kitchen

Our general ideas are to have white cabinets (matte, not glossy due to crazy price difference), honey colored oak floors, and a nice contrasting backsplash in a green or gray tone. The countertops are a tough one. We are kind of tired of the super mottled granite look and would be open to the engineered stone options, particularly the more monochromatic gray tones. Some of the kitchens in these pictures have gone with a whiter countertop - this can look really nice and clean (without children) but we don't want the kitchen to look too sterile or look dirty all the time since we are always battling mess. We want it to be clean, contemporary, timeless, but still have warmth and a bit of playfulness with color. We may just want to add color with paint and possibly lighting or other accessories? The contrasting island looks really nice in some of these kitchens. We like the wood top islands, but just don't want to deal with the maintenance, so that is probably out.

So questions:
1. What do you think of white cabinets/honey wood floors/color backspash? What countertop option do you think looks best? Solid light gray? Solid darker gray? Whitish/grey mottled like in some of these pics? A gray stone with some texture and flecks of other colors?

2. Do you think the contrasting island is necessary? We don't want the kitchen to be boring, but don't want to do anything too crazy there.

3. How about the backsplash color?