Look to your current interior colour palette for clues on what benchtop to select. Gather samples of your flooring, carpet, curtains, paint and tiles and take them with you when looking at benchtop samples to see at a glance what ties in. Rather than looking at samples on a screen I recommend visiting a stone manufacturer – seeing and feeling the huge slabs up close is half the fun, you get an instant vibe for what you like, and there’s expert help on hand. I visited Cosentino and was able to view full-size slabs of all the stone I was interested in, lay samples of it out with those from my interior palette, and ensure that the under and overtones happily married. I also recommend taking stone samples home and viewing them in different lights and times of day in your kitchen.