Thank you everyone, your thoughtful advice was very welcome. I'm attaching a photo as its all finished. I selected Olive Reserve for the splash back and painted the wall above it the same colour. As its a big room with lots of light and a large window it doesn't dominate. The glass is so easy to keep clean and I love the way it reflects the garden and light. Have to say though some people are stunned into silence when they see it, but as the cupboards and bench tops are quite bland I knew something bright was needed

I have used man-made stone such as Caesarstone on my client's bench tops for years with no negative feedback thus far. If you are looking at Caesarstone and don't want a stark white, then consider Organic White, Frosty Carina or if your budget runs to it, Calacatta Nuvo (a marble lookalike). If you like grey, before they released their concrete range I used Oyster. I agree with Focus Kitchens & Bathrooms, you would be better to visit a showroom and have a look at a large sheet of any you are considering. It gives you a much better idea of not only colour variation but the overall pattern. If you do use 'stone' on the bench top there is an emerging trend of running it up onto the splash back as well. This works well if your design style is classic or modern classic (transitional).

I'm going to suggest these grey Montage tiles. I think the Como tiles are nice too. Dark grey will add drama and balance out the dark sink. The mixed tones will tie in the variations of grey and silver in the bench tops, appliances and glass door frames. The stone/slate look will add a natural element to complement the wooden floor and balance out the laminate. If you do go for colour, I like Bernadette's suggestion of complementing the glass colour. A tile that looks like pale jade might be nice.

Hi Rach163 So the splashback is along the wall behind the stove? And is full height to the ceiling? No overhead cabinets there? Certainly for an all-white kitchen, and a very small wood-element on the table, I'd suggest a feature colour splashback. There's a few ways you could make it pop - a colour such as a rich red, or a striking (but not bright) green, or even a blue would work well. We used colour-backed glass for our splashback in our all-white (but dark benchtop) kitchen, which is low maintenance and looks very "rich". It's a red (burgundy?) feature "wall" below overhead cabinets on two sides of our mostly L-shaped kitchen, and we also put it under the island bench/table, to tie the two together. The other idea that struck me is that you have a view to the outside (albeit a covered courtyard dining area now?). That made me think of a mirror to reflect the view, or at least the light - so something like a polished stainless steel. Perhaps in sections or strips with brushed steel, to reduce maintenance :-) For the lighting, we used an led strip under our overhead cabinets, either side of the range-hood, and around the corner to where our sink is. You could do something similar with a narrow aluminium channel either at the ceiling (probably too high) or at range-hood level with an led strip (a waterproof one!) inside it. It's nearly invisible when not on, just a crisp brushed/polished metal line, but gives a really bright uniform light across the whole bench area, and no shading issues with the main room lights behind you. If you wanted real wow, get a multi-colour led strip that can be colour changed (and be dimmed) to suit your needs and moods. And if you wanted to freak people out, you can get a multi-colour programmable led strip that can also do things like active lightwaves, pulsing and respond to music and a bunch of other things :-) All of the strips are dirt cheap, unless you buy them through most Australian lighting stores :-/ We also put a dimmer led strip underneath our island benchtop, to pick up the splashback/underbench colour, and as a nice 'night-light' of an evening. Works really nicely. I've seen some people do it at the kickboard level (i.e. 140mm above the floor), to make it look like everything is floating, but I've found that only works for some kitchens. One of the benefits of controllable coloured led lighting can be that the splashback can also be white or silver, and it's the lighting that determines the perceived colour. Leds are quite directional though, great for benches but less for wider room lighting, unless you have them in a diffuser. We use led lightbulbs in four high ceiling fixtures, and one long-drop over-dining-bench light, since they are lovely and bright and warm (if chosen that way), and as the ambient light source. You can also get colour/controllable led lightbulbs but $$$. You want to think about where you want feature lighting (up or down), work lighting and ambient lighting. Think about where you will stand to work, and which lights you will be shading, which will be shining in your face, and which will actually help. We pushed around our lighting points on the design, and even over-catered on the number of fixtures, just in case we missed something. You can always disconnect a light and cover it trivially, but putting one in later or shifting one is a bit messy. Anyway, my two bits. :-) Cheers, Markus