Well now after reading all these posts, I have a dilemma. We would like to maximize the practicality of the deep and soft closing drawers. Corner drawers, the under sink u-shaped drawers etc. Thirty five years ago (yep that's right 35 yrs) when our budget did not allow us to buy new, we bought a dismantled u-shaped show-room demonstration timber kitchen. For years it was blonde pine. Solid pine benchtops, re-sanded and stained a couple of times. Then my husband painted all the solid timber doors with antique white USA marine paint which has worn well. New satin knobs (that have not worn as well) Now it's becoming a little 'shabby chic'. We thought of a complete reno. But we have no space to enlarge on the 3x3 metres. and new 'plastic' kitchens somehow seem less durable than our existing old one. Sink, stove and fridge in the recommended triangle floorplan. So what to do? Our pantry is in the corner with shelves that items at the back of are inaccessible. The microwave is the perfect shoulder level. The cabinets allow me to display favourite tins, crockery and vintage scales. Being a split level house I need the broom cupboard and ironing board stored close at hand.

I want to do the same to free up a ‘stretch’ of bench space, rather than having only small work areas in the corner and ends of our small L shape. I am talking stove top only as oven will be in a tower with microwave. That means the cupboard underneath can utilise the whole space, albeit with relatively small door (430mm). We would have to offset the range hood on the adjacent wall due to window position but have been advised the modern hoods are powerful enough to extract steam without necessarily being positioned absolutely over the hot plates.

For the small amount of range hood that would be in contact with the undulating subway tiles, I do not see a problem.

Thanks Melt, sorry I misread your post. We actually intend to do something similar to your Narrabundah friend in that we are knocking out the pantry and laundry to double the size of the room and get some light in. So it's good to know that keeping the stove will work in a bigger space.  We have also been wondering what to do with the gap when we remove the upright stove, so a structure with plants and cookbooks sounds sounds  sounds perfect. Thanks, its  good to hear a success story about keeping the old Canberra stove. We've seen a modern renovation that left the stove in a corner of a walk through area where it just looked odd, so integrating it into a country style kitchen is our goal too.