hmmmmm, this is a tough one because most of us here love stone: granite, marble, soapstone.... so mixing with laminate.... well WHY NOT! If your island will also have stools and people will be sitting there, then that's a great place for your granite. And your work space (counter tops) if they look good together, then why couldn't you mix them!!!! I have friends with Corian and I actually loved it. It was the coolest color (that you can't find in any stone) and looked really, really nice. Then they had stone on one small area plus stone tiles around the base of their island (their island and counters are Corian) so they mixed stone and laminate and it works beautifully.

People take these things too seriously some times and by people, I mean ME.... but the truth is I've seen a lot of different styles and combinations and when they look good -- the look GOOD. Know what I mean, kmarcel?

We had swanstone for our countertops and black galaxy granite for our center island. It didn't look terrible but it did look mismatched. One was very shiny and the other dull which ultimately made it so that we redid our whole kitchen, cabinets and all. I just really loved the granite and the more I had the mixed, the more I wanted it to all be just as shiny. We are in the process of redoing the kitchen and the granite for the countertops is still different from the island, (we kept the center island as is) and to me it looks better mainly because of the glass look of the granite. Here is a picture of the old kitchen with the mixed to give you an idea although it is very difficult to tell with the picture but maybe it helps

If I were to mix materials, I would make the laminate coordinate while being distinctly different from the granite to both Highlight the granite, and to avoid the appearance that I was trying to "match" the granite while saving money.

Thanks for the input. I am concerned about the shiny vs. non-shiny surfaces. But I do like the having different countertops, especially since my island is black and my cabinets are creamy white. I agree that should be different enough so that it doesn't look like I'm trying to match and save $$. But I also think because the granite is such a beautiful piece that just having it on the island would make it more of a show piece in a way.

I've seen granite and laminate used the way you are suggesting, but like palimpsest suggests, you want the laminate to take a back seat so if you did something very low key and probably a more solid color it would work great. I've black laminate that looks like black slate stone, it was actually really nice.