I have a white corian and love it. It brightened the kitchen so much. I think the Only thing you can set hot pots on is ceramic tile. I have made trivets out of pretty tiles. Go to the store and find a tile you love buy one or two and then cut felt slides that stick, like for the bottom of a chair leg or buy precut ones. These are great! I use them on lots of things. They are under my coffee pot, toaster, large cutting board, garbage bowl I keep on the counter, anything I move that's kind of big or heavy on the counter. Corian requires no sealing. Only thing that has thought about staining so far was grated carrots, or the skin gratings from carrots. But then I just worked on the spot lightly with a scotch bright pad. I saw somewhere that someone else tried a mr clean eraser n corian. Staining in my integrated white sink is zero. Installed in January 2013. I have had corian in a previous house with no problems also.

I never thought of that. It's a small room, I'm going for wooden floors throughout the whole ground level to make it flow better. I haven't decided what type either! I love limed oak floors but I'm in Ireland where it's damp a lot, so something that doesn't show up the dirt.

I am looking for either a granite or marble counter which will go with black, I do not want just plain black but something with black and brown colours through it.

We will have oak trusses also. I want to have a lot of natural materials inside.