Hi Carmel, I'm not a architect and I do value everyone's professional opinion, but can't help thinking that perhaps you and your husband are both right. The breakfast table would look great in a natural stone, it is the where you eat, have tea or wine on, maybe a small project, entertain or have a fork fight on. Choose a granite or marble that's going to tie in with the splash back and your lovely timber floors and go with a wow factor like a stand out vein or run of colour in it. Makes it interesting. As for the rest a dark or even black solid surface or laminate is ideal. I find them soft and touchable, easy to maintain, a pleasure to work on and it adds the extra modern elements that's missing from this lovely galley style kitchen. Corian is another brand of solid surface but a textured dark laminate from A reputable laminate supplier should do it too. Make this room an energy that you want to be in not just look great. Kind regards Marina.

Hi Em, no you are not overthinking it, it is important to pick a white that does not clash with your tops, or kitchen face colour. You can't change the colour of granites but you can pick a colour to suit your Granite (stone), which is why we like to recommend that our clients should always choose their stone (and cabinet colours) first and then choose their wall paint colour after the kitchen is installed. In addition to your floor throwing off colour, also effecting wall colour in the room is the type of Lighting which have a strong influence (white light or warm light) where these too are other good reasons to pick your wall colour last after the kitchen installation where you can best see that paint colour within your space and not someone else's warehouse or showroom. Hope this is of some help, regards. Malcolm

Hi Steph, we have Caesarstone Fresh Concrete which is a similar product with a matt (but not rough?) finish. We love it in our kitchen and it does show marks at a certain angle more readily than our previous polished stone finish. When we first had it installed, we used the recommended products supplied by Caesarstone, they worked somewhat but we found we had to scrub the whole bench with the cream cleanser, wipe with fresh water to remove residue then buff to remove all water rings etc. We also tried windex, spray n wipe and magic erasers- all ok but not fantastic. We finally asked our Enjo rep to come over to see what she could do and that worked a treat- all surfaces are wiped over with the cleaning cloth and then buffed dry with the other. I use the marble paste to get rid of the grey marks on the edges caused by metal on belts, probably once a fortnight. I know I sound like a salesperson but I honestly don't work for Enjo! I have just found that this has been the clear winner. Even with slightly the extra work, we love the feel and look of the Fresh Concrete so absolutely no regrets. Hope this helps.

When anything goes wrong it’s what is written on the paper that prevails. If the quotation you accepted says drop in and that is the supporting document then you’re out of luck. A total redo would be at your cost. You may be able to negotiate that they do it at a discount out of goodwill.