I think it depends on how you live...

I chose a light colored quartz, because I knew I would fail at periodic granite maintenance; I needed maintenance free. That said, while I love my quartz, I realize I’ll need to adapt so that I’m not, say, putting a hot laptop directly on my island (if using as a workspace), much less not putting hot pans on it (which I wouldn’t do anyway). I’ve also learned that light colored quartz may yellow from UV light over time- something I never understood until the fabricator installed mine, despite mentioning to every salesperson along the way that I have a very sunny kitchen with lots of windows. (Current thought is that my dual-paned vinyl windows / UV treatment should limit that significantly, but time will tell.)

Here are a couple still in-progress pics, FWIW:

• Caesarstone Cosmopolitan White quartz
• Bedrosians Chloe white subway backsplash
• Cabinets will be either SW Snowbound or SW Pure White (coin toss!)
• Flooring: Mission Collection- Palacio Paseo Piedmont (medium-dark, distressed, wide plank maple)

Thank you both for your response..

@patricia - did you pick those with white based granite with brown veins?

@julie - Nice to see your kitchen coming to shape.. Did you already observe any color change or is that something you learned after deciding the countertop? I need a maintenance free counter as well, also one that withstands the stains from Indian spices like turmeric.

Our flooring is close to yours. Did you cover the flooring for any reason? And are you going to paint the cabinets?

Quartz isn't exactly maintenance free - my quartz has nearly permanent rings from glasses all over it (they are visible when I wipe the counters). Apparently the quartz reacts with the soap residue left on glasses from the dishwasher, so if the glass gets wet/sweats, it will etch it a little bit (from what I've read - I'm not a chemist so take it or leave it). Everything marks it easily - fingerprints, bowls - and I also etched it a little using baking soda and vinegar trying to clean off some of the marks on it (my fault for not fully researching what I should use to clean it). I could put virtually anything on my granite and it would be fine, and I'd wipe it with a wet rag and it would be good as new. Got a rust ring off using baking soda & vinegar. Never had to do any sealing (some harder polished granites don't need this ever). It depends on the stone how much or how little you need to do to it, but bottom line, don't expect quartz to be bullet proof.

We didn't have any good granite choices for our new build so we selected Hanstone Paros quartz. Montblanc was the other option we considered. I liked the subtle veining as opposed to the big fake-looking veins in some of the others. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't hate maintaining it as much as I hate the quartz in my current place but I'm not holding my breath. Other (most) people love their quartz so YMMV.

Back to this topic again 😔 as we are getting closer to the timeline to decide the countertop.

Here are some of the options (at least what we thought would look good)

1. White ice
2. Moon white
3. White davine
4. Aspen white
5. Stream white
6. Alaskan white
7. Snowfall

I will post the pictures along with door panel and flooring for some of the samples.

Kindly advice what would look good.
We neither want to go for a super busy countertop nor a pale one but Something in between. One that is not exotic and costs average. One where if any rust formation in the future blends in the movement/colors.

White Ice

Moon white

White davine

Aspen white

Stream white

Kindly suggest if we need to go with any of the above or suggest other alternate options as well.

Another option - Salinas white