As a parent, this story touched my heart. What a beautiful way to remember his soul and to start healing. Gardens breathe life into the home. I wish that the family finds their peace.

It doesn’t feel right because the scale is wrong. The bar area is too dinky and at the moment top heavy. Some great suggestions above. The finished height of whatever you do needs to match the height of the existing cabinetry. And you need to bring in the cabinetry dark colour somehow also, paint would be the cheapest option. And I’d price a custom piece of mirror from a glazier, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for all your comments so far. These are just the first concept designs. We will be progressing to detailed designs next week. Yes all the exposed brick will be going. The wall on the right of the fridge recess will remain but be plastered over. The wall above the fridge and to the left where the current pantry and oven are will be removed entirely (supporting straps on roof beams). Yes there is a corner window which the sink faces onto. Currently that window is remaining as is. The sink will be double. Looking at Franke designs. Fridge width approx 900-920mm.

Hi Ben, Are you able to reconsider the heater location at all? A heater in the kitchen just does not make sense and the kitchen is a heating source as well and presumably it is needed to heat the dining and living areas, not the kitchen!!! What about putting it out on the wall facing out from the kitchen, beside the fridge if it were on the left side of the pantry? Even if you need to make that wall a bit longer than 650mm to make it fit and lose a bit of width from the 940mm dimension at the other end of the island. You can easily run pipework or ducting in behind the fridge and pantry if needed. I'd also make the 1050mm dimension between benches a little bigger. It is tight if you want more than one person in the kitchen working together. 1200-1300mm would be ideal. If it was my kitchen, I would also look at making the island a peninsular, linking it to one of the end walls. Which end would depend on the flow from other spaces in the home. I'd not put any joinery on the closed end wall, just the open one with the pantry and fridge etc. C.