Ah, so your new bench would come from out from wall like the existing one? How about doing something like this (see pic) but using a normal mirror as the back piece. It would reflect the floors and make the island (or return bench?) appear more open then it actually is. I'm not sure if a smoke mirror has been used here or just a high gloss panel. I would actually allow for more storage anyway, even if you don't envision you'll use it at this point. As they say, "you can never have enough storage".

I would be using the slate as a starting point for your colour inspiration. If you look carefully there are some great olive and eucalyptus colours to draw from. The white that you have is too stark and contrasting to the feature of the room which is the beautiful floor. The stained timber works as it complements the rustic look of the floor, and there are some similar colours in the floor. If you wanted to spend some big dollars I would look at upgrading your toilet suite to a cleaner, more contemporary pan and a concealed wall cistern. Changing the aluminium sliding window to a stained timber awning window to match the architrave would be a nice finishing touch. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

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Hello @User Many thanks for your comments and feedback. I'm pleased to report that our clients were delighted with our work on this project. They were so happy that we nailed their brief and gave them the home that they were dreaming of! Now then Pottsy, had you been the client and you had your heart set on keeping that clunky, old fashioned curved vanity, we would certainly have left it there for you to enjoy - we don't like to "pee anyone off". Our actual clients thought it was old fashioned and a frankly, a little bit ugly. We agreed, so...out she came. I note your comments regarding the before photos, but I'm not sure which ones you were looking at. The ones we included here all have full daylight and no curtains or blinds, you'd surely understand why we don't use professional photography for the before pictures - no client is ever going to pay for that! We just use whatever pictures we can gather from our initial site visit or the Real Estate marketing shots. You might be interested to learn that none of the new joinery is white, so maybe adjust the brightness of your screen when reviewing images online. Anyway, thanks so much for sharing your insight, I'm sure you've got many years of experience up your sleeve. Have a great day and best of luck with future projects!