We're with Valduff. Shades of purple and plum can really add depth to a chic scheme like yours. Particularly with your gorgeous counter top. Grey is also a good call, as it will coordinate with your kitchen units but allow room to add coloured accessories. It can depend on the light quality in your room- we always recommend grabbing some tester opts in a range of shades. Paint your walls or A4 sheets, and see what the colours look like as the light changes throughout the day.

There are a huge range of options and it would depend on the look and feel of what you want to achieve, your personal view on colour & boldness, what else is close by (to tie in with) and budget. A coloured glass, such as a citrine green or orange would look great. A very different style/look, but equally eye-catching would be some interesting patterned tiles such as the Patricia Urquiola collection from Surface Tiles in London (and elsewhere). My personal preference would be to opt for a white/grey marble such as a Calacatta D'oro which would be incredibly luxurious and bring in the white and soft greys as well as adding a hint of warm caramel. That is if budget allowed. Carrera marble is less costly but has a greyer background. It is always advisable to go and choose a slab of marble from the stone yard.

Hi Liane - I'm going to issue my usual warning about black/dark counters in a north facing room. It's great that everything else in your kitchen will be very light, but I had a black granite counter in a north facing kitchen with big windows and a conservatory to the west with obviously loads of light and it was always really depressing and we had to have the lights on all the time. Those counters are devious light suckers! The marble backsplash looks beautiful, by the way.

Thank you all for the feedback. The gaps between the brick slips would be the same as between the bricks Colourhappy. It sounds like the marble quartz is winning! It does look lovely, I just wanted to make the most of the bricks on that wall too, but in practice they would probably be a pain to look after behind the hob. Thank you for the compliment Lifestyle Kitchens, I'm excited to see how the finished kitchen turns out.