Ha! tour-key sure sounds like turkey, so I'll keep pronouncing it Tor-kay :) Jackie54016 - Most people who come in to our home love the countertops and island and ask if they're marble. (Obviously not GW-ers!). My mixed feelings are due to mistakes on my part, things I'd do differently 'next time'. 1) Seams are getting dirty (no way to do an island our size without seams). 2) Not crazy about the simple edge I picked 3) The pattern is too monochrome / not enough movement in some places. 4) Our cabinets are a creamy white and Torquay looks better with a whiter white. On the plus side, 95% of the time, I'm very happy with it and LOVE how reflective the surface is. I can do pretty much anything to it and with the exception of the seams, there has been no staining or etching. Some slabs definitely have more 'movement'' than others. I'd insist on looking at them and waiting for the right slab(s)! Here is our island: Do you have an inspiration picture or pictures? Please post and solicit input on identifying the elements in it, which make it work. Then, we can answer which surface might be best. I'm linking to my reveal, if you're interested in seeing more pictures. There have been more than a few threads on Torquay, so definitely google them too. Here is a link that might be useful: More pictures of kitchen

Okay. My 2 cents. It appears that the dining room is a bit squishy. Lots of big furniture. My thought would be to remove the sideboard, put a banquette along the wall and shift the dining table over. This is a tad fancier then what you are going for but this is right beside a kitchen peninsula...same layout. I think they shifted the chandelier over so it is centred with the table. If you search for "banquette dining" on PINTEREST you'll get lots of inspiration. Just a thought to give you more breathing room if desired. :) The balance between the beautiful banquet and the open chairs would be perfect (in your style).

I wouldn't mix in another stone. Either run the same countertop material up the wall as a backsplash, or use a simple subway tile. If you use a grout color close to the tile (white can be hard to keep clean but a light grey works well) it isn't visually busy.

You didn’t know what you didn’t know. And that's pretty much the rule for every project where a home owner works with a professional. If the home owner knew everything, they wouldn't have to hire anybody. If the professional asks an ambiguous question, and then deliberately skips the industry-standard step of visually confirming the layout with the client, then it's inappropriate to blame the client for not communicating well. This is a question that comes up with literally every single job the fabricator does. They should know how to verify instructions. We have had all sorts of counter tops installed over the years. Every single time, the fabricator would come to the house to do precise templating. And then they'd require that either the home owner or the general contractor sign off on the template before they'd make the first cut. These processes are in place exactly to avoid this type of issue. Yes, there have on occasion been mistakes. But when that happens, the professional eats the cost or finds a way to fix things that is acceptable to all parties.