Cultured marble is sort of like faux pearls or diamondique.... the name is a bit misleading! It is a blend of resin and marble dust which can be tinted and so varies widely in quality and style. We used it in our house when it was originally built and are now remodeling. The white on our half bath vanity and hall bath still looks okay as far as style. Just a plain white with some minor gray swirling and we'll be keeping it as we work our way through the house remodeling. But our master bath counertop and tub surround is now in the dumpster as it was sort of a taupe color with lots of swirling and was just obviously "fake".

Thanks. I don't comment on fixtures often, but I do have to say I think the Memoirs is a lovely sink. The sink itself is large, the wide rim I absolutely love, and it has a good-sized bowl. It is indeed a nice sink. We had the same feelings over the backsplash. We went back and forth between painted wood or teak. I thought the teak backsplash would make the Memoirs pop more due to contrast, but my wife didn't want too much wood grain in the room. So we did painted wood which I topped with a teak cap. If my wife ever did want teak, I told her I'd simply glue a teak veneer over the painted wood. It's still painted. That run of cabinetry changed a couple of times during the design process. It was originally going to be a spacious 2-sink vanity. My wife really insisted on one sink! So that freed up space for the floor-to-ceiling storage closet on the left and what we call the "toilet pantry" on the right. The design has worked quite well for us over the years, I built it around 15 years ago. My daughter, who was 7 or 8 years old at the time, designed the profile for the toe kick cutouts. That was quite a bit of fun "working" with her. If you go in another direction, no worries. Choose what works best for you.

Would waterlox be appropriate for a kitchen table? I have an oak table whose top is in desperate need of refinishing and was considering doing this while the kitchen is down for remodeling. We eat at this table daily and I'd like something that would protect the wood without needing coasters for drinks. Any experience/thoughts on this?

I have had solid surface (through Home Depot) and it was flawless. No seams. I just got solid surface in my new house (through Lowes) and it's been a train wreck. Seams so bad they are jagged white lines on grey countertops. They had to take my island back to shop, cut it in half and re-do the seam. Came out perfect. Yet there are other visible seams that look sort of clear. One was actually cut out and re-seamed. Now I can feel it. Like a knife cut so they are coming back out to fix it AGAIN.. Lowes has been AWFUL about this. Terrible customer service. I now refuse to deal with them at all. The fabricator, though completely inept, has been great to deal with. Moral of this story, DO NOT GET SOLID SURFACE FROM LOWES! They use poor fabricators and refuse to take any responsibility. Not so much as an apology.