Parallel Kitchen with Green Marble Counters

It is a green marble with heavy natural veining, run along both counters. The colour is the whole reason it is there, since everything else in the kitchen is quiet wood and beige stone, and the green gives it one rich note. Marble is a beautiful worktop but a soft one. It stains and etches from acids like lemon or vinegar if left unsealed, so it needs sealing regularly and quick wiping. Many people love the look enough to accept that.

It is a beige travertine-look stone with soft horizontal banding, run between the counter and the wall cabinets. A calm, warm stone was chosen here on purpose, because the green counter is already doing the talking and a busy tile behind it would have been too much. The banding gives it quiet texture without pattern. Being a smooth stone surface, it wipes clean of cooking splashes easily, which matters most on the wall right behind a hob.

The uppers mix glossy cream shutters with wood-lined open niches, some of them glass-fronted and lit inside. Breaking a long run of cabinets with a few open and glass sections stops it looking like one solid wall of doors. The glass fronts show off jars and crockery while the closed units hide the everyday clutter. Below, the base cabinets in light wood carry drawers and pull-outs, which reach into a base unit far better than a hinged door and a dark corner.

The hob sits flush in the counter with a black glass chimney above it on the cooking run, and a microwave is built into the wall units beside them. A tall fridge stands free at the end of one run. Keeping the chimney, hob and microwave together puts the whole hot zone on one side, away from the sink. Built-in appliances give the flat, tidy look here, though they do tie you to particular sizes when you replace them later.

It looks stunning but it needs an owner who will look after it. Marble is porous and on the soft side, so it takes stains from oil and turmeric and etches from acidic food if it is not sealed and wiped promptly. Seal it once or twice a year and treat spills quickly and it lasts beautifully. If you cook heavy every day and would rather not think about it, a green quartz gives a similar look with far less fuss.

Enough to work and open doors, without turning it into a corridor. As a rule of thumb a comfortable gap lets one person stand at the counter while cabinet and appliance doors below open fully, and still allows someone to pass behind. Too tight and drawers clash across the aisle. Too wide and you are taking extra steps between the sink and the hob all day. A galley works best when that middle strip is judged carefully, as it is here.

In a kitchen like this it earns its keep. The wall cabinets throw a shadow straight onto the counter below, right where you chop and read recipes, and an overhead light alone leaves you working in your own shade. A strip tucked under the uppers lights the worktop directly and lifts the green marble at night. It is a small wiring job best done during the build, since retrofitting it later means opening up finished cabinets and walls.