I just had to post here...OMG...the lady that wrote Laminate and luxurious in the same sentence.."NO". I hope I never have to meet someone like you in my lifetime. What a bunch of snobby, snarky..people! I am sorry..I think you can have a beautiful, luxurious kitchen without paying for granite, quartz, soapstone...etc. My goodness. I am building a house now and get to hear from our subs about all of the snooty women that they have to deal with...literally walking out of a house because the closets aren't big enough... What kind of country have we become? I say..if you want to buy high end appliances...beautiful cabinets..and put it all in a laminate kitchen. I think it can be stunning! Don't listen to all of these snooty fruities.....do what YOU want..and the people that matter...won't walk into your kitchen and take a mental note of your laminate..I would think it was beautiful! And for those of you who think that I must be some low life...my husband is a doctor! There....rant over! :-)

You absolutely don't want grout there for a reason - when the plane shifts and expands, as it will, grout would crack open. That's why you use a colored silicon caulk that matches your grout (all grout companies make it). Don't use grout and cover it with caulk as this defeats the purpose and you'll just have a caulk-coated crack. Hang the bottom row of tile the same distance above the counter as your grout joints, and that joint will just look like another grout line: I'd agree re. the quarter-round trim - I'd fear wood would get wet too often in that area, discolor and ultimately rot away, or else hide wipedown crud underneath it as it loosens over time. :-/

I’m not sure about trends per se, but I’ve always painted north facing rooms, darker by default, in deeper shades. You can paint a north facing room bright white and it will look dingy because it’s a north facing room. Just give in to the darkness on that side of your house, and celebrate light in your south facing rooms. In your case that would mean a darker foyer, and lighter LR and DR. Gold is a good color to avoid, almost always. What other colors are in your rug? Become photo handy. Then google your granite and look at images of kitchens that designers have painted, that have your granite. You will learn a lot about the possibilities. What I’ve learned is that green granite and white (or off-white) cabinets means you have two colors in your kitchen. One of them will be your wall color. Almost every image with that pairing has white or green walls. You picked a beautiful, powerful granite. It runs the show.

Thank you again. I am thinking more darker or intense color which would be more cooler. I would definitely get couple of samples to see how they will look with my counter. I think I m actually going to go with the cream/white dove cabinets and charcoal grey island with white/Creme backsplash. In the end if we decide that we have a budget to do something with the floors, which tone of wood flooring or wood like tiles will go with this color choice ??? I personally like dark grey oak floors but right next to kitchen is living and foyer with light bamboo floors!!!!