Hi everyone,

Explanation: SinceI have WAY too much time until we build I am (as you do) second guessing all my kitchen colour choices . The great thing is we aren't locked in to our prestart selections yet.
There are some gorgeous kitchens on H1, sadly most have used the engineered stone benchtops and that's not an option. We are trying to build mortgage free, or borrow very little, you see.
My first choice for kitchen is now:
1. FX slate sequoia bench
Cabinets: moleskin
Kick: Peat or.....?
I need a second choices in case we can't afford the Fx!
(I had posted an enquiry on umbrian granite to see a pic of a large piece if anyone had installed it but no replies. I like it, but not sure what colour this throws in a large piece, I don't want it to be grey toned as the porcelain floor tiles are pale white with a bit of brown background - hard to describe, but they appear an overall warm tone).

Cook no. 2 is sick of the whole changing choices thing and will now let me have more classic kitchen colours. Yay! So... white on white or...ivory on white ....?? We are building a "modern country" style of house.

Can anyone recommend a benchtop colour in either formica or laminex? Requirements are:

1. It can't be absolutely white- has to have a reasonably interesting pattern (I get bored easily!) Can't be too dark either! My darling hates black, worse luck.
2. It has to tone in with brownish tones. ( I did like formica mineral spa but perhaps a bit grey? and cocoa sand, the latter went with everything, but it looked a bit ordinary when compared to the stone pattern ones. )
3. It can't throw too yelllowish, don't like yellows- except yellow cars.
Splashback tiles will be 300x100 white gloss so no problem matching there.
For cupboards, either moleskin or parchment as these two seem to look good with brown tones?

Hope this explains it all, once I have a short list from you guys and gals I will get myself down to Laminex and sort through the recommended ones. I will just get confused if I go there without a plan in mind, and at our prestart the sales person had her own bias, didn't seem interested unless we went for really expensive finishes, plus it was so busy, and she kept bringing me small samples and saying they didn't have larger samples made up which was no good to me... All in all, rather a stressful experience...!

Thanks everyone in advance, so glad I joined this forum!!!

Hi Trees

I only have a Laminex Colour Sheet with me but if you want to go with white/ivory what about Laminex Abyssian Stone or Capri marble (if you want a stone look). I really like Atlantic Stone too but not sure if it will be too grey in a large piece. It is so hard to tell from those little squares . I also really like Lunar Stone but that is more of a creamy one and may be a bit to yellow for you. I would team the parchment cupboards with these. Otherwise if you want to go with the moleskin, Peacestone or Cotton Craft would look nice.

Im not a designer by a long shot, but it is fun trying to put the colours together . Goodluck and let us know how you go.

If I had seen the fx before we did our laminate, I would have asked fora large sample of the carrara marble.
I liked that on the brochure.

But brochures can be so different to real life.

I can't help you cos I went with 100 mm burnished wood and ornamental expresso for my breakfast bar, both of which are browns!

I got this but in the brown for my bb
http://www.kitchenbenchtops.com/popup.p ... =8&pct=163

This is the white one

Good luck...it's so hard.
When you find it though, you will cry

Have you tried phoning / emailing Laminex to see if they will send out a larger sample for you? We have a local office here so I was able to go and view a large size piece when we were choosing our bathroom.

Not cream / white but still gorgeous, we just installed Diamondgloss Lava mineralstone in our poolhouse and it is a gorgeous "stone looking" albeit a dark chocolatey colour. There is a Toffee Mineralstone which is a lighter creamy / white pattern.

I have a kitchen of brown tones/neutral tones, etc and I am having Peruvian Clay as my cupboards - so for my benchtop I have chosen Laminex Diamond Gloss White Valencia. It's white but not bright white and it will tie in nicely with the cupboards and dark brown floorboards. It has a soft pattern in it but it's not as 'loud' as the mineralstone pattern. Try googling it and have a look? good luck.

Just talking to my darling this week, he has decided to do the slate sequoia for a work island only as we have the room in the kitchen. I am MUCH happier about this as I always felt the slate sequoia was rather dark, even though we will have lots of natural light in the room.

Thanks, D&A, I was actually thinking of peruvian clay as kicks with the parchment cupboards as well cos the peruvian clay goes really well with my floor tiles. They are much lighter but similar tones. Please let me know when you post some pics!!

Short list for the parchment cabs is now:

White Valencia, Diamond gloss
Toffee Mineralstone
Abyssinian Stone
Topaz Cluster
Natural quartz
Pure mineralstone

I never would've thought it would be so hard to pick neutrals!!!!! And I just need to check which of them come in Diamond gloss as well. I was not sold on the gloss surface until I saw my mum's new semi gloss polrey top. It seems to soften her stone chip pattern cos of the light reflective quality of the surface. So another thing to consider is the finish...Groan...............

I have some pics on the last page of my thread atm, our cabinetry went in yesterday the pics aren't great cos it was relatively late in the day and it was a bit dark, but you might get the gist!
It turned out a little more 'moleskin' than I expected, but it might be because I chose the Matte finish. I'm sure once I can see the white benchtop (White Valencia) when they take the blue plastic off, I'll love it even more

Can't wait to see your choices.

Hi, I've just taken a pic of my floor tiles and a few samples that I had on hand.

Saw Amaretto Stone on H1 and liked it (at least on my monitor) so I will collect that sample as well.

I have added the satin heartwood to corner of one selection because we want to have this at the back of the bench looking out towards the free form living... (and it's in my laundry, bath and ensuite for cabinets).

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I have yet to get all the samples and when I do I will also post them with the tile. So, at least you will have an idea of the floor colour now- it's an unpolished porcelain tile.

The other way I could go is to get a plain gloss top with plain cabs?? Sooo many choices, it's NUTS.

Can anyone tell me how to post the pics bigger from imageshack? Downloaded with "do not resize" but it has made them smaller???

Whitest sample is parchment, then natural quartz, topaz cluster and the darkest peruvian clay.

No, I use tinypic.com. Sorry

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Just worked out how to get full size pic... same selections as previous posts. Please click on image to get it larger again.
Won't get to laminex until the weekend.
Am deleting Amaretto stone from choices as looks too yellow based.

Hey Treeseachanger. Here are some pics of my new kitchen with the Peruvian Clay cupboards and the White Valencia Diamondgloss benchtop.

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(Most of it is covered in plastic but this bit was visible)

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Hope this helps with your decision-making

Wow, love the warm toned look of the top against the doors! What colour is your kick? I was thinking of warm woodgrain or the peruvian clay against my tiles.

I also like how good it looks and you haven't done the squareform, I was wondering how it would look with the rolled edge as I wanted this more traditional look in kitchen but square edges in the ensuite and bath...

Is this called a "postformed" top?

Awh thankyou for the compliments
The kick is also Peruvian Clay, we just got it the same as the cupboards cos there was no cost. I actually would have liked the brushed chrome kickboard but oh well
We didn't want squareform because even with softened edges, it's still pointy enough for a child's head to smack against it so this is postformed, and it was the easy choice.

Managed to get to our tile supplier today (quite local) and discussed these choices. The colour consultant has come up with one final suggestion:

From right: Benchtop: Stipple Seal in diamond gloss.
Doors: Parchment silk finish
Kick: natural stipple seal (as shown) or Peruvian clay. Couldn't find my sample!!

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Stipple seal was one of my first choices, didn't show my darling this combo once he refused to look at darker tones.... I might just be able swing it with him, because the stipple seal looks good with the slate sequoia for the island.....Fingers crossed! The mocha tones do go perfectly with the flooring. And I can just imagine my ashley pendants with it as well and wrought iron knobs...

BTW is there a problem with overhead pendants and gloss benchtops- that is, does the light shining directly on them make them look too "plastic"??
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Suggestions welcomed. I love both the white valencia AND the stipple seal BTW.

The stipple seal diamondgloss is GORGEOUS - I love our bathrooms!
These are our bathroom vanities with Stipple Seal Diamondgloss benchtops and Peruvian Clay cupboards...

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wow, I had a timber frame for the bath, how posh are you with bricks!

Haha, we've got posh brickies over here in WA

Kiwi, a timber frame for bath??? Definitely unknown over here.

LOVING the look of the stipple seal in that bathroom!!
Definitely having peruvian clay kicks as well. Thanks!!! I will fight for it now!!

Q. What colour to do the back of the bench looking out into free form living? Will parchment be too stark?

The floor tiles are continued throughout, and I have a BIG antique walnut (I think) dining table and chairs. The ceiling is raked out into a half circle where the table will sit, like a big queen anne bay sort of thing. I have green lounges, an "antique faded" look turkish rug ( but it's new) in browns, golds with a green border. I want to pick up the green for the walls.

This is the table. I will be re-upholstering the chairs in a plain colour - taupe/brown/green or similar.
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To make it easier to envisage, this is the floorplan.
Table will set nearest the windows, couches around the hearth.

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The back of our bench (that looks out into the living/dining areas) is Laminex Peruvian Clay as well.

Love the plan, btw!