https://www.arizonatile.com/en/gallery/browse-by-material/quartzite/taj-mahal-satin . . . natural stone Taj Mahal quartzite with a satin finish is impossible to stain as it's harder than granite. . . Gioia greige Italian percaline tile is glossy so not my choice of sheen. Here

The cabinet color will depend on the exact colors you find in the slabs.

I am a fabricator. White kitchens are very "in" these days. If my customers ask I advise them to get what THEY want even if it's not the current trend (assuming they are not planning on a resale in the immediate future). I'm reminded of shag carpeting; once a very trendy option that people couldn't wait to rip out 10 years later. There are some many options beyond "white with veins" that someone planning a kitchen should at least look at other options. my 2 cents.

I'm a designer who works at a kitchen cabinet and stone fabrication shop.

We have always encouraged our clients to get what they want, as oldryder said, unless resale is in the near future get what you want.

We have done white counters. We do not like doing them for several reasons one being that they do have a tendancy to stain. The thing that we have found most frustrating is that we can't say, make sure you don't spill any specific thing on your counters because we have found it vary's so much from company to company. We had one client that stained their counter with pasta sauce. We had a left over piece that we tried to stain with pasta sauce so that we could figure out how to get it out. We could not get it to stain. We figured out that it was a specific brand and flavor of pasta sauce that stained it and none of the others did it.

My advice is if you decide to go with a light quartz or any light counter ask for a small sample and take it home and test it with products that you frequently use. This way you can find out what things are often in your house that may cause a stain.

I would suggest that you move into your new home and wait a year before you do anything to your kitchen. Waiting a year will give you an idea what works and doesn't and allows you to put together a plan, do your research and a realistic budget. I have moved many, many times and that year goes by really fast and what I thought I wanted to do initially usually isn't what I end up doing.

You ask is black countertops harsh? There are a ton of photos on Houzz with a black counter tops. So keep looking and adding to your IB's. Without knowing your lighting (including natural light), flooring, size, etc what may work for one kitchen may not work for yours. Best for you to move in and post photos. Enjoy your new home.

When I moved into my house, it had white Corian counters and backsplash. I lived with it for 30 years, until I remodeled the kitchen last year. Nothing stained it, nothing. That’s why I lived with it for 30 years - seemed wrong to tear out something that was perfectly fine.

Corian isn't known as the "darling" of countertops but it sure is the workhorse compared to the others. Mine are in the bathrooms and 20 yrs later they still look fine. No problem getting visiting sister's hair dye that sat on it for over a hour out either. And I love my Corian shower! No grout issues there!

I also had corian in a previous and liked it very much, I have quartzite now with subtle small veining in gray and tan-ish with just slightly off white cabinets. Most would think they are white. Love the look and haven't had any problems, but many on this forum have so beware.

I have dark slate-look Formica perimeters and white marble on my island. We've sealed the marble twice and it hasn't stained in the two years we've been in our new house, though it has etched in places. And we're a farm family, so I do a lot of canning and cooking from scratch, including tomatoes, beets, jams with berries, and I drink red wine : ) . In other words, lots of foods with a good tendency to stain. And while I clean the island every evening, I'm not compulsively wiping up as I cook all morning or afternoon.

Probably one of the more important considerations when choosing light vs dark countertops in your kitchen is how much natural light do you get in your kitchen? If your kitchen is already tending toward little light, a dark countertop will make it seem even darker. Definitely wait, as ted recommends, to see what the light situation is like through the year if you have any doubts. This thread is a lesson for those who might not realize they have little natural light and then put in dark counters,

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6014482/how-to-add-light-to-a-dark-kitchen#26158931

One long-time poster, and an interior designer by profession, who died this year (Anglophilia) put in Corian counters when she remodeled her kitchen, and she swore by them as virtually bulletproof. You can search for her posts.