Are you thinking of laminate, engineered stone or any other material? Start saving photos that you like to a 'Kitchen' idea book for reference & to find what appeals to you most. This one is Caesarstone Nougat...The rest are quartz or engineered stone bench tops...

I would suggest replacing the counter tops with a stone not overlapping too much for a modern look. Neutral white or light grey tones or if you want to go overboard a gorgeous Carerra marble. Keep your cabinets white too, white kitchens are great for re-sale, easy to live with and you can bring in colour with accent pieces such as a decorative bowl on the kitchen island and some coloured appliances. I would personally paint the window white. With a white kitchen you can virtually paint your walls whatever colour you want. I think a pale grey/blue would be lovely for a Hamptons feel which would suit the style of your kitchen but remember if you paint the architrave around your window white then you may have to follow through to the adjacent room. You could also replace the hardware on the cabinets, black knobs and D handles on the drawers would be nice, I used black in my beach house kitchen. See the image below. The blue on the ceiling of this kitchen below is a lovely colour, if you definitely want blue I would choose a blue/grey. Make sure it doesn't throw any mauve as blue's can do this, use a test pot first and ask them if it has a lot of red in the base as you don't want this. I can't advise a paint colour unless you live in New Zealand as I am not familiar with US paint colours. Remember the colour you paint the kitchen walls will also depend on the colour in the adjoining room, you should try to choose something that will work with your adjoining spaces. Putting two new suspension lights over one of your islands would also give a new look to the kitchen. I don't know what the rest of your house is like with regards to style so can't make a suggestion but your kitchen definitely could be Hamptons style by the look of the cabinets. I just noticed that you have stained wood architrave around the other adjoining room so if you paint the kitchen window you may have to do the entrance to the other room etc. White will make the spaces feel bigger, they won't seem broken up by the wood colour. Good luck, would love to see your finished project.

Hi Trish, Glass splashbacks can be any Dulux paint colour. As long as you have good lighting like led strip lighting under overhead cupboards you can use the glass splashback to show your personality. Laminex Diamondgloss laminate for the cupboards in a light colour will brighten up your kitchen. This project we used dark edging to the cupboard doors and recessed drawer pulls to make it a bit more interesting rather than it all being the same colour. Regards Jane McDougall ARBV 14988 alsoCAN architects 1/52 Burnley Street Richmond V3121 Ph: 9421 3433 Mb: 0413 332 874 www.alsocan.com.au

for a comfortable walking space the island should be about 1200mm - 1500mm away from the long side to the other counters and at least 900mm -1200mm from the end to any other counter or wall then the island could be 600mm deep and 900mm long to fit your cooktop BUT the cooktop on such a small island would not be very safe to use (unless you live alone and have no visitors) and there should be much better options....post a plan of the whole room with measurements and a list of everything you need to fit in the whole room