My initial reaction to the photos was that the kitchen units' colour somehow didn't quite 'gel' in the room and I was rather hoping colourhappy would come in and be able to cast her professional eye over it. I still really like the granite and I agree that at least changing the lower units will work. Perhaps the upper units need changing too? J Pleass, would you consider doing that?

I might be able to help. I teach colour theory (mainly to artists) and one of the most useful things to know is that value (which is how dark and light things are) draws the eye, it's the most important aspect of depth perception and how we make sense of the world. What this means is that if you have things that are different in hue (colour) but similar in value (like your units and the workshop) and they are also 'greyed' then we focus on the obvious clash ( one looks yellow, the other blue). The most useful thing to do in this situation is to create a darker value contrast somewhere, this will lessen the clash you are seeing. A deeper coloured wall might be worth trying before you go replacing the granite. Another idea is to repeat what you have to make it look deliberate. Some deeper coloured charcoal items (that relate to the granite) and more wood items that relate to the floor might help. This is why name descriptions (such as grey and white) are essentially meaningless. Most greys have a discernible colour to them and it's important to know what that colour is.

When we reserved the stone slabs at the stone yard we did indeed sign a disclaimer, it was our understanding that we couldn’t have the slabs if we didn’t sign. When I check their website, they don’t have the granite listed anymore, but then I’m pretty sure that we had the only 2 slabs they had of this granite, so this would make sense. Unfortunately we don’t have pictures of them. Thank you for your advice, I’m located just outside London so I will get in touch with Rossi Stoneworks. I just felt so clueless, so having a name of an expert to contact is a massive help. I did wonder if the marks were due to ‘sucker pads’ or something similar and raised this with the stone mason, but he said that wasn’t possible (I can’t remember the exact reason he gave), but I agree that the marks look so uniform in shape, which (I believe) points to something machinery related (as opposed to something naturally occurring within the stone). I fear that the disclaimer we signed may pose a problem - watch this space. I will add more on here with updates, in case anyone else experiences anything similar. Thanks again for your comments - I really appreciate it, I don’t feel as helpless now.

After months of deliberation and stupid amounts of cash spent on testers, our kitchen was finished today! After a while we became blind to all the samples - they literally all blurred into a big neutral mess. I really really wanted F&B Cord, but no one else liked it - in fact absolutely everyone hated it! In the end we went with F&B Stony Ground. I really like it - but it seems a bit browner now that it’s everywhere! (Not a bad thing - but it was just a reality check about how colours play games with your brain 😂)