I know it's not a popular choice right now but we have a very similar slate floor and we have chosen Corian Witch Hazel for our counters. Our backsplash is also going to be a rough face slate and the Witch Hazel really goes so well with the greys and tan tones in the slate.

A quartz in a white or off-white with limited movement could be very nice. If you would rather go with a natural stone, I think a honed quartzite would look good, and it is a very tough material. Princess white is nice and you can find slabs that just have a little bit of light grey running through them. Super white and classic white are also pretty. If you wanted something in a little softer white, I think that madreperola or dolce De vita quartzite could look very good with those floors as well.

Butcher block?

Ditto on the wood counters.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have considered butcher block (unsealed) and recently bought a very large Boos butcher block to "test drive". I love it but it does already have 'character' and I'm not sure I want that as the focal point of the room. I go back and forth between that and Caesarstone London Grey (which will have glare, I know). Pretty sure I'm not going to paint the new, narrower island a dark color. New cabinets will go to ceiling and backsplash of white subway will extend the full window wall (which will result in all of the yellow in this photo being white).

I'm not a fan of having many different stones in a kitchen. I would choose butcherblock.

edited to add: I love your floors. My downstairs neighbour has those in her kitchen and they look great. Very practical too.

This post was edited by feisty68 on Thu, Apr 3, 14 at 12:37

Feisty68, I hadn't stopped to think that with a quartz on the island, there will be three different stones in the room. I do want the slate floors; have no interest in the stress of matching hardwood in adjoining rooms.

Any suggestions on a source for an island top? Base is 84x36.