How about butcher block?

that's a great idea, only downside is I find they don't clean as well or as easily... Since this is for our personal home and not a resale project, it's a deal breaker for me. FYI, it was husband's choice as well:-)

Beautiful floor. The two photos below might offer some ideas. While the second photo has marble, they both incorporate counter tops that mimic or echo the flooring. Might give you some ideas as to coloring for your kitchen.

Love love these pictures, thank you!

I love your idea of soapstone. What's not to match?

I've never used soapstone, but it intrigues me.. I'll look into it!

Agree with leelee on the soapstone.

As the floors are very textured, I would do slab rather than shaker cabinet doors.

You really don't want to compete with the beauty of the floors or the counter tops.

there's some quartz that has the look of gray soapstone, including the white veins. I think it would look great in this context...

more soapstone

Some honed granites mimic the look of soapstone too.

With a patterned floor (yes, mixed flooring colors counts in my book as "patterned"), I would use solid color counters in a light or medium gray.

If you want a wood look of wood without the care of wood you could look at Dekton Ultracompact countertop. There are several wood look patterns. It is extremely heat and scratch resistant.

There's always absolute black honed granite. One of the least expensive granite choices. Very hard and impervious to almost anything. No variation in color.

Virginia Mist and Via Lactea work well as soapstone substitutes (honed/leathered.)

However, I prefer the pictures Manon Floret posted. I am not sure what those countertops are, but they would be my choice. I find the beige tops more harmonious, than the contrasting black- and as a rule, I am all about contrast.

Also in the UK where the flooring you have chosen in bog-standard as the say, they use wooden countertops all the time and they work fine. IDK how they treat them, but they are indeed workhorses and clean up wonderfully- I am clear on that because I share your concerns about how those work and when I was in a house over there on vacation, I was amazed at what a piece of cake they were to deal with.

Your floor is gorgeous. It does have a pattern. You are only allowed 1 stone pattern per room in my books. I would go with a solid colour for the counters.

Very plain quartz.

Thanks everyone, lots to thinks about! I do agree the floor is busy enough, the rest should be much quieter :-)

I was just about to type exactly what the poster above me said. I would go with a plain gray quartz.

i would not put anything gray in that creamy room,please. I even honk soapstone is a bad idea. find something quieter that goes with the flooring and doesn’t compete for attention.

None of these may be exactly right, but this is the sort of thing I would be looking at. The floor does read warm gray, not beige, on my monitor but you may have to shift to something warmer than these grays. I did not include any Corian or Quartz off whites, any of which could be explored. The idea here is that the countertop is essentially Monolithic with no pattern or graining (not larger than grains of sand anyway)

I find that the tile tends to the greys, with some tiles obviously going more beige. I would like to accentuate the former, so we're doing grey grout. Hoping to do the same with the countertops. Trying to avoid being to matchy-matchy, but I worry white cabinets with absolute black granite is too much of a contrast. Ideally would like something that gives a hint of the floors, or a common thread between all the elements. It's a fine line!

You mentioned that natural light isn’t that great so for that reason alone I wouldn’t use a dark countertop. Think like a photographer, the light can bounce off the countertop if it’s not dark.

You are right to do white ! I would do all white even the countertop . Then you have to make sure you have some wonderful lighting also... That would correct your dim natural light ..., then you throw some color in your decoration and you have a gorgeous home !

Colors are tricky online as everyone’s screen is different. I would go with a solid, but consider something a bit more greige than true grey for the countertop. And I would pick an off-white for the cabinets as I think a true white would be a bit stark with those lovely floors.

Pink travertine will need a warm pinky white to not look like it Landed From Mars. Or a plain black. Or better, a warm brown with red undertones. Avoid yellow based browns like Crema Marfil lookalikes or green grays, like a lot of soapstone. Those will clash. Badly.

Silestone Nymbus.

Iron Bark

Copper Mist

Hudson

I used a similar floor here. We paired it with a white quartz with subtle veining, gray quartz, and a wood top.

What a gorgeous space and fabulous floors! I agree with you that black and white will be too stark. The floor does emphasize the grey coloring and overall the space leans warmer neutral to me. I think you nod to the grey in floors with the finishes on the appliances, hardware and/or lighting (e.g. stainless steel, satin nickel, chrome).

As the cabinetry will take up the visual space between the floor and those awesome wood beams the color must work with both. A soft warm white that works with the calm counter you decide on will be great. There are so many whites to choose from that maybe you want a color specialist to help when it comes time to make that decision. Please post follow up photos. It’s going to be beautiful!

I have a project with this exact floor. I attempted to post photos of it but apparently Houzz has blocked the post. They may block this one as well. But in case they do not, the project is Eclectic Remodel and Decor.

The kitchen starts after the exposed beams section (that is technically the entry vestibule), the main kitchen will have a large central island, and behind it is the baking kitchen (we had so much room we could do something crazy like that). It all opens up to the dining and living on the other side of that low section, with a cathedral ceiling with structural beams and a huge stone fireplace. Very hard to describe, but I will post an update once cabinet layout and appliances are in. Lots of good info above to ponder!

Pietra Cardosa stone might work, although it does lean a bit towards blue grey.

Here are the pictures of the project Kristin Petro Interiors mentioned - it looks really great and might help you visualize.

You folks must have very sharp eyes, good on you for picking up the pink in the travertine!

What a beautiful space for your kitchen. I really like the exposed beams that add a bit of warmth to your space. I found some more images for you to think about, maybe they can help you plan your own space. ~boxer

Hi Kristin, Looks like some of your posts had been flagged as spam by other members - that's why you were not seeing them. They have been restored now except duplicates or off topic posts about them disappearing. Hope that helps.

This seems to happen to me a lot, Emily. If it's one particular person flagging my posts, can't you stop this? Almost all of my posts were removed yesterday, including the one on the Pro board asking why they were removed. I have never posted spam on these boards.

It's a good idea to start looking and getting ideas now but when the cabinets are in that will give everyone a better idea of what counters will work.

You've had some good suggestions. I understand that you want stone of some sort and I agree. Most natural stones have some veining. If it's very minimal it may not be a deal breaker.

You could also visit some stone yards and see what's available. Take pics to post along with cabinets and floors.

Francesca-

Your space really is beautiful-

Is it an old farmhouse in Europe somewhere?

Another thought I had-

If you have any extra pieces of your floor stone, maybe you can take them with you to the stone yard that sells countertop material along with the photos of your kitchen and then you can can see them right next to each other.

Then when you narrow it down, take some large 12 inches x 12 inches samples of the countertops you like and bring them home and see them in your kitchen , because you want to see how they look with how the sunlight light enters your room.

I am not very good picking things out on computer, I totally missed the pink tones.

I'm not sure how good I am in person either, but I do like to get my paws on things and put them right next to each other.

It can make a big difference.

And in some cases not. I could never dither over 50 different shades of white like some people, I just can't tell the difference!

Actually I can't see pink tones either:-) Our home is in Canada where this kind of floor is not common, very modern designs are trendy right now here but we tend to like more classic elements. I appreciate all the advice!

I have that exact flooring in Silver Travertine. It's a Versaille pattern, not cobblestone.

also called 'French Pattern', it's this layout

Kendall Charcoal looks great, as does BM Silver Dollar. Any of these colors also look great

I have a gray velvet sofa w/a soft teal blue/silver rug, and teal accents

as for countertops, Soapstone is nice. Jet mist Granite

White Princess Granite (if you can find a decent slab)

Negresco Quartzite

or any of the quartz in these color ranges

Pental Blue Savoie? It has a blue grey tone with subtle veining.