thank you very much to everyone who responded! I'll look into espresso and charcoal grays. As well as the steel backplash. Emmarenes, I'm living abroad in India, and the only granites in my budget are the local ones. I was advised against the gray and white local ones because i was told that they would not hold up well in the kitchen. I could have gone with a black galaxy as well but i have that granite now and despise it because of the way it hides ants and bugs so well. we live in a tropical area and there are always critters here and there. My first choice was a Brazilian white granite but it was triple the price. This granite is called Shiva pink, so it has a pink salmon and gray look to it. Im really hoping I don't hate it once it's installed. The stoneyard was a 9 hour trip up and down and i was just pressured to make a choice after several undecided trips. And I'm getting new cabinets put in. but I think I can wait for them to put the slab before staining the wood. Thanks for that idea :)

Quartzite has good water absorption property, now a days u can get good treated sealed finished quartzite tiles , u can use in the wet areas. Granite on other case is highly resistant to water absorbtion. If you have these two particulars with you , go with granite. (long term use will leave stains)

Why would you not want to use glass in those tall openings? It may be the main source of light for the interior of the building during the day. Unless you really can't bear so much sunlight or you are concerned about the lack of privacy at night. In which case you can use frosted glass instead of clear upto the top of the second slab level. Above that level you will get three vertical rectangular frames. You could commission stained glass panels for those. Alternatively, below the stained glass panels you could used wooden slats with gaps in between

Greetings from Dream Design, If you want to change the color then paste the MDF on this wood and do the duco or pu paint and take any color of your choice like gray, white, cream