Hi there, Many thanks for your positive comment. As a rule leave at least 1 meter between the kitchen island and the rest of the kitchen. If I have space I like to leave 1.2m/1.4m and at a push I will reduce this to 0.9m. Hope this helps.

Please ladies, enjoy your kitchens - you have to live with them all day every day. Unless you are thinking of selling in the really short term then have what you love - the next person will probably replace it all anyway, especially if you plan on being in your home for even 10 years. Kitchens are changing so much with all the new technology and products coming on the market. Mcctrish more photos of your kitchen would be helpful, I really can't comment too much with the photo you have provided, but I have just totally redone my kitchen (all for me) and I intended having a glass splashback but when the time came, I found it was just too plain and would do nothing for my kitchen. I think with the glass, you need to have a stunning feature colour to make it effective. That was my problem, there was no colour I could have to make it 'sing'. Look at photos on Houzz and you will see that glass splashbacks are the feature of kitchens. Start with the splashback before you decide anything else. Also, if you are just replacing your doors, are there any other fixed panels in the room that will be replaced also or will it be necessary for them to stay, which will then affect what you choose.

@mazpt, yes of course. Here are a few more pictures showing how kitchen, living and dining, and outdoor deck and bbq area flow together. Oska kitchen is really neat in detailing; wood grain on the doors for example, are matched across as many doors as long as a 2.4m sheet allow. Floor turned out very nice too. Light natural colour, wide and long boards, laid length way all the way from front door to the back makes the space looks a bit bigger. Although it is still a floating floor, there are minimal floor movement that make squeak sound, most of the floor are feels solid. I hope that floor squeaking noise will settle over time.

Hi Lisa I have recently put in a brand new kitchen and also decided not to move the fridge, sink, or cooktop. Our cabinet maker came up with a fantastic small pantry which he calls a 'blind pantry'. In the photo, it is the cupboard to the right of the sink. This corner was previously a low cupboard and totally useless because you couldn't reach into the corner so wasted space really. My new pantry has a reinforced floor and you take a small step up into it, which means that a shorty like me can reach every shelf. It is by far the making of my new kitchen because I not only have one cupboard for food (which I never had before), but also somewhere to store my large appliances, box of red wine, container of plastic bags to be reused etc. In the other corner (under the toaster), the cabinet maker recommended blocking this corner off rather than having another low, corner cupboard which I wouldn't be able to easily access. So along that side we have all drawers, in three difference depths. Now that I have more space that is easily accessed, I find I keep the space very tidy all the time, simply because I can quickly and easily put things away rather than having them sit on the benches. A few months in, the kitchen is as tidy today as it looks when I took these photos - easy, peasy. Although more expensive I am pleased we decided to rip the old kitchen out and begin again. In my opinion, it's been money well spent. I'm not sure where you're based but if in Brisbane, I would highly recommend the company we went with. Good luck with everything!