Thank you for all your comments. We have been looking at the black granite composite made by Franke but is triple the price of Blanco. Was concerned the black composite would scratch etc. will probably go two stainless steel, because as previous poster mentioned the blacks are never the same. Sure I will be back for more help or advise.

You are so right white is never out of fashion. I would set your budget and then look at your options. If you plan to stay in the house for many years then spend to the top of your budget (if that is going to give you a life time of pleasure), if you plan on being at the home for only a short time / few years then I would go mid range so it looks lovely, will have good resale value but you can invest your well earned money to go towards something else as well. Obviously Marble / Granite is the top of the range but there are so many cheaper and very attractive options these days that look just as good.

Hello! I want to buy a navy velvet sofa for my lounge, but confused on how to decorate around it. The space is open plan, will it be over doing if I get (navy) velvet dining chairs and bar stools for kitchen? I want to include pink or yellow with gray and white as part of the theme along with some metallic - like gold/copper/rose gold. Also kitchen will be white with granite benchtop and mirror glass splashback. Where can I try to bring some colour here, maybe the pendant light? Any suggestions please ?

I had a few companies competing for my business. I went with the guy who was obviously doing his homework, color matching, great price, he found the supplier who had granite from quarry where the counters in my new home came from. Wow is all I can say. When I told the competitor that I was letting her go, she asked why and I gave her the reasons above. She said she'd do it all for the same price. She had done my friend's sister's bathroom and it looked fabulous, I had not actually seen any of his work I saw pictures, but this was an actual project I saw, so I agreed.The project was to put cabinets and a counter top, that matched the ones I had on the other wall.What happened.The got the wrong style, wrong color, wrong size.I decided the color was a shade off... fine... its not that noticeable. The width of the trim of my shaker cabinets were about 2 1/4 inches, her cabinets were 3 inches.She got two 24in cabinets instead of two 36 in cabinets. She brought 2 sliders for my existing cabinets when she needed to bring 4. I was supposed to have 1 large drawer above each cabinet, instead I got 2 smaller ones. The granite was a crappy match. She promised to include 2 outlets above the backsplash. She wanted to charge extra last minute to do one because it was "more complicated than she thought." I had an electrician do it for $40.I feel like I let so much slide. I just wanted it done. I didn't have enough cabinet space. I wanted to finish putting all my things away. My saved spot with the other guy was lost and I'd have to wait until Dec. (It was the 1st week of Oct.) She said it would be 4-5 weeks to complete.Its 12/5. My cabinets are damaged. She splintered the wood when she applied the drawer pulls, she used the wood marker to "fix" bit it still looks crappy. And she wanted the last installment.I told her she can have 1/2 of the last payment, she said she'd come back tomorrow to fix. I was at work on the phone with her. My wife hands her the check, she takes it and says, you know, tomorrow is just not gonna work out. What other day works for you.My wife tells her Monday. She says ok and leaves.I feel like she's never going to be able to fix all. And I have no idea what to do from here.