Hi Michelle, Welcome to the Forum and out of lurkerdom, and congratulations on the new house. The colors of your surfaces and their ability to reflect light become very important when there isn't a lot of light. Light horizontal surfaces with darker cabinets generally look lighter than dark horizontals with light cabinets. I'm not getting which color you meant in the cabinet picture. Is it the middle one between the white looking one and the maple looking one? Medium brown with dark cracks? If so this is a nice medium light with just that touch of dark to bring up the color. To help make things look lighter, while having the color depth you want, I'd suggest one of the Crystallines. The Crystalline Pearl would be a great choice. It's not as dramatic as the Shell or Dune, but those are medium browns as are your cabinets, and you probably want more contrast. On the other hand, since your husband likes dark, and so do you, you could choose something dark that you both love and make up for it with really good, energy efficient lighting. Are you going to put in undercabinet lighting? Good luck! JC

I just saw this quartzite the other day at the stone yard. Looks like this is the same one. If you get this for the island, then do the perimeter as well. I think if you try and do something different, but still white, it's going to look off. (unless you do a plain white quartz) . Do a quartz that looks like marble, is not going to work, IMO. They are just two different looks. Do them all the same, or do a dark, solid contrast. Now, if you wanted to do a soapstone, I'd say fine. that would actually look nice. look at this pic to get an idea (different island, but same premise). it's not going to make things look dark if you went w/a soapstone or even a honed Jet Mist granite. Cielo is a quartzite that you may want to consider as well. this one is leathered.

Egan-I would reduce island length by around 12”. I would eliminate pony walls on ends and use decorative cabinet end panels and reduce 18” cabinet on far end to 12” cabinet. Make sure your cabinets are designed with proper metal support plates for slab. 12-13” overlay for stools is tight. I would expand to 16”. Most slabs can accommodate that total width. 36” deep plus 4” more would mean slab has to be 40-44” wide and 108-112” long. That is doable for most slabs without seams.

Some quartz companies make bookmatched slabs, but you will need a great fabricator not to mess it up. I hope you aren't adding waterfall ends, as that will really complicate things.