We agree with much of what was said so far, and would definitely suggest a counter made from Polished Carrera Quartz. It looks very much like marble, but is low-maintenance and stain-resistant. As another project idea (and something that would widen your countertop possibilities), painting your cabinets a lighter color could be helpful. I know you said you just refinished them (and they look very nice!), but painting them a lighter and brighter color may still be worth considering at some point.

We had high end quartzite quoted at $138/sq ft installed. This one was considered exotic or 5-star, Level 5. (Slab yards use their own method of scaling the stones' costs.) Other stones that were considered 4-star, Level 4, were quoted at $108/sq ft installed. The cheapest stone was $80-something for 3-star, Level 3. We went to a slab yard in Charlotte, NC, that had amazing man-made counter materials that did a great job of replicating marble. Those slabs were 5-star or higher - seems crazy that man-made material is more expensive than stone hauled from all over the world. It was explained to us that demand/supply has a big impact on stone. What may seem an exotic quartzite may be fairly reasonable because of supply/demand. These prices get you the part of the slab/slabs needed for your job. Any stone not used on your job becomes the fabricator's remnants. If we go to the fabricator's slab remnant yard and choose from there, all remnants are considered Level I. I don't have a price for Level I. Stone pricing is not transparent. We found it difficult to balance what we like versus our budget. (We are doing a custom build so there is no allowance - what we choose is what we pay for.) The slab yards don't give the consumer the price, only the fabricator quotes prices, and only for "installed per square foot". So all you know at the slab yard is a relative price. The slab yard emails the fabricator with your choices, he then quotes the installed price. From the plans, the fabricator determines how many square feet of stone is needed for your project. We shopped for stone very early in the process. I was told most people choose stone after the cabinets go in. The fabricator thought we were a bit odd in wanting to choose so early. This information may not be what you need/want,...welcome to the world of stone pricing! Good luck with your search! (I tried your email link but the email didn't open with your address - just the kind of "share this" email link)

I have no idea why a griddle can crack granite but maybe I am not seeing what you are talking about so maybe post some pics of the items you are using. I think the fact that both things are sitting on a counter might be an issue maybe just go concrete for the counter or maybe slate set on a concrete base to be safe.

IMO cream and gray rarely work together and BTW matte counters show every little mark is that what you want ? Matte counters in what materila and color . IMO you choose the cabinets then the counter then the backspalsh and before any of those choices the lighting needs to be LED 4000K IMHO. I need to see ides of your style concrete floors IMO work best with a very contempoary style. Maybe the first pic in your idea book with the black windows but that is the only one that says concrete floors and contemporary .