I would order a sample of the deep ocean Caesarstone you plan to go with. Give it a bit of a beating with a can of beans, or better yet, another stone sample you have (bang it with the corner, I used granite), and you'll see that the dark solid colors are not that strong. They will show the unpolished underneath material fairly easily.

If you look at the underside of the stone sample, you'll see it's a lot lighter. So any scratches or dings in the stone and they will be very noticeable.

I did this with the Espresso stone sample I got from Caesarstone (cost was $4 shipped, not bad to make sure I liked what I got). We are going with a lighter color (lighter colors will not show wear any where nearly as easily) - Nougat is what we chose, and the underside is the same color as the polished side.

Not in yet, won't be for a while, but do some durability tests. accidents will happen, can of soup or whatever might get dropped on the counter. Just try it out, let me know if it was bad like the Espresso color was. It's most obvious on the edges.

-OCJeff

I have the caesarstone nouget on perimeter and misty carera on the island. It has been installed for a year with no issues. I had always wanted marble but with two boys I was afraid of the etching. Two instances of putting it to the test, my son knocked over a cup of coffee with his backpack on his way out to school, I was already out of the house and found it hours later, cleaned up well, no stain. Another time, I was making lemonade in a blender, the seal on the bottom of the blender was missing, when I came back in the room the lemonade had all leaked out onto the counter, cleaned up well. So far , so happy.