Another vote for Dekton and Sileston Quartz worktops, use them all the time in our projects as so much more forgiving and low maintenance than granite or marble. Agree that Corian is a good option if you have a large island to prevent visible joins, whilst it has other benefits you do need to be very careful when it comes to heat. Vast range of colours and textures in all types nowadays so the type of material shouldn't limit the effect you want to achieve - be that traditional or contemporary. I am always a big advocate that a worktop is an investment, there is no point spending a large sum on a beautiful quality kitchen and then finishing it off with a worktop that won't stand up to time as well as the rest of the room or cheapen the look - I always recommend to go for the best you can afford.

Personally I think that if you just add additional kitchen material above the units this looses the contemporary feel. In my opinion the contemporary way to hide this space is to build boxing and I don’t see why you can’t do this with wood/ MDF/ plasterboard and then paint it with the wall or ceiling paint. Personally though I don’t see this as a the kitchen fitters job. If you want boxing above the cabinets this is a builder job. Beware of this as the kitchen cabinets will be completely level and if the boxing is not there may be a shadow gap

Cheapest will be laminate. Look for Formica Axiom, Bushboard Omega, Odyssey and Prima, Duropal and Egger to name but a few but those listed are some of the best. You will also have manufacturers own brands some of which are good, some dire and some excellent. All price related. Normally thickness is 40mm but some offer 30mm and the most modern and popular at the moment is 20mm which is restricted in laminate (but available in some brands). You need to work out your lengths because depending on the brand the laminate is available in 3m, 3.6m and 4m. Therefore if you only want to cover 3m there’s no point in paying for a 4m length as you’ll end up with waste of one metre which you’ll be paying for. Then again it depends on whether you like the colour choice in each length. You can’t have an undermount or belfast type sink with a laminate worktop. Wilson Art is what Howdens use. Cheap and nasty. Some of their worktops don’t even have a backing on causing wharping. Look for a local supplier and they can request samples for you. Where are you based? If you want to pay slightly more look at solid timber but bear in mind these need maintaining which some people don’t like doing as it can be a faff. Then you can have Solid Surface which is an alternative to quartz. Look at Pietra, Pietra Gold, Mazan and Mirostone. It’s available in 20mm thickness and as the name says is solid so needs to be fabricated just like quartz and granite by qualified traders (which in turn will bump the cost up). Solid surface, quartz and granite are the most expensive. Hope this helps.

Yes, white would look lovely 🙂. What do you think about worktop colours? The space hasn't been built yet but it'll be facfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfacfine south facing.