchtop “lips” when calculating sheet cutting and usage. I am not having edging on my benctops and am instead going for the slim European look of “floating” benchtops. I am not worried that the 1.2 cm edge all the way around the benches will be plain white. On the marble etching and staining - at my brother’s house it is everything that has been a problem - from wooden chopping boards, tea cups, wine glasses, metal cans, citrus, vinegar, tomato, water (yep even water marks marble!), oil, certain plastics, berries, juice, even some metal cans…. I understand what you designer is saying about the beauty of natural marble and how it has been used and loved for hundreds of years in European houses - but frankly the modern day types of stains (where the toddler smeared their blue playdough, the round marks of tins, the outline of wine bottles, coffee and tea cups and tins etc) are just not pretty!