Excuse the washing up! Yes we agonised for weeks over the colour- husband wanted dark blue but i find that a bit manly. Our front door is Green Smoke- I would say lighter and greyer than Pleat. Have you looked at Tea with Florence - it’s more turquoise and brighter, but not as vicious as F&B Vardo. There's an insta account called @dustsheetsanddecor which has a green smoke kitchen.

@Izzi Robinson - I had all the same issues as you. Today, I went to one of Cosentino's HQ warehouses in Spain - I am VERY lucky that I live close by, and my kitchen guy installs 70+ Cosentino counters a year, so we were able to go into the warehouse and see EVERY. SINGLE. SURFACE that they make! It was mind blowing. What I will say, is that it is super, super important to try and see them in an installation first. The online colours are off, and the tiny little sample pieces are not indicative of the total slab. I'll attach a photo of the slab of Dekton we decided on - it's called VERA and is very different in real life to online. Secondly - the white calacatta-alikes were a bit too fake for my liking BUT not all of them looked bad. The different textures made a difference to how realistic they were. I currently have a beige Silestone counter. I've had it for 8 years and it's brilliant. I've had no issues with staining (I use lemon juice and a tiny bit of bicarb of soda if it's bad - and have done that maybe 4 times total. I do use trivets and mats and put curry containers on mats first etc, to prevent staining, so I DO take care of it.) I'd highly recommend it as a countertop surface. The other bit of advice is make sure you have a great fabricator - again in Spain I am lucky as there are tons of excellent marmolistas but I do think it makes a difference and that's why some people say they've had issues. I saw Entzo this morning and it was really nice. Rem is also not as bad in real life as you think, but it depends on your tolerance level for knowing it's not 'real'! Here's my Vera. :) It's even warmer in real life than this photo - and this photo is warmer than the official sample on the Dekton page.

I wouldn’t want my loved ones sitting that close to where I was cooking ! Didn’t think USA code allowed it so close ? Might be worth getting that checked !

Hi CT, I agree with the other comments. I'd go with a large format simple tile. The larger the better for a modern look. Also, might be worth considering giving the exsiting pine floors a sand and wax with a more neutral finish. This will help to take away a bit of the orange and make choosing the floor tiles easier. Don't try to match, it rarely works and can look jarring. Hope that helps! :)