lol...i totally want carerra. i would get soapstone if i could. in my last house we remodeled and i got cobra soapstone which was great. i would recommend it to anyone and everyone. our last house was in PA. now we are in florida. i am going to get a cobra sink made and shipped down here but soapstone down here would cost us too much for counters....over $100 more a sq ft than carerra. but carerra is my #2 choice and i love how it looks. but...i cook for reals and i know "patina" is my destiny. but still...i don't know if i am prepared for "the big one!" like an 8" turmeric stain or whatever. on the plus size..the cost here is about $44 a sq ft. it's beautiful. it's natural. it doesn't contain any toxic resins or formaldehyde or radon. i can live with some wabi sabi and if we sell 20 years from now and it looks like crap, i guess we will have to replace it w/new marble to get it ready for the market. who knows! i just want to see some pics ;)

L. We used polished white arabesquato and black marble. We put them on the diagonal in the kitchen and dining room. I have always been in love with the look since I was a little girl. I love marble. When I see old worn marble floors in Europe, every time I go to the Kennedy center, I swoon! This post was edited by kitchen_maman on Thu, Apr 4, 13 at 20:03

I think you can't go wrong - should you go with wood counters - with having it be light to match the floors or medium to match the cupboards or darker to give some contrast. You'd have to show us pictures to give our opinions of darker or lighter I think but I don't think you can go wrong. I personally like the look of subtly contrasting layers (making up that term - I don't really know much about design but this feels like the right word). In other words for example let's say medium floor, light-ish lower cabinets, darker countertop, contrasting backsplash (that also pairs well) and then lighter upper cabinets again (with pops throughout such as something even as simple as a white sink on a black counter). So in your case if you have light floors which run up against medium cabinets, and then more matching cabinets above, I would probably be inclined to do something on the counter other than wood, or else put a LOT of thought into that backsplash. I happen to ADORE wood countertops, but then that's also cause I have white painted antique cabinets (I have old fir flooring). I would have gone w/ wood had I found a hard and water-friendly enough wood (cause of the sink) that also happened to be not too light (light wood counters weren't found in the old houses around here) and one that wasn't too full of contrasting stripes. It just got too complicated and I ended up loving that zinc look (zinc was found in lots of houses as old as mine, 1913, but in their pantries) so I went w/ stainless. Stainless isn't as nice as zinc but it's cheaper, more durable and makes a similar statement if done with a farm sink, old cupboards and lots of wood around for warmth e.g. in the floors or island top. I also may not have done stainless had I not planned on doing it with honed white marble subway tile which is a dream combination - along with all that wood I mentioned. But marble wouldn't go in the farm house I'm guessing and if it's truly a very old farm house I'm not sure stainless would work - it might not be rustic enough. It's surprisingly NOT modern looking though, if it's surrounded by other old-fashioned looking things including appropriate lighting. It's just soft and watery and clear/reflective in a way and handles scratches really well (they all blend in and seem to buff out with every cleaning/drying) and it lends a lot of light to an otherwise dark room such as mine. I'd love to see pics!

Love love love this topic. Your kitchens are amazing. Looking for pics of stainless; particularly of stainless with white cabinets and beadboard backsplash... Have you ever seen this combo? Any ideas would be awesome. Again truly amazing kitchens!!