Your kitchen is beautiful, I can already tell :) And I LOVE your full-size fridge/freezer! First off, do NOT feel bad about the formica. There are a few ways to make formica look current, and it is crazy-functional. My 20 X 20 home kitchen has granite countertops, 9 ft island and all, have had them for the last 8 years. My newly built "beach" cottage kitchen 14 X 14, smaller island, has formica...and to my surprise I LOVE it! I love it's function, I love that it's warmer-feeling than stone, I love the price, I love its simplicity, and I even love the look. I chose a surface by Formica called Oiled Soapstone that I had made thinner than standard formica. You can see in the attachments, it is a pretty decent fakeout for soapstone, but i also love that doesn't stand out so much...lets the overall space speak for itself. There was also a marble fakeout in their higher-end that looked pretty good, but I decided I wasn't going to try to make it look like stone, but instead just embrace that it is 'laminate' and I'm proud of it ;) I decided to use tile backsplash instead of the 4" formica backsplash [I almost embraced as well], simply because I prefer the function of it (hate when water splashes on painted walls) and I liked the look of my cheap subway tiles with gray grout so much that I wanted to highlight it. You can take a peak of my photos below As for your seams, I might run the formica all the way from the corner to the stove, with a seam 2 feet from the side wall, then 12 feet from that point (the sink will be dropped into this piece), and then a seam wher the next piece begins to get that extra 2 ft covered to the other side wall. So 2 seams, each 2 ft from the walls on each side of the sink. I think seams far away from water is best when it comes to laminate, and they will be in a less obvious location (not so front-and-center). My seam is (I think) 2 ft from my corner. It is tight, and I don't even notice it! I think keeping it away from water is key, and you may be placing dishes to dry where you have it planned now/where piece of wood is in your pic. I wouldn't do butcher block or anything else to break up your perimeter countertop, especially with how funtional/low maintenance formica is and how nice/streamlined the counters will look with just one surface. And wood is not low maintenance, in my opinion.Just my two cents. And finally, I say love your kitchen for it's own style, who cares about trends. I did my traditional cream perimeter/wood island style kitchen at home 8 years ago and stiil love it. I am lucky enough that I got to do my white beach kitchen in my cottage and love that too. Really can't say though that I prefer one over the other, they both give me diferent feelings: one warm and cozy, one light an airy. I think you accomplished building a space that is warm and cozy, just as it sounds like you set out to do. Enjoy!

I BOUGHT COUNTER TOPS TODAY! Hurray. Thank the lord. Break out the champagne. Want to know what they are? Drum roll please... Salvaged marble taken from the shower stall walls of a very old fire station that was being demolished just a few miles from my house. They are an inch thick and will need to have a seam. They have some scratches and look quite imperfect, which makes me really happy as I will not have to worry about messing them up; they come pre-blemished. When I look at them, I will not think of chopped apart mountains but rather strapping young firemen. I feel very good about them. It is so true what people wrote about how ridiculous it is that I spent so much time thinking about this. It is not that it was on my mind daily for a year. I'd leave it for a few months and then come back. I do think that pondering (frankly obsessing sometimes) over my house is where I store my anxious energy over other serious life matters. I wonder if anyone else can relate? It is my outlet. A guilty pleasure that sometimes feels out of control neurotic. Better than heroine or booze I guess! Here is an up close picture of the marble, mind you it needs some cleaning. I will post when they are finally installed. And by the way, PCmom1, I think your green tile was fabulous! Thanks everyone for so much input.

i have to show you fireclay tile pics! I love them. (Please contact Lindsey over there and tell her I sent you from here. she will send you out some free samples!) these are just some of their greens and shapes. the one you like is "The Wave"

Ubatuba is definitely cost-effective head to head against Wilsonart HD or 180fx. Great choice if you like it and if it works in color palette. Absolutely worth looking at a slab and bringing a sample home. Anything you see online or printed, regardless of material or color, is not going to be the same in person in your lighting and with your finishes. To illustrate, I found a sample of Wilsonart quartz wife and I liked from online pics and liked in person. Picked out two other samples and placed all three side by side against the white subway tile we want for backsplash . What we had as first choice, which looked great standalone, is now discarded. And we used the visualizer to imagine what it would look like in kitchen (yellow walls) and bathroom (SW Ebbtide; not necessarily to use in BA but that color walls and furniture in living room and dining area). At this point, comparing to backsplash and wall and cabinetry color, one color has emerged as my favorite. Like I told my fabricator, I'm not the kind of person who wants granite or quartz just for the sake of having granite or quartz. If I'm going to the expense of a pro install and a more expensive material, it is going to be a finish I really want. Working through the decision tree, we need to decide low contrast or medium contrast. I know what I would choose if it was not a joint decision .