Hi Christine-- There is a lot of information on BB countertops on the Kitchens forum. Do a search over there & you'll find a wealth of info, including how to finish them & sources. Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchens Forum

I think butcher block on the island with quartz on perimeter will look and function better. If you use waterlox for it, you cannot cut on it. But it will give it a nice protective furniture finish. If you want to cut on it you need to use mineral oil, which is less permanent but repairable. If you cut on it, you will see marks on it, but you can sand it and re-oil over time. You can also use an oil based finish for the more natural look but not cut on it. That what I would do. If you search here you will see discussions of waterlox versus oil versus other products like osmo for wood island tops. Breezygirl highly recommends an osmo product that I am going to use on my wood island counter once it's installed.

Do you know who makes those cabinets? Info on the pic says they were custom made. But you can use this picture as an inspiration picture. Start looking through your yellow pages for custom cabinet makers. Also ask friends where they got their cabinets. If you are looking at big box stores, I would say Kraft Maid from Lowe's would be a good choice. However, price out custom, there are many on here who got custom for the same price or less as big box. And do you live near an Amish area? Some on here have gotten great custom Amish cabs at great prices. Again, ask around. And if you do a search on here, lots of very happy Ikea cabinet owners. It shouldn't be hard to find what you are looking for. Also, where would I find solid surface counter tops? Lowe's sell's LG Hi-Mac and Home Depot sells Corian around here. There are other brands as well. (Joseph Corlett could list them all, I don't know them all, as I am focused on Corian myself) Again, try looking at kitchen and flooring shops in your area. You can also go to the website of any brand and they should have a dealer locater. Now Joseph will say they are all the same. Maybe they are, but all I can say is, in researching (an insane amount) LG Hi-Mac "seems" to have an awful lot of cracking issues. Corian use only their trained fabricators so maybe that's why there are less issues. Thank you so much for the great suggestion and for the photos. You are very welcome, I'm glad I could be of help. :)

I would love to see how it turned out. We're doing a very similar renovation. So far our walls are alabaster and we've only purchased lower cabinets. I painted them Mindful Gray (BM). We just purchased our counter tops yesterday and they are unfinished butcher block. So now I'm panicking on what stain to use on them (our floors are Allen + Roth Russet Oak Laminate). I don't want the floors & counter tops to be too matchy and I'm considering just oiling them without staining. So many decisions!