Hello bellenell69, Really like the look of those top cabinets in your first image.. and the colour!.. Not the tiles so much.. Bert and May do some fabulous tiles that would work, but you have chosen metal splash back.... If the cabinets are all hanging in a row together it won't look like a patchwork as they will all be the same colour.. I like that you tried it with cardboard boxes! Very ingenious! Consider the same idea for bottom cabinets without handles... At ikea there are hinges for a touch open mechanism.. It does make for a very stylish streamline option.. A chrome style fridge would be nice with the oven.. : ) )

Thanks for your help guys. The builder contacted us today during the installation of the ducted A/C and advised us that we have to drop the ceiling 200m to accomodate the ducts (unless we want a huge bulkhead across the kitchen/living area. SO the gorgeous high ceiling is (unfortunately) no longer an issue. It is really frustrating that they only just figured this out! :-/

Hi Octavia, we had a similar issue with one of our projects. In that situation we used bulkheads above the cabinets to reduce dust shelves create a "light box" effect and had a custom light fitting with up, down and directional options made up to fit the space. This may not be a solution for you, but it at least illustrates one possible approach for consideration.

Hi there, I love the look of your 50's kitchen: takes me back to my childhood home but our kitchen was about 4 cupboards and 3 overheads!! By todays std it was like one of the pantries people are putting in!! I was impressed with the "see what you need to store first": that is the best place to start, then thought glass display cupboards were all the go but you have those! Unless you could copy them for the corners? Then I thought open shelving with micro on one: NEVER on the bench. Timber shelves could have bright multi coloured glass or china which was all the rage! Please tho do not go for the lounge curtains with red, orange and every other colour large squares: nothing subtle or quiet about them and nothing nice about them either!! Cheers Margot