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 :)

Your view may be the wow factor- You may be better to put your wow into the splash back as ultimately it is less expensive to change. A total rebuild has many areas for cost over runs so with a large area, I would look at your overall budget and how much you are allocating for bench tops - This will help determine what you can afford and ultimately your choices. Depending on the surface dark benches can be harder to keep looking clean. I suggest you borrow some samples and bring them home - wet them and wipe them etc

Hey - have you considered porcelain? Its fairly new as a benchtop material but it is amazing. Virtually indistructable, looks amazing, and is environmentally friendly. It is pricey but doing something well first time around saves money in the long run!!!

I have Neolith porcelain benchtops and splashbacks in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom (and full height sheets in the shower too) and benchtops in the living room. I have had no trouble and love it. I am not rough with it, but have found it very easy to maintain. My stonemason was adamant that I not have undermounted sinks (so the kitchen and laundry sinks are minimal thin edge top mounted and bathroom is a vessel sink). My stonemason also talked me out of having a shower niche. It is really important to have an experienced and talented stonemason for porcelain and to listen to them on what you should and should not do. I found that the experienced and confident stonemasons were actually significantly cheaper too as they were not padding their quotes to cover an expectation of ruining sheets on the cutting and get the most possible out of every sheet. I am in Melbourne and used Moorabbin Marble who were fantastic.