Welcome to the Bianco Antico Club. This is such a great stone. I struggled endlessly to find the right thing for my kitchen. I ended up winning a backsplash in a contest. It is a Beveled Arabesque tile. I wanted something that would have some pizazz but not steal anything from the granite. I will once again post my kitchen backsplash to see, I'm so sorry for boring all the GW'ers out there! The tile is from Mission Stone & Tile. Each tile is handmade and they have a slight wave on the surface due to this. It creates the coolest look when the uc lights are on, they kind of glisten. There was a strong contender earlier that picked up the taupes in the granite. It was by Mandala, the color is stingray. Not sure if it would work with your dark cabinets, but here is srg215's kitchen, I suggested it to her and she checked it out and fell in love. You can get it in several sizes. I've linked her kitchen below. With this granite, I found a small tile/mosaic will not work, it's too busy, too competitive. I think you need something on a larger scale. Best of luck. Let me know if you have any questions. Here is a link that might be useful: srg215's kitchen with Bianco Antico granite

Thank you for all responses/advice. Very helpful/useful. Excavation is supposed to start this week (that's how early we are in the build, no dirt has been dug yet). Cabinets have not been ordered yet (but need to decide/order soon). I do not like the idea of having the kitchen in the front of the house (where the dining room currently is), irregardless if a wall separates it from the entry foyer. What is most important to me is an open concept between the kitchen and great room. Moving the kitchen to the front of the house is not an option. Additionally, I do like the idea of having a more "formal" dining room, rather than a common eating area shared with the great room. I spent anywhere from 1-3 hours in the kitchen daily between cooking/near the stove, prepping, and washing dishes by the sink. I want to see the great room and converse with whomever is in there. Having said that, I don't like any plans with spending majority of time staring/looking at the staircase, either regular staircase or stairs down to the basement. I've asked before - can't move the porch or add bay windows to the front of the house. :)

cpartist: I misunderstood about the MW and the corner cabinets. I do wish to go with an upper garage door enclosed microwave so I can swap it out – and realize I completely left it out of the Side View above. I'm not a fan of corner cabinets. I would rather have the storage in drawers on either side and have a blind corner if it meant that other cabinets on my run would be small like the 12" wide cabinet next to the pantry. To me a 12" cabinet is useless except to collect junk. I misunderstood this statement and understood it to mean lower: Whereas perhaps you were referring to upper: Not that it matters. I just misunderstood. Make the coffee bar narrower in depth…. mantlemount… Coffee maker can’t sit directly underneath TV no matter how high TV sits above, even if fully enclosed in a garage as steam escaping from blooming the grinds during brewing would eventually damage the TV. Also, if we make it narrow no room for mini fridge. The mini fridge needs space so as not to overheat. That Mantlemount is awesome, but w/o going into elaborate details, we are incorporating the TV into the cabinet in such a way it won’t work. DH will look at this and may change his mind tho’! As we go through this, we learn so many new ideas and it’s such a fantastic process! Doing a 30" upper with 18" above that is going to make the upper look top heavy and push down on the 30" cabinets. I would do a 36" high upper, a 12" high above that and then have your 6" crown. This was why I wanted to post the Side Views and I so appreciate your input. I wasn’t sure about heights of stacked upper cabs. Since your comment, in looking at various photos, seems the taller cabs below, with shorter above, as you just said, makes for cleaner lines, less heavy: vs. Therefore, I’ll change the stacked cab’s to the 36” and 12” as you suggested to see what it looks like. I feel we’ll both prefer it. I was allowing 5” for crown molding (included in that is a 1” filler to sit underneath to even out non-plumb ceiling heights). I am thinking the crown molding shouldn’t be over 4” in our kitchen as it might look overwhelming in respect to the rest of the house… I do want 18”, not 15” clearance between countertop and upper cabinets. 48" is the width of two cabinets together underneath. Yes, it was the arrow. Thanks for clearing this up, I was concerned we were missing some pertinent measurements a cabinet maker would need to know. I’ve made some mistakes I think in the Side View… #1: the 2” piece of stock (for side of fridge facing the Great Room) is fine, just showing it here. #2: the 2” piece of stock on the other side of the fridge shows it stopping at 2nd stack of upper cabs, which wasn’t intended and the measurements include it going all the way to the crown moulding. However… #3: needs to be the microwave garage, in which case, it needs to be wider. Question: So, and I don’t wish to appear stupid, but there may be rules I’m unaware of: if the stock on the oven side of the fridge (#2) only went on the side of the fridge that is exposed, I could add another 2” to the 24” wide upper cabs, 2” to the lower drawer bases, giving more room for the MW garage (and by garage, I mean garage door). See image below. Are there any rules/reasons Re: stock pieces on this side of fridge that would make this impossible to do? Question: Also, when I did the side view yesterday I didn’t add it all up… I’m coming in at (including leaving 2” stocks as original) 172” across for uppers, 171” across for lowers. Have I missed something from buehl’s layout? Lastly, I understand we are asking a zillion questions and very heavily relying on the 2 of you right now. If at any time this becomes too laborious, time-consuming, or tedious, please let me know.

Hi HU- I don't know anything about refinishing granite to give it a totally different appearance. The person to ask about everything countertops is Joseph Corlett, LLC here on Houzz. Why not invite him onto this thread? I personally don't like that speckly type of granite, it reminds me of "work" because it is present in so many office buildings. But if you like your granite, keep it. It's your house! And it's a fortune of money to replace it, besides! If you were going to replace it anyway, you could think about using a stone with swirls or some sort of movement, but one that is lighter overall. Or go the other way, and use a very dark counter such as a soapstone, or a soapstone look-alike (and you could decide how much veining you want) and paint the walls a very very light gray in the kitchen. (Soapstone even comes in green!) Or you could even think about Corian. Which now comes in a dazzling array of colors and a very affordable price point. Joe is a Pro, and really sings the praises of Corian which is versatile and lasts forever and can be repaired in ways natural stone can't. As for the flooring, I would have the kitchen match the rest of your house. What you already have down looks just perfect. If you are really wanting to spend money on something, I would eliminate the space at the top of your upper cabinets. Either make simple cabinets for things like trays, etc. or put up a crown molding to the ceiling. The space looks odd and is a huge dust catcher. I would not paint the island, the wood is too perfect. You can add color to the kitchen with a floor mat, dishcloths, accessories, etc.