Thanks to everyone for all your helpful comments. As much as I'd love the light airy style kitchen with the light grey benchtops, I've decided to go with timber as it will stand up to my boof head hubby, he is just too heavy handed to trust with a laminex benchtop, if he does cause any damage we can just sand and re-oil and will be good as new. I also felt timber on my desktop (area on the side) would be warmer and more welcoming as I work from home and the thought of a cold laminex desktop wasn't appealing. I will try to counteract the over abundance of timber with white splash back tiles and lighter floors when we redo those, hopefully that will lighten it all up a bit. The buffet in the dining is going and will be replaced with something in a lighter tone so that will cut down on the timber as well and the stools will be painted to match the cabinets. I'll more than likely do away with all the timber furniture and go lighter soon anyway....a change is as good as a holiday they say, and I can't afford a holiday now I've got a new kitchen so..... I'll post photos of the finished product but thanks for all your help.

When I first wrote in August 2017 we got a lot of great suggestions and comments. At the time we had accepted the limitations of the block (easements, tree, solar access etc). It is now one year later and I can tell you we found a way to move the garage to the south-west corner. This allowed us to move Beds 2 and 3 and the bathroom to the northern side. Pantry and laundry between garage and kitchen/living/dining. I think it was all of the comments and suggestions that encouraged us to look at it again from different angles, rather than just accepting the limitations. Thanks to everyone for their generosity! The solution involved working around a lovely tree (it is nice, just in the wrong spot). It is still in the way (council said we couldn't remove it) but we've opted for a long, curving driveway that starts on the other side of the block and weaves its way around the treeline to the garage entry. Not ideal, because a large portion of the front setback will now be a hard surface, instead of a garden. But if there is one thing that designing teaches you - its all about compromises. Thanks everyone. MB Design & Drafting Shara C Nik Star girlguides oklouise siriuskey genkii saragraham76 Andy Pat brizcs Mel N 3D Home Concepts suancol Caro

It's great you are thinking of the wood storage solution early on - so many people focus on the fireplace and forget that they will need somewhere to put their fuel. From a safety perspective you could include some design features in your bench seat (a curve or slope) that makes it difficult to accidentally have combustible items like cushions come into contact with the fireplace. Although this may not be necessary depending on what type of fire place you are installing.

Hi, since your kitchen is small and there's a lot going on I would go with a very light coloured back splash. A very light warm grey as suggested could work nicely here. It would also brighten up the area a little. I certainly wouldn't introduce yet another colour. Introducing something like a bright red will draw attention to the backsplash area, but the design of the kitchen doesn't lend itself for such a high impact visual focus. Keeping it calm and neutral will make the kitchen look more like a unit rather that bottom and top cabinets with a big red/black/maroon stripe through it. The company supplying the back painted glass should either have a range of available colours to choose from, but usually any standard RAL colour should be available at a minimum. They will most likely have the RAL standard colours fan available for reference as well. I'd go with the one of lightest warm grey shades that is in the standard range. Your worktop has warm tones in it, your wall is beige, going in with a cool grey will make each colour look "off". The last thing I'd recommend is black. I know it has been mentioned, but it is just too strong of a contrast and non of the other materials and colours would support such a stark, contemporary choice. If you are worried that the existing dark red paint will alter the colour of your new glass back splash, and that's a very valid argument btw, just paint it over with two coats of white prior to installing the new back splash. I'd do that a few days prior to installing the glass to make sure the paint is nice and dry. In terms of maintenance a glass back splash is probably the easiest to look after since its so easy to clean and there's no grout that can attract dirt over the years. Good luck with the renovation :)