It's an idea I've been contemplating myself so I did a search on "island with dining table", this was probably closest to what you described. I plan to convert our (never used) dining room at the front of Calif. bungalow into a bedroom and enlarge current kitchen into adjacent informal dining area so this option would work well (if I can get H to agree that is!)

@fintechtra, I'm a little late to this discussion but for what it's worth, I have just drawn out my kitchen layout on the vacant floor like suggested by bigreader, great advice I have to say. We are still in the early stages of build ie: no plaster etc...sufficed to say I am sort of playing around with the possible final layout so I can put it to bed so to speak. I had a huge makeshift work table at one end of the kitchen area and it's amazing how much it distracted my overall view of the kitchen, so I spent half a day moving it to another location which allowed me an unobstructed view of the whole area. I then set about drawing a line to show my 600mm benchtops including my corner pantry. Hotplates, sink and the oven just simple sit within the parameters of the benchtops, unless you are planning to have your appliances in an island for example. I also drew in the long island in the middle of the floor to see how close I could go the the benches etc... You should know the max size of your fridge and if you're not setting it into a cavity, it will protrude somewhat like mine will but I'm ok with that as it's at the end of the line but you should draw in everything that you intend to have, then sit on a chair and see if you like the configuration?? Do you like perfect balance for example, if so then you will have to allow for this symetry. You may choose to make the rangehood the centre of your kitchen so you might want the same amount of cupboards and or bench in both directions. I can't have symetry, would like to but just won't work, as my dining table is a little to the left of my island and the kitchen is a little to the right of the island but I ultimately like what the finished floor plan looks like. If you draw up your plan, you will see how much room you might need and where exactly you may find a problem as suggested by scottevie. I have 1200mm between my island benchand every other bench, so heaps of room because I can. Hope it all works out for you. Cheers, Barbara

There is Quantum Quartz 'Cloudy Bay' which is a lovely stone similar to Caesarstone 'Oyster' and doesn't show too much up as it has markings in it already. Also you could consider Caesarstone 'Clamshell' which has a small amount of white & darker greys through it. Hope that helps.

Your view may be the wow factor- You may be better to put your wow into the splash back as ultimately it is less expensive to change. A total rebuild has many areas for cost over runs so with a large area, I would look at your overall budget and how much you are allocating for bench tops - This will help determine what you can afford and ultimately your choices. Depending on the surface dark benches can be harder to keep looking clean. I suggest you borrow some samples and bring them home - wet them and wipe them etc