My son used to help me cook in the kitchen - he is 190 cm, I am 175cm. I have an old-fashioned breakfast bar which is raised above the level of the kitchen benchtop. My son would stand at the raised section, I would stand at the lower section, it worked really well. An alternative might be to have a pull out step in the kick board spaces for your wife to stand on - I don't know if it would be high enough, but it might make things more comfortable. Speaking from the point of view of a tall woman, I will have my next kitchen cupboards and laundry raised at least 10 cm to make my life more comfortable - bending forward for any length of time is seriously UN comfortable!

Hi Lil, I believe your original plan works much better than the revised version. While the notion of ideal working widths is great, the larger problem here is the post. I worked on a project very similar to this last year where a post could either be connect to, or separate from the island. What we found was that by separating the island the space between island and post became very awkward. It's not enough of a space to comfortably walk through or be seated at the island in front of. Instead of your room feeling open and generous in proportion, it is going to start to feel cramped and awkward. We have a kitchen in our showroom (Kitchen Studio Tauranga NZ) with a 6ft gap between bench and back wall and it works wonderfully. It allows someone to work at the sink and a second at the island with ease. Stick with the original plan. It will feel a lot more spacious, without compromising work flows.

They are the same as they are both engineered. From the builders perspective the smart stone comes in bigger slabs so it will save on costs to buy fewer slabs. He is trying to save you or himself money. Ceaserstone has a wider variety of colours, there customer care is top notch and they have more product. Like with any Bench top be it laminate, stone or marble, as soon as you drop something on it, clean it up.

My suggestion for the whole kitchen, is to keep a bank of pantry cabinets next to the fridge, staring from the left a flat corner pantry that has "L" shaped shelving plus a pull out food pantry between it and the fridge. An under bench oven, the MW would be in the open shelf wall cabinet with kettle and toaster etc in the corner under the MW The sink, DW and rubbish bin in the Island which would have a taller panel as shown to cover any mess in that clean up space I've added a bench height table next to the island, this could be dropped to table height if wanted. I have continued the wall cabinets on the wall across both the kitchen and dining, I haven't sectioned the cabinets but they could be a combination of doors and open shelves. I have also extended floating lower cabinets at a depth of 400 across the dining space with the same bench top as used on the kitchen cabinets This will give you great storage to allow you tuck your appliances and food stuffs into when not in use,. You can also use a deep drawer to pop certain appliances into if that fits and suits how you use your kitchen You can also store a broom in the "L" shaped pantry with dust pan and brush fitted to the inside of the door, the "L" shaped shelving allows for this Click on the images to open them